clear plastic cover over cpu [athlon xp]?

i'm not sure to peel this thin layer off, add thermal goop, and put the heatsink on
or
keep it on, add goop, and then heatsink

does this stuff suppose to melt and become one with the goop when i first turn on my system? dunno much about how affective my heatsink will be with or without so any info on this will be helpful.

ThX!

I don't know what you are talking about, but the bare silicon core should touch the metal of the heatsink with only a thin layer of thermal paste in between. Anything else is a barrier to the heat and should be removed.

By the way... is your 1900xp core almost square, or is it about 1.5-2x as long as it is wide?

he is talking about that goo stuff that is attached to the stock heatsink when you buy an xp athlon.

my 1800+ was like this, the instructions in the bix do not say anything about adding thermal paste, so i left the goo stuff on there without adding the paste and temps seem normal, 40c at idle.

Ahh... the infamous little wax pad. It'll do OK for heat transfer, but removing it and using thermal paste will work much better. About 2-5C cooler.

Acttuuuaallllyy it's right on the cpu, that little grey box where the heatsink suppose to touch [other than the pads]. that square wax pad is another thing [infact instructions say to put that on heatsink, not the cpu]

maybe i'm just imagining that it's some sort of protective little top, but it does seem like there is something there. even tho it's solidified, it looks like when it was first applied, slid a little off of the grey box and onto the brown area [sorry if these things have names, all i know is cpu...nothing more specific]

since it does sound like most people here have the heatsink touch the naked grey box, with thermal goop inbetween, i'll see if i can try taking it off VeRy carefully [dun wanna scratch it off or anything severe].

yikes, get ride of it, it sounds like it would be a barrier, not a help at all. Just use the paste instead.

maybe's it's something AMD's started in response to the "weak core" complaints?