Getting Ready To Swap Mobos Again (A Few Questions)

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pcgamer808

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I'm getting ready to swap motherboards again and I have a question about the processor. I'm going to reuse it so I'll be taking it out of my current motherboard. Will I be able to get it out and put it into the new mobo while having the CPU (s478) and sink still attached to eachother? A faint memory and my gut are telling me that I'll have to separate them... I'm just wondering if anyone knows something I don't.

If I do separate them, do I need to reapply that grey goo? If so, do I need to clean the goo that's on it now before I can reapply? I've never reused a processor like this before so I'm totally clueless ATM.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Unless you used thermal glue (not likely) the first time, you really should separate them. If it turns out it's stuck (can happen), be very careful, as you can destroy the cpu if you're unlucky. But mostly they come apart so easy you won't be able to move them without separating them!

When you've separated them, clean the heatsink and cpu with alcohol. Re-apply thermal paste before you put the two together.

If you don't do this, your cpu will run hotter than it should, since it won't conduct the heat as effectively as it should.
 
Thanks a lot for the reply, you've pretty much confirmed what I've been thinking! :mad: I'm really not looking forward to getting that crap off with rubbing alchohol (all I've got atm) and having to buy more of that goo. I tossed out the unused stuff after I was done using it, thinking I would never need it again. puke:
 
Hehe, well such is life.
Besides, it's not really that hard. Using either cotton balls or q-tips, it only takes a minute or so.
And adding the thermal paste properly can give you a slightly cooler cpu, which is a Good Thing™.
 
I went out and got the Arctic 5 Silver stuff and I just wanted to make sure - I only put a dot the size of like 2 grains of rice on the processor right? I put it in quite a while ago and can't remember how to do it. It's a P4 3.2 GHz 800FSB 1MB L2 with HT if it makes any difference. Thanks.
 
hmm im not sure , but i think you should have added a lil bit more, i justed changed mine and it was in a tube so it said to put all of it, it looked like 4 rice grain drops lol :approve:
 
Wow... then I could use this tube for literally hundreds of processors before it's used up! The amount they showed in the pic is VERY tiny!

Thanks everyone.
 
Yes, as long as you keep the tap on, so that it doesn't dry out, it should last you for several cpu's..

Good luck!
 
Argh! So it turns out I put waaaay too much the first time I put in the processor. When I took it apart to transfer, I kind had to force the processor off of the heatsink with a butter knife. There was chunks of the stuff on the copper part of the heatsink and on the CPU itself. I used the butter knife to take some chunks off of the copper and ended up scratching the thing. There are like 4 ugly scratches on it (copper circle under the heatsink that makes contact with the CPU), though not extremely deep. Is it fine? Should I buy another heatsink thing? Or will god shine down upon me and have the Arctic 5 fill in the scratches and make everything allright?
 
It'll depend on how bad your scratches are, and it will more than likely affect your overall cooling, even with artic silver.

Can you post a pic of the damage?
 
Tried taking some pics and the scratches won't show up on the camera. The pics aren't worth posting :(

What the scratches look like are the kind likely to be seen on the underside of a CD while still being playable.
 
it will decrease the effectiveness, but you don't need to buy a new one if you're willing to do some work.

You can sand it down yourself, just make sure you're using a flat block to keep the sanding paper flat, so you're assured of a flat surface. You do not want a convex or concave surface!
 
Hmm.. the scratches aren't very deep at all... maybe the Arctic 5 will fill in? If not I'll gladly sand it down. A few mins vs. $250...

One more question, and hopefully my last! Turns out the Mobo only has a slot for one fan - the CPU. I have a case fan and a PSU that has an extra fan. Will these fans work without having them plugged into the Mobo, but still plugged into the PSU? I actually didn't find out until just now about the fans... but there's not much I can do since I couldn't find a very big selection of Mobos with 478 FSB800 while having DDR400 all while being M-ATX.
 
Yes, you can just plug the other fans directly into the PSU, no problem there. Plugging it into the motherboard just gives you more control over them (most of the time). Typically if you plug them right into the PSU you loose any control over their speeds, and they default to max, but other than that, they work great!
 
Thanks everyone for the help. I got it all together (holy crap so many wires in there.. had to force it shut LOL) and it posts nicely. My CPU temp in the BIOS is 38c... that's a little bad I think. It's was 60ish before under stress. I'll test it out some more later.

BIG PROBLEM though! My BIOS won't detect ANY of my drives except the floppy! My mobo says it supports 4 IDE drives, and I have 2 CD/DVD drives and two harddrives along with the floppy drive hooked up. The floppy doesn't count as one of the IDEs does it? If it does, then I think I may have solved my problem. Other than that, I have already set up the jumpers on my HDs to master and slaved and plugged them in respectively. Gonna try and mess with it some more right now. Thanks for any help anyone can give!

EDIT: Hmm.. could be the PSU as well. None of the plugs from the PSU have markings on them and I remember back in the day I couldn't get a HD working because it had the wrong plug in it (it needed P2).

EDIT AGAIN: Ok I'm pretty confident that it's the way I plugged in the drives. The CD/DVD drives won't open at all so I'm guessing it's the order in which I plugged the drives in. Only thing is - none of the plugs are marked so I have no clue which ones go where! Is there some standard format for these things? This is my first time replacing a PSU. Thanks in advance.

ONE MORE EDIT: Finally got it. Not sure what it was, but I did change around the way I linked up my drives. Also I took the CD drive off so that everything's on one power line. Maybe that was the answer, I don't know, but I'm about to go play some ES: Oblivion right after I break in this new HD!
 
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