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Can I remove the heatsink without new paste

spellcaster

spellcaster

spellcaster

Associate
Joined
27 Jun 2008
Posts
440
Hello,
I put a nice new freezer Pro cooler on my e8400 chip after cleaning off all the old paste etc. I have run the machine for about an hour and everything is fine. But now I realise that I have put the heatsink and fan on the wrong way as the extracter fan should be pointing towards the back of the case not throwing its heat into my psu. As the paste is new can I safely take the heatsink off again and put it back in the correct position, or am I going to have to buy new paste?
 
You might get away with but I'd suggest replacing the paste, it changes under heat and pressure and really isn't that expensive.

Andi.
 
andicole0 said:
You might get away with but I'd suggest replacing the paste, it changes under heat and pressure and really isn't that expensive.

Andi.
Click to expand...

After 1 hour! I cant see any problem with reseating the cooler without applying new paste, what feasible difference could it make?
 
creed said:
After 1 hour! I cant see any problem with reseating the cooler without applying new paste, what feasible difference could it make?
Click to expand...

Never comes off just on one side, it comes off with lumps on either side, so if you then rotate it you'll get bits with big lumps and bits with no paste at all.

It'll need reapplying, sorry bud!
 
On the trapped air thing, it shouldn't really matter since people who spread the paste usually have bubbles of some sort, this isn't much different and if it doesn't effect their temps in the slightest i don't see how it would effect yours. You have to understand that this layer of air will be so incredibly thin that it may well help thermal conductivity rather than hinder it.

If you don't want to reapply paste then you don't have to, but it's 'recommended'.
 
JamesTuc said:
A thin layer of air will never help conductivity. Ever. Air is an insulator.
Click to expand...

I agree.

In the days of exposed cores (Athlon XP) a thin layer on the CPU core worked great.

Today, with IHS on top of the cores, heatsinks and the IHS themselves can be concave or are even designed that way to trap a layer of thermal compound. Unless you have superb lapping skills, a thin layer usually only makes contact with the outside of the IHS and leaves gaps in and around the centre - exactly where you actually want the paste!

You really need to use the pad provided, or a thin line across the cores and use the pressure of the heatsink to spread the paste. This will leave no gaps of air or poor contact and can reduce temps by 10-15C!!!

I made that mistake with a Zalman cooler and their brush compound years ago - applied a thin layer and when I took the heatsink off, an airgap/poor contact was left in the centre. Used a line of paste across the cores (see Arctic Silver's website for PDF instructions) and temps dropped massively due to all the gaps being filled in.
 
I've done exactly the same thing...accidentally put the HS on the wrong way round and needed to reverse it.

Temperatures ended up about 10c higher than they should. It was well within safe limits for that particular chip... but it's hardly an ideal way to do things.
 
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