Replacing thermal pad with paste? Is it kosher?

[foycur]

I have a home built system and use a P4 3.2 GHZ chip with the standard HSF that came with it. When I built it initially, I just used the pad that was on the HSF because I didn't know better. I had to send my Mobo back to ASUS for them to fix a BIOS/CMOS problem and now I am ready to resintall everything. I know that you should reuse the pad, and I've heard that paste gives you better contact with the HSF anyway. So, is it cool to just peel the pad off, clean off the contacts with some isopropyl, and apply the paste? It is probably a no brainer dumb question, but I'd rather not foul anything up. Thanks!!

 

[Rick]

You've got it.

Pad = Crap
Paste = Good

Both = Worse

So ditch the pad, use the paste and make sure it is nice and clean. Remember not apply too much, or it can be worse than not applying it at all. :hotouch:

 

[foycur]

Thanks

BTW, I have Dynex paste that I picked up from Best Buy. Would this suffice? I have a fan on top of the heat sink and with my pad the system would run about 39 C at it's hottest.

 

[Tarkus]

I've heard of Dynex drives but I'm not familiar with Dynex paste. There is no real substitute for Arctic Silver though. :stickout:

 

[zWarlord]

curious

Just curious if the paste is so great, why does AMD recomend using a thermal pad not paste?

Oh, this is just a hypothetical question btw, i know that paste is superior and use Arctic Silver.

 

[Blakhart]

"Just curious if the paste is so great, why does AMD recomend using a thermal pad not paste?"


My guess is warranty purposes.

 

[Spike]

"Just curious if the paste is so great, why does AMD recomend using a thermal pad not paste?"

It's probably for the very reason Rick mentioned.

Too much paste is a bad thing, and it's Oh so easy to apply to much of the stuf, but far more of a potch to clean it up properly afterwards.