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e8400 thermal grease

B

Bioapb

Member
Hi everyone,

I have a brandy new e8400 and want to ask if the thermal grease comes preapplied to the stock heat sink and fan. There are three stripes of something on the bottom of the heat sink that I am guessing are the grease and I'd like to be sure. If it matters my version of the e8400 is the one with the stepping that allows for better overclocking. Sorry if this is a newb question but its my first build.

thanks,

APB
 
Just FYI, you might be able to get a few degrees cooler if you used Arctic Silver 5. Just scrape off the thermal paste that's on there, clean the heatsink with isopropyl alcohol, and follow Arctic Silver's instructions (website) for applying it to the cpu. Good luck with the build!
 
Originally posted by: Bioapb
my version of the e8400 is the one with the stepping that allows for better overclocking.
Click to expand...

Damn, where did you order it from?

The paste on the bottom is the stock Thermal grease from intel. It works fine, spread it out nicely over the top of the chip (IHS) heat spreader. You're looking to make the most flat, solid connection between the two metals in order to transfer heat out of the chip & into the cooler. the grease is just to fill the air bubbles & cracks on the uneven surfaces of the Cooler's base & the IHS on the CPU.

Edit: or use artic silver 5 as machine suggested, it has better thermal conductivity.
 
jaredpace, you have 3x more posts than me, and therefore I can only imagine that you are 3x more knowledgeable than I, but aren't you supposed to NOT spread the pre-applied Intel thermal paste? I believe it's designed just to spread out properly simply by placing it on the processor and running it for a while.
 
You're probably right, I don' think my post count has anything to do with knowledge. I've had better results spreading it with my fingers, just my own opinion. BTW, my e8400 & ultra 120 were both lapped, and my grease was AS5.

Why would you leave air pockets and thick TIM, kinda negates the purpose of having a compound there in the first place.
 
jared - i live in the boston area and have a microcenter nearby. I went there to get one and the sales rep mentioned they had the model with the better stepping so he went in the back and found one for me. It is easy to tell them from the older wolfdales because they come in a smaller box.
 
It spreads out naturally. I know this because I attached the HSF, then it fell off (!) and I had to reattach it.... Even without running it at all the paste spread out ok with just the pressure needed to attach the HSF. I assume with some heat it thins out a little and spreads out even more.

Also tests have shown very very little difference between the stock thermal paste and fancy stuff like Arctic Silver... It's a fine product, and maaybe better than the stock, but it doesn't matter enough to bother scraping off the stock gunk. Maybe if you are buying an OEM chip and bare HSF.
 
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