Thermal compound, quick question

coopsjc21 · 27 Nov 2008 at 21:08

My e8400 has just arrived. Being new to pc building I'm not sure whether I need thermal compound or not? The heatsink it came with looks like it has some grey striped stuff on it already, is this thermal compound that it comes with?

At a later date I plan on overclocking a little, will I need it for this?

Grimley · 27 Nov 2008 at 21:11

If its the Intel stock cooler (included in the retail box version) then yes.

RJC · 27 Nov 2008 at 21:14

The gray strip is the thermal paste, if you do remove the cooler in the future you will need to use fresh compound.

coopsjc21 · 27 Nov 2008 at 21:17

Grimley said:
If its the Intel stock cooler (included in the retail box version) then yes.

Yes its the stock cooler. If I use my own paste, will I need to first remove the paste thats already on the cooler?

RJC · 27 Nov 2008 at 21:22

coopsjc21 said:
Yes its the stock cooler. If I use my own paste, will I need to first remove the paste thats already on the cooler?

Yes

Kennysevenfold · 27 Nov 2008 at 21:35

you really only need to use your own paste if you plan on overclocking and in that case your going to have to get a 3rd party cpu cooler anyway, so best just use the stock cooler and paste just now and it can be easily upgraded in the future.

Kenny