Quick Question - Building My First PC

Hello Pro's... I got a quick question for you. I am building my first ever PC. I purchased all of the parts below from Newegg. My question is,the Retail Intel P4 2.6 processor that comes right out of the box has a black thermal pad on the bottom of the heatsink. Not knowing my heatsink already had this pad, I went to Best Buy and bought Antec's Silver Thermal Compound. I have never applied compound before since this is my first time at this and I would prefer not to and just use the thermal pad since it is already applied to the heatsink.

Is this OK? Will the thermal pad be good enough to protect the CPU? Do i have to do anything to the pad before I install the heatsink? Is there anything I have to peel off before mounting it on the CPU? Sorry for the lame questions, I just want to do this the right way.

Intel P4 2.6
ASUS P4P800-VM Motherboard
Crucial 512KB 400 MHZ PC3200

Thanks!

i think you should use the compound.

the thermal pad works pretty good
you can use it if you're not to sure on applying the thermal paste

if you're going to use the thermal pad that came with the HS,
you dont have to do anything with the pad
just drop it in

i second the compound. i'm not a big fan of thermal tapes.

I would think you would get better temps with the paste..

you can use the pad on the heatsink just fine. If you do not plan on overclocking, it will do fine. However, the best bet would be to clean off the pad and apply your own paste because paste will provide a better medium to transfer your heat from the CPU to the heatsink (isn't that the whole purpose anyhow? )

Best think to do would be to use some rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) on a lint free rag or towel and rub off the pad. You can also try to scrap it off with something but this can be dangerous leaving scratches and cause loss of heat transfer. Just clean off the pad and get all the sticky stuff off, then use a small bit of paste on the center of the CPU and use a nice flat item (credit card type item) to smooth the paste over the cpu. Make sure you cover the CPU evenly with a nice thin coat and that it doesn't run over the edge. Then just put your heatsink back on as tight as possible to provide a good contact.

I know it sounds intimidating, but it's not really once you try it.

You'll get better temps with the compound.

However what everyone is failing to take into account is that the question is will it be safe with the tape.

The answer to your question is yes. It will be safe with the thermal tape that's allready there.

It's a thermal pad on the heatsink not thermal tape. Thermal tape is for heatsinks on stuff that don't have a set way of attactment like graka memory. A thermal pad is the stuff that comes on the bottom of a retail cpu heatsink. Just to clear up some of the fuzziness behind TIMs.

Thanks everyone. By using the existing pad that exists on the heatsink, will I still receive the maximum performance from my CPU or will I get even better performance with the compound? If there is a difference...will it even be noticeable? Also, could I apply the compound on top of the pad and CPU to give it extra protection or would that be worse?

The PC I'm building is primarily for gaming (SWG/EQ2). No overclocking will be done.

Also, I will be using a 450W powersupply...not sure if that changes any of your suggestions or not.

will I still receive the maximum performance from my CPU or will I get even better performance with the compound?

Click to expand...

I think that question has already been answered. For better performance use the copmpound. If you plan on overclocking use the compound.

EDIT: If anything, apply the compound so you'll learn how to do it.

Chris_F said:

I think that question has already been answered. For better performance use the copmpound. If you plan on overclocking use the compound.

EDIT: If anything, apply the compound so you'll learn how to do it.

Click to expand...

ummm no the question has not been answered, he asked if it will affect cpu performance... no it will not, that will only happen if he overclocks, and he said he won't. and do NOT put the compound and thermal pad together

your CPU will still perform the same whether you keep the pad or remove it and use the grease.

The only reason you would use grease instead of a pad would be to maximize the heat transer between the CPU and heatsink.

If you are not gonna overclock, it's not gonna matter much which you use. However, using grease instead of the pad will make your CPU run cooler.

Obviously, CPU's produce heat, like all electronic components. Heat is the main enemy for any electronic device. With overclocking, you are increasing the frequencies of CPU's thus making them work harder which, in return, produce more heat. The more heat you have, the less stable your CPU becomes. Using thermal grease helps provide a better medium to transer the heat from the CPU to the heatsink which then dissipates the heat away to the case, which eventually goes outside (in theory)

Pads are fairly solid and flat. If there are any depressions or deformities on the bottom of the heatsink, the contact between the heatsink and CPU won't be solid and transfer can be minimal, resulting in higher tempuratures. With thermal paste, it more fluid and enables it to mold and seal off some deformities, increasing the conductivity of heat and overall reduction of temperatures. The most popular type of grease is the silver based grease which has tiny bits of silver within the grease to help aid to conduct the heat away from the CPU.

Now, having said all of that, if you aren't gonna overclock and not too worried about overheating, just use the pad. Tons of people use stock cooling and thier computers run fine, however, this is the overclockers forum and we get a little crazy with our computers, so we like to maximize everything, even for a little project.

I recommend using grease. It's always fun to help your computer run more stable and cool. It's not hard to do, but if you don't feel comfortable trying, the thermal pad will work just fine for you and your computer will still work the same.

Also, do NOT use the grease and the pad together. That would be a disaster hehe. Use one or the other, NOT both.

Hope that clears up your questions.

BOTTOM LINE:

YOU'RE NEW, USE THE PAD. END OF STORY. It works FINE!

Hehehehe. Seriously, though, applying thermal compound is not hard. I got it on my first try using a clean razor blade. Since you're not overclocking, if you're going to go as far as using thermal compound over a thermal pad, you might as well scrape off the pad and lap the heatsink. You'd get even better temps considering good case airflow.