Q6600 retail HSF question

[Ryland]

I just opened the retail box and took a look at the HSF and found that there are 3 grayish areas on the copper section. Are those some kind of thermal compound that I need to scrape off before using Artic Silver? Im used to the section of the Heatsink that touches the cpu being a solid metal.

 

[imported_LoKe]

I remember these. I just applied thermal paste over it, since I didn't feel like screwing up a heatsink.

Mind you, I don't use retail heatsinks that often.

 

[Ryland]

I just googled about it and some people are saying that the thermal paste that is preapplied isn't bad and to leave it. Any comments on this?

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: Ryland
I just googled about it and some people are saying that the thermal paste that is preapplied isn't bad and to leave it. Any comments on this?

You could just give it a shot. Boot it up and go right into the BIOS and monitor the temps for a little while. I wouldn't use it, simply because it's solid, but I don't think I've ever actually tried doing it that way. I mean, my E6300 came with a tube of thermal paste (I think).

 

[jjmIII]

NO! Clean it off, and use that AS you have

 

[Quiksilver]

Those greyish strips that come pre-applied are the stock thermal paste. If you wish to use any other type of thermal paste it is recommended to clean it off and apply the new stuff.

 

[Ryland]

I do have thermal paste remover (the artic silver cleaner) that I can use tomorrow to remove it if it is that bad of stuff. Im not really planning on OCing the system though.

 

[Ryland]

5 minutes worth of work and the old thermal material is gone. I will start the build tomorrow morning.

Thanks all.

 

[n7]

FWIW, there's nothing wrong with using the stock thermal paste; it works just fine (as Intel intended for it to).

But the stock heatsink itself is not overly good, so expect very cozy temps if you want to OC.

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: n7
FWIW, there's nothing wrong with using the stock thermal paste; it works just fine (as Intel intended for it to).

But the stock heatsink itself is not overly good, so expect very cozy temps if you want to OC.

Well I already cleaned it off and prepped the heatsink for Arctic Ceramiq which I will apply tomorrow.

 

[brokencase]

This would have been a good oppertunity for you to perform a comparision of the stock hsf compound versus Artic Silver.

Supossedly Intel uses something special from Dow. I just don't like how they silkscreened it on the HSF. It seems kind of sparse. I guess they expect it squish out.

I was thinking of pulling my hsf off to see how it even it was. If it was'nt I was going to remove it and apply Artic Silver.

 

[Ryland]

I probably should have just left it on there but I did have the Arctic silver cleaning kit that I never get to use and a tube of Arctic Ceramique.