Where can I get those little felt pads that go on the bottom of a heatsink?

Ken90630

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2004
1,571
2
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Hey, All,

I have an old Socket A heatsink (Thermalright SLK-947U) from ~ 2007 and I need to replace those 4 little white felt pads that attach to the bottom of it (to help keep the heatsink from crushing the CPU core). Thermalright calls them "circular pads." I recently did a fresh application of Arctic Silver 5 and accidentally smeared some on the existing pads. *hits self upside the head* They're felt, so of course the grease is absorbed in and there's no way to get it out. Since AS5 is slightly capacitive, I can't let it touch the outer CPU (outside the core).

I contacted Thermalright, and they said they don't have any of those little pads anymore. I've spent the last hour & a half Googling various phrases (e.g., "heatsink circular pads," "heatsink felt pads," etc.) to no avail. Anyone know where I can get these? I still use this PC as a secondary machine, and I really want to finish this up but I'm up a creek w/o those pads.

Any links or points in the right direction would be much appreciated. :)

(CPU is an Athlon 2600+ if it matters.)
 
Last edited:

stinger608

Senior member
Mar 6, 2009
950
2
81
Normally the Socket A chips had the felt pads on the outer edges of the chip itself. Are those gone? If so, see if you can find an old dead chip somewhere. A lot of times computer shops will have old chips laying around to sell in bulk for the gold. They may have some laying around.
 

Ken90630

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2004
1,571
2
81
Thermal interface pads?

No, not the thermal pad between the core and the heatsink. I'm talking about the 4 little circular 'spacer' pads that attach to the bottom of the heatsink (an inch or so outside the center). Kinda hard to explain unless you've seen them (not all heatsinks use them).

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I think I can sort this out.
 

Ken90630

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2004
1,571
2
81
Normally the Socket A chips had the felt pads on the outer edges of the chip itself. Are those gone? If so, see if you can find an old dead chip somewhere. A lot of times computer shops will have old chips laying around to sell in bulk for the gold. They may have some laying around.

No, they're still there and in perfect condition (the four black ones). I wasn't sure if they alone were enough, since this heatsink is pretty heavy (although not as heavy as some others). I assumed there was a reason Thermalright included 4 extra pads for a Socket A heatsink (they must've known that Socket A Athlons already had those 4 pads on the chip themselves). But maybe they were just being extra cautious or maybe some Socket A chips didn't have the pads already on them? I was relatively new to computers when the Athlon XP 2600 came out, and I don't remember much about other Socket A chip.