heat conducting glue

[dsj]

They are always sold as an option when you buy a cpu at an online store. Are they necessary for an amd athlon 64 processor? On the athlon-xp manual it didn't say additional heat conducting glue needed. Is the bit of glue that came with the cpu good enough?

 

[Fern]

All CPU's need a T.I.M., most ppl call it thermal paste or thermal gease among other things. Best know example of this type product is Arctic Silver 5 or ceramique.

It's NOT glue. a Thermal adhesive is manufactured and used for heatspreaders or even affixing heatsinks on the South Bridge or NorthBridge on the mobo. But I wouldn't use it on a CPU. It's completely unneccessary there as the CPU heatsink has retaining clips/screws etc to affix the HS to the CPU.

Retail CPU's comes with thermal pasts that is perfectly adequate. If you buy an OEM CPU, you may need to buy some as it likely won't be included.

Fern

 

[dsj]

I see. then why are they selling those pastes with cpus such as on monarchcomputer? And I don't see a tube of that in my cpu box. There's just some on the cpu it self. Is that enough?

 

[TGS]

If you are using a retail sink, you most likely have a thermal pad. Which is regarded as being a less effective option than a heatsink with thermal paste. It only takes a tiny amount of paste to have an effective contact between the sink and the cpu.

 

[dsj]

I'm using the heatsink that came with the cpu. And should I purchase the heat conducting paste with my upcoming athlon 64 purchase? And how do I use it? just wipe some of the glue onto the cpu?

 

[TGS]

From the grave, does your retail heatsink come with some material at the bottom?
If so that should be the thermal pad, which should be sufficient in the correct thermal transfer, at least from AMDs perspective.

If you feel that you need it, remove the thermal pad material and use some thermal paste. Arctic Silver 5, or Ceramic are products that I've used with very good results. AS 5 has a silver base so it is electrically conductive. Ceramic does not, so for the 100% guarentee to not short the board, I would suggest ceramic.