CPU thermal protection

[skaltpunk]

so i was installing a cpu for my very first time... and i got it into the socket ok cause it doesn't take a genius to do such. the heatsink gave me more trouble. it said to use the appropriate tool to latch the metal pressure thing. well i just used a screw driver and pushed pretty hard. blah blah blah... to my question.

i ended up with a bad motherboard and had to take out my cpu... the thermal material (pink stuff on the heatsink) that touches the processor is gone where the cpu touches it. how important is this material? they deem it very important and if any damage occurs, they claim it must be replaced... any advice?

 

[WATYF]

Yes,... go buy some more...

That "pink stuff" was prolly just cheap thermal "tape" that comes on generic heatsinks... what you want to use is thermal grease... (aka thermal transfer compound, aka goop, aka whatever the hell else you wanna call it... )

Now... you could get all worked up aboot which type of thermal grease to use... Arctic Silver... Coolermaster... Generic thermal goop... (what to do..? what to do...? )

or you can just read this article and find out that not only is there no difference in performance between the more expensive thermal pastes and the cheaper thermal pastes... but that toothpaste will also suffice... (for a short period of time, at least.. )

so my short (yeah right ) answer is, go oat to your nearest computer store and ask for some cheap thermal compound. Put a small drop on the CPU core and spread it around.. use just enough to cover the core... you're not frostin' a cake, remember.


...and that's aboot it.

WATYF

 

[skaltpunk]

thank you much. this was very helpful!

 

[Toki987]

Radio Shack sells Lithium Grease for thermal coupling pretty cheap. I think a tube is under $5. It only takes enough to coat one side of a toothpick to couple a heatsink to the processor.