Thermal paste question...

[vdubbia]

I recently removed a newly installed e6750 stock heatsink fan. I then re-installed it.

Should I have cleaned and applied new thermal paste? I figured the existing smear would be adequate.

 

[troisanh]

clean old paste off heatsink and cpu then get new thermal paste, always bad idea to use old.

 

[enyceexdanny]

Make sure you finish off the cleaning with high purity isoprophyl alcohol.

But if you really don't overclock, or have any issues with temps - it may be fine to leave it... If you're feeling too lazy that is. =)

 

[vdubbia]

I only had the heatsink on for about 24 hours and the cpu was never turned on (this is a new build).

I just wanted to double check the CPU and had to take the heatsink off. There was good coverage on both the CPU and the heatsink so I figured all was good.

 

[silverJON]

Was it paste or a thermal pad?

 

[kumquat]

I definitely clean and reapply every time.

 

[silverJON]

I would, but if I'd run out of AS5 I could see myself not reapplying the paste but scraping it all into one blob and re-spreading it.

Thermal pads don't work well at all after a reapplication.

At least respread it - you know how you get the spiky surface of the paste when you've pulled the HSF off? The two spiky surfaces, when meeting again, will trap loads of air. Air is BAD.

a) it's a terrible, terrible conductor of heat - imagine the HSF hovering over the heatspreader
b) bubbles displace thermal paste, meaning none gets to the area and you get bad hotspots, which can kill your CPU
c) extra volume means bigger distance between heatspreader and HSF base.