# Is Thermal Paste Nesseccary?!?!?!?!



## DavidWright05 (Sep 8, 2006)

SOMEONE HERE TOLD ME WHEN INSTALLING A CORE 2 DUO 6600 ITS NOT NEEDED BUT I FOUND THIS ON THIS SITE:


_"I need to make something very clear here, thermal paste is not optional. You absolutely must use thermal paste to attach the heat sink to the CPU. If you run your computer without thermal paste, you can ruin your CPU in just a few seconds."_

http://www.geeks.com/techtips/2006/techtips-17aug06.htm


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## Iluvpenguins (Sep 8, 2006)

No because all stock heatsinks come with preapplied thermal paste on the bottom,you remove the paper thing that keeps it moist and ready and then apply the heatsink onto the cpu with the thermal paste area pretty much right ontop.If you bought another cooler,you need to get thermal paste unless it already comes with it.


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## diduknowthat (Sep 8, 2006)

The stock will either have thermal paste or thermal pads (not sure bout c2d's), thought it's always nice to whipe those off and apply some fresh AC5.


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## PC eye (Sep 8, 2006)

Your cpu won't be ruined in only a few seconds. My last case saw the fan go on the aftermarket cooler there bringing the cpu to the max temp. That was after the system had been on for several hours. Upon installing the cpu on the present build the system was started right after apply Artic Silver 5 and the 3rd party cooler to reach the board's own max temp.

 It takes more then a few seconds for any cpu to reach normal operating temps alone. But if you run one for too long without a cooling method inplace that will damage or totally ruin a cpu after it overheats.


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## DavidWright05 (Sep 8, 2006)

well the intel e6600 comes with a "thermal pad". it's like 3 strips of thermal gunk attached to the heatsink.  That's all i used.  is that good enough?


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## ceewi1 (Sep 8, 2006)

DavidWright05 said:


> well the intel e6600 comes with a "thermal pad". it's like 3 strips of thermal gunk attached to the heatsink.  That's all i used.  is that good enough?


Yes, that's fine.  Thermal paste will keep your temperatures a bit lower, but unless you're looking for significant overclocks it's not really necessary.  The Core 2 Duos run cool anyway.


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## PC eye (Sep 8, 2006)

ceewi1 said:


> Yes, that's fine. Thermal paste will keep your temperatures a bit lower, but unless you're looking for significant overclocks it's not really necessary. The Core 2 Duos run cool anyway.


 
 OCing isn't the only thing but one big thing that will see temps rise fast. On any cpu you want adequate according to your use. If you game and OC with a stock hsf chances are that the temps will start climbing as the pad wears and hardens. If you load large programs that demand cpu time or leave your system running day and night then you have to look into better then stock.


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## Maddhatter (Sep 8, 2006)

i always wipe that crud they put on there off and reapply it...


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## SirKenin (Sep 8, 2006)

Geeks.com is right about the CPU burning out in seconds.  You wouldn't believe the crap people tried to pull on me and the stories I heard when people brought in dead CPUs and expected me to replace them under warranty.  Yeah.  Right.  I told them to send them back to the manufacturer.

Anyways.  If you're a purist, you can scrape off the thermal paste that's on it and put on some Arctic Silver.  It isn't necessary, but some people just feel better when they do and it does drop your temps a degree or two.


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## Stringer (Sep 8, 2006)

whats the best aftermarket heatsink for the core 2 duo?


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## dragon2309 (Sep 8, 2006)

Stringer said:


> whats the best aftermarket heatsink for the core 2 duo?


Just for the record, there are no specific coolers made for core 2 duos, the c2d's use the same coolers as any other LGA775 chip. Any cooler marked as either UNIVERSAL or LGA775 will fit, ther cooling performance is up to how much you want to spend. I suggest the Arcitic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO. An extremely good cooler and in some cases beats the top line zalman coolers, which brings me to my next point. Any of the zalman super flower or zalman 100% copper ones are very good too.

For decent enough cooling you should expect to pay anywhere in the reigon of £25-£45 (GBP) Unless you want water cooling, phase change cooling or peltier cooling, then you can add a 0 to the end of both of those prices.

dragon


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## Stringer (Sep 8, 2006)

thanx!


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## Jet (Sep 8, 2006)

The Zalman CNPS9500 LED is a great cooler for my Pentium D 820


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## PC eye (Sep 8, 2006)

Stringer said:


> whats the best aftermarket heatsink for the core 2 duo?


 
 That can be a toss up between fanless 3rd party coolers and one with 92mm or larger fans mounted on the sink. Others will point at a water cooling setup to see the lowest temps.


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## Praetor (Sep 9, 2006)

> OCing isn't the only thing but one big thing that will see temps rise fast. On any cpu you want adequate according to your use. If you game and OC with a stock hsf chances are that the temps will start climbing as the pad wears and hardens. If you load large programs that demand cpu time or leave your system running day and night then you have to look into better then stock.


Actually you missed the big one ... vcore! 



> Geeks.com is right about the CPU burning out in seconds.


Yes but for those scenarios to actually happen you need a lot of stupidity.



> whats the best aftermarket heatsink for the core 2 duo?


*This* heatsink is pretty sweet 



> Others will point at a water cooling setup to see the lowest temps.


I think it's fair to assume the heatsink being referred to here is for the CPU, not as a part of a rad.


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## PC eye (Sep 9, 2006)

"Actually you missed the big one ... vcore! "

It depends on what you mean regarding VCore?
*Putting it All Together* By: Dan Mepham 
So the question then becomes one of the transient state. How long does it take the voltage to reach its intended state (VCC), and how can we reduce the time needed to do so? Part of the time required depends on the design and physical properties of the materials. There’s really nothing you can do about that, although engineers spend countless hours testing different designs and materials. Fortunately, we can produce the effect of reducing the transient time by increasing the VCC (or rather increasing the difference between VSS and VCC). To illustrate, consider the image below. The red line (VCC+) indicates the new, increased voltage, while the grey VCC indicates the default (proper) voltage for the processor.





When we have VCC+ (or the _intended_ voltage) set to a higher value, it takes less time for our voltage to reach the _actual_ VCC needed by our logic gates. Now, if we decrease the cycle time, our logic highs still come through as logic highs, thanks to the higher core voltage. 





Basically, the voltage produces an exponential curve. By increasing VCORE, we're causing the voltage to attempt to reach a higher value in the same amount of time. In hurrying up to the higher value, the voltage reaches our original, desired voltage slightly faster. Unfortunately, we don’t have a door example to illustrate this one, so you’ll have to take our word for it!


http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1482.5/


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## Praetor (Sep 9, 2006)

> It depends on what you mean regarding VCore?


For a guy who got a *3500+ to run at 3.7GHz* you're ability to miss horribly crucial pieces of information is quite astonishing
Maybe a script-edit is needed?


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## Mankz_91 (Sep 9, 2006)

one extreme is with Phase Change though.

if you had a cold-bugged 939 opty (like a CAB2E) the only way to get temps-up was to put no thermal paste in, and they would still be at a nice -18 or so...

well, thats an extreme case, but its not-required as such, all though with air or basic water cooling, i would allways go for some AS5 or some SHin Etsu (it very expensive, but the best!) and probubly go for an Arctic cooling Freezer 7 Pro ( ithink thats what it called) for your HSF.

I personally sware by water-cooling, because every PC i have had has it.. it makes Air cooling seem so noisy, but i wouldn't reccomend it for a begginer, becuase well, expensive thing go wrong...! 



Go for a Freezer and get some half-decent case fans, like Akasa Ambers or something....


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## Praetor (Sep 9, 2006)

Yeah but for Core2s that not an issue


(Hehe finally someone who like Shin Etsu )


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## Mankz_91 (Sep 9, 2006)

i love the stuff..... goes nicely with my WCing

cost more than gold though....


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## PC eye (Sep 9, 2006)

Praetor said:


> For a guy who got a *3500+ to run at 3.7GHz* you're ability to miss horribly crucial pieces of information is quite astonishing
> Maybe a script-edit is needed?


 
 I never said I got one to run that fast. I was making an illustration about how high the cpu temp would be if the cpu(in figurative terms only) reached 3.7ghz when 2.3ghz saw 40C idle from the stock 34-35C idle temp.


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## Praetor (Sep 9, 2006)

> I never said I got one to run that fast. I was making an illustration about how high the cpu temp would be if the cpu(in figurative terms only) reached 3.7ghz when 2.3ghz saw 40C idle from the stock 34-35C idle temp.


Oh of course not.... how wrong of me to misinterpt:

 That you said the chip *would* reach 3.7Ghz -- when anyone who knows anything about OCing on a K8 knows full well that after a few hundred MHz, things arent so concrete and as such knowing that a chip *would* reach a certain clock ... requires that such a clock be attempted (and to be meaningful, it must have been maintained in a stable manner)
 And that such a overclock at a (figurative) clock speed would have a (non figurative) hot cpu...
Btw I particularly like the 5ºC core-temp for 100MHz

And have such a thorough understanding of overclocking (which is, by the way, almost 70% overclock -- figuratively), you failed to misparse, i mean, misinterpret vcore. It's almost like that 3.7GHz was a boast taken too far...

And on processors in general, with this vast knowledge of processors (cuz well, noobs dont do 70% overclocks just like that), you failed to note that there was a difference between the A64-3500 and A64-3700 *other than the model numbers and the core name* ... of course, with figurative chips, imaginary overclocks, misparsed vCores, how can I blame you!


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## Archangel (Sep 9, 2006)

dan.. those pic's for all situations are awesome 
maybe not very subtile.. but then, that's never been one of my strong points anyway


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## SirKenin (Sep 9, 2006)

Praetor said:


> Yes but for those scenarios to actually happen you need a lot of stupidity.




Yes, yes and YES!!!!  Amen!!  I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so.  Like the one client I had that couldn't have been more than 17 years old.  He bought an Athlon XP from me.  A couple of days later he brought it back.  The top of the CPU was burnt.  The bottom of the HSF was blackened..  And you could SEE THE BLUE TAPE!!!  The idiot had forgotten to take the tape off the HSF thermal paste before installation and wanted me to do an RMA!!  I told him to send it back to AMD.  ACK!!!!

So yeah.  Stupidity.  Of course if the HSF isn't applied properly it will do the same thing, like having one clip broken in the example of the OP.  You have to be careful with CPUs people.


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