I'm putting my new pc together right now, and although the processor itself didn't come with thermal paste, the motherboard instructions tell me to apply thermal paste before I put the heatsink on. My question is do I need thermal paste? I have some that came with a heatsink for another processor that's just laying around, should I use that? Also, if I do need to use that, how much do I apply? Just a very thin layer, correct?
I have heard where you put a bit of the paste on the processor and then use a razor blade to spread it into a thin layer. Its supposed to fill in all the pits and bumps on the CPU.
Did your processor come with the stock fan? If so then there is already paste on there, but if you prefer to use other thermal paste then clean that stuff off.
Arctic Silver 5 the best? I've read many posts on various forums saying that Arctic Cooling MX-2, OCZ Freeze, and Tuniq TX-2 are all superior, though I don't feel like ordering a bunch of random thermal compounds and testing them out right now. Anyway, if you're using the stock Intel HSF (assuming that you're talking about an Intel CPU), it will already have thermal compound on the contact area. However, it's probably best to clean it all off with 90%/91% isopropyl alcohol or ArctiClean and apply a premium thermal compound for optimum performance.
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