So removing the pre-applied thermal paste is a waste of time for stock running, what about mild OC?

[imported_and]

Just got a retail packaged Opteron that I'm going to use for as long as it's viable. I did a forum search on "pre applied thermal" and found some posts saying that if you're running stock speeds, removing the pre-applied paste on the HSF and replacing it with aftermarket paste will only net you a 2-3C difference.

What about mild overclocks? It's a 175 (the store I checked was out of 170 models, made me order the 175 in a hurry - no newegg access here in Europe) and I plan to OC it as far as I can on stock voltage, or with a very minor voltage increase. Currently doing 2.45GHz on a A64 3200+ with a few extra tenth volts, so I'm hoping for 2.5-2.6.
Should I bother with replacing the pre-applied paste? I've done it on my previous CPUs so far but quite frankly it's a bit of a bother, I'm a lazy fecker and my AS5 tube is 3 years old... so are we still looking at 3C difference?

Anyone want to share their experiences with AMD's pre-applied paste on their Opteron heatsinks?

Thanks in advance for any advice.


(I was planning to try out the difference when I bought a retail A64 in 2005, but the packaging had been damaged so parts of the flimsy cardboard had entered the plastic CPU case and contaminated the pre-applied grease, so I had to replace the paste.)

 

[Killrose]

So do you have the 4-pipe per side heatsink with a 3-pin con., or the later 2-pipe per side with 4-pin connector Heatsink? Why not give it a go and give it a couple days to set in and do some temp monitoring and if it looks good start overclocking?

Good thermal paste applied correctly always beats out the pre-applied stock thermal stuff.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't think that the pre-applied paste is that bad, I think it's "Shin Etsu" stuff. But re-applying with AS5 can't hurt either. I would use the stock paste for the first mounting, and if you have to re-mount, then use AS5 and clean the old paste off.

 

[imported_and]

2 pipe per side. (Is there much difference between this and the older one, btw?)

Appreciate the advice.

 

[lenjack]

If your case has good airflow and ambient temp is comfy, you should be able to do a mild oc with the stock paste.

 

[bryanW1995]

it's much better to wipe away the preapplied crap if you know what you're doing. even if you don't oc at all the as5 should work much better.