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P4 Top Came Off!

N

nwfsnake

Senior member
I had to switch motherboards, and when I removed the stock Intel heatsink, the brown/black CPU cover plate came off with it. I went ahead and installed the CPU and heatsink on the new MB, making sure it was oriented in the same way (I could tell by the "thermal glue?" indentions how it was oriented). My CPU temp is always 32-33C, so I am not too worried. But... could I have scraped the cover off the heatsink, applied a little thermal paste to the silver top of the CPU, attached the heat sink, and been OK? What type of non-drying thermal paste is recommended?
 
So... the heat spreader stuck to the heatsink? And you just installed the heatsink again with that heat spreader still stuck to it?
 
Heatspreader! That is the name I was looking for, thanks! Yes, I just reinstalled everything in the same orientation. It seems to work as the temp appears pretty normal.

However, do I really need the heatspreader? Should I remove it from the heatsink and use some thermal glue to to reattach to the CPU? Should I disguard it and use some thermal past between the Silver CPU top and the heatsink? Opinions please!
 
So you have no thermal interface material between the heat spreader and the core of the processor? That's probably a bad thing... although temps don't seem too bad.
I think Wingznut would be able to provide the best course of action for you at this point.
 
The "sticky" stuff between the heatspreader and CPU is still there, and I guess it is making good contact otherwise my temps would be high. If I remember, there was something on the bottom of the stock heatsink that must have stuck to the heatspreader, as I could not just pull it away from the heatsink. Still hoping for additonal opinions and options!
 
There are people at xtremesystems.org forums who remove their heatspreader for better cooling performance.
 
you should keep the IHS off! much better cooling... do you trust intel to apply the thermal paste correctly? to even use good thermal paste? to care whether your cpu is as cool as you want it? h3ll no! yours came off with no apparent damage... i'll be sweatin in a couple days when im trying to pry mine off with an x-acto blade.
 
hahaha...

well, removing the IHS decreases overall temps around 1-2c, if you feel that increasing the chance of chipping your core is worth it, then go for it 🙂
 
When I removed my IHS I always got a higher OC. Therefor all my IHS's come off 🙂

From what I can tell, the stock intel cooler does not work with it off though 🙁 So you'd need aftermarket cooling which is clearly superior anyways 🙂
 
Be careful that the heatsink still contacts if you decide to do away with the IHS. that 1mm gap is sometimes critical.
 
You would have problems crushing a p4 core, they are a decent size, nice and square and the retention system are very good
 
I use my P4m 1.8ghz cpu with no heatspreader with no problem
some heatsinks might not sit right tho
i had to drill the holes in my heatsink deeper so it would mount lower

just be carefull
 
I just made a shim up using a floppy drive cover 🙂 they are quite flat and just the right thickness - not the best material for conduction of heat but I had no problems.
 
Thanks for the replies. I checked again last night after playing online for a while, and the temp still shows 32C. Might try some
overclocking to see if I can affect the temp to make sure my setup is really OK.
 
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