Thermal Grease Question

[Terzo]

My new motherboard and processor arrived today (asrock 939 dual and athlon 64 3200). I know I'm supposed to put some thermal grease on the processor, but the manual is very unhelpful when suggesting what is acceptable.

I have a small tube of zalman thermal grease that came with my vf700 about a week ago. Because I am an idiot (at that point I didn't know my mobo was screwed up too) I did not reattatch the cap. Would this thermal grease be acceptable to use on my new processor? And I'd only need a little bit, right? (about 1.5 grains of rice worth, from what I've heard)

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Abhi]

The heatsink that comes with the athlon processor has a factory applied thermal interface material ( The grey square patch )

You can use that and forget about thermal paste....

 

[Terzo]

You mean that grey grid composed of 4x4 squares? That makes things easy, but why does the installation guide say "Thermal Intereface material is required", but not tell me that it's already been taken care of?

Sorry if I seem stupid, I just don't want to screw up and have the computer die again.

*edit*
Another thing, should I put the processor/heatsink on the motherboard before or after putting the motherboard in the case?

 

[lyssword]

Hey im using factory heatsink but also have a very thin thin layer of thermal grease, is that ok or it will make cpu hotter?

 

[Fern]

I wouldn't use the the one which you left off the cap. The pad that came with your CPU is fine. Furthermore, RadioShack sells Thermal grease for about $2. In reality, there isn't much difference between that and Arctic Silver.

Hey Iyssword, a very thin amount is what you want.

You guys outta go to the websites of AMD and Arctic Silver and look at the instructions for applying the material.

Fern

 

[Abhi]

Originally posted by: lyssword
Hey im using factory heatsink but also have a very thin thin layer of thermal grease, is that ok or it will make cpu hotter?

You can use the Factory heatsink and thermal grease together.... Just make sure you remove the Factory Thermal Pad/Grease that came on the heatsink before you apply your own thermal paste...

 

[slatr]

Scrape the factory thermal pad with a credit card and then clean with isopropyl alcohol.

Then you can use that Zalman grease.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: lyssword
Hey im using factory heatsink but also have a very thin thin layer of thermal grease, is that ok or it will make cpu hotter?

Ooops, I mis-read your post yesterday.

No, NO, don't use both. I'd clean it ALL off and then re-apply a thin layer of the thermal grease.

Fern

 

[lyssword]

hmm k thx. I needed to check my stepping anyways so I guess its time for heatsink/fan to come off