I'm not using any Thermal Grease...

[Nanotherm]

Good man. No reason not to squeeze every ounce of performance you can out of your PC - especially with a tweak as simple and inexpensive as thermal compound.

 

[Gregory_WE]

I don't have a problem with no thermal grease... stock HSF and my full load temp is around 37-38C.

 

[Nanotherm]

Do you have a pre-applied TIM pad on your HSF? If you didn't scrape one off, you may very well have one on the bottom of your HSF right now vs. the bare metal-to-silicon scenario your are suggesting. If you are running bare metal-to-silicon, then I guess you need to ask yourself how much better your PC would run if you had some sort of TIM between the mating surfaces to fill in the surface imperfections and gaps, eliminate the air in the thermal junction (which always impedes heat transfer) - something with thermally conductive properties (unlike air) that actually promotes heat transfer from the "hot" surface to the cold "surface."

Of course, if you're happy with the current performance of your PC and you don't need or want to implement a cheap tweak to make it run cooler, faster and better, then I guess you're all set.

 

[tio]

This is as "perfect" as it gets. But, few of us have the means to achieve such a flat surface. There's nothing holding that CPU to the heatsink other than friction. At that point I think you can do away with the thermal paste. If you can't do that with your CPU and HSF, use thermal paste. It's just a good practice to use it.

OMG, that's beautiful!

 

[Nanotherm]

Any new feedback with TIM applied?