Thermal IM on Stock Heatsink

[Altair]

The black patch on the Intel h/s is scratched up. Intel says to order a new h/s with the same type of TIM on it from them. Are they saying this just to get my business or is there a legitimate reason for using the black patch? I was planning on taking the patch off and using thermal paste. Isn't the paste better than the patch?

Thanks for your help-

 

[boyRacer]

Maybe because if you dont use it they void your 3 year warranty... the paste is better though.

 

[Slogun]

Well, they don't want you to use a defective thermal pad, but i would prefer to see them replace it for you.

However, thermal paste is considered much better than the stock thermal pad.

Get some good stuff while you're at it. Any type of Arctic Silver will do.

 

[Altair]

Intel didn't say anything about using thermal paste would void the warranty. Might be an unpleasant surprise though if I did have send the cpu in for replacement.

Thanks for the answers.

 

[Dantzig]

In the booklet that came with my Athlon XP, it says that if you remove the heatsink, you need to clean the CPU and heatsink and install new thermal interface material or the warranty is void. It doesn't say that you have to use the crap that it comes with, it just says thermal interface material. So any will do. Arctic Silver is the best.