Thermal compuund necessary for installation

[tigersty1e]

I'm installing a Core 2 duo chip on my motherboard and I've seen online several sources say to put some thermal compound between the chip and heatsink.

My friend who is knowledgable said that it's not necessary.

Do I need this?

 

[swtethan]

stock cooler? if its the stock cooler, there should be some on there already.

 

[tigersty1e]

What's a stock coooler?

The stock heatsink and fan that came with the chip?
If so, yes.

 

[Zardnok]

Bottom line, you need SOMETHING or else the heatsink will not make proper contact and your chip will ASSPLODE!! Most stock coolers have some form of paste or thermal pad already installed on them, but if you look at the bottom and see bare metal, you need to add some type of thermal paste or risk permanent damage.

 

[firebyyrd]

I'm not sure what your friend is saying... but.

Without thermal compound of any sort, your computer chip will fry and burn.. and acrid smell will emanate from your case.


but.. most of the time your computer will just shut off :] thank goodness for those fail-safes.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
I'm installing a Core 2 duo chip on my motherboard and I've seen online several sources say to put some thermal compound between the chip and heatsink.

My friend who is knowledgable said that it's not necessary.

Do I need this?

I would reconsider your choice in friends.

Most chips these days have an IHS (integrated heat spreader) - basically the metal heat plate covering your actual processor core. This is to make contact with the metal of the heatsink for heat transfer. Unfortunately, neither metal surface is 100% flat, and the air pockets will increase thermal resistance... you need thermal paste to fill in the microscopic gaps in order to create the most contact area for heat transfer possible. Thermal paste isn't quite as good as metal, but it's needed to fill in the gaps. A very thin layer is all you need.

 

[Aeros]

Kinda off topic...but if properly lapped then would there still be a need for TIM?

Spose' there will always be micro areas w/ no contact unless you weld the IHS and HS together...Wonder if anyones ever done that?

Figure acetalyne would kill the chip, but mayby a friction weld, or a solder. I'll have to google search this later after work.

What ya' guys think?

 

[F1shF4t]

No your chip will not fry if you don't use thermal compound, it will just run a bucket load hotter... i never use thermal compound when i just check if the cpu works or not, nothing is going to happen if it runs at 50C and not 40 for 5 minutes.

But saying that, you should use thermal compound if you are planing to run the cpu for more than a few mins, even if you lap the HS etc


It would be interesting if solder would work, hmm maybe i gotta get my hands on some cheap cpu to try

 

[tigersty1e]

So I got the Core 2 Duo 6300 and apparently they already come shipped with compound on the heatsink.

Just 1 more question. I removed the heatsink just to check and I saw some compound on there, but because I removed the heatsink after the compound set, do I need to reapply compound? There didn't appear to be a whole lot of compound. Just a very thin application about the size of a quarter.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Yes, you should clean off the old thermal paste and add a fresh application.

 

[StopSign]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
My friend who is knowledgable said that it's not necessary.

Did he say he's knowledgeable or did you conclude that yourself?