Do I have to apply thermal paste to my CPU?

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GlitterFart

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Nov 29, 2014
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I'm just wondering if I need to apply thermal paste for my new CPU (i5 4690k). I'm also keeping the same CPU cooler. I always thought that the thermal paste is put on a layer of the CPU cooler.
 
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if the cpu cooler that you are applying, is the one that came with the chip, it should have some already applied. if you using a previously used cooler, then you will need to reapply. by the question, i assume that you are using the one that came with the chip, and in that case, you dont need to put any on, unless it simply wasnt applied from the factory. look at the bottom of the cooler, you should see gray spots in the center if its there.
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melonhead

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Sep 21, 2010
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if the cpu cooler that you are applying, is the one that came with the chip, it should have some already applied. if you using a previously used cooler, then you will need to reapply. by the question, i assume that you are using the one that came with the chip, and in that case, you dont need to put any on, unless it simply wasnt applied from the factory. look at the bottom of the cooler, you should see gray spots in the center if its there.
 
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melonhead

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Sep 21, 2010
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as sizzling said, you will need to clean it first. any left over material can cause an uneven seal with the paste that can cause the heat transfer. very simple to do.
once you clean off the majority of the previous paste, then use a cotton swab and alchohol to do the final cleaning of it. since it is the cooler that you will be cleaning, you dont have to be so gentle, such as using a cotton swap, but with whatever you use to clean it, you will want to use alchohol as the cleaning agent.
 
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slyu9213

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Nov 30, 2012
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These questions come up so many times but I know there was a time I had a similar question if I had to apply it new or if I could just use the old dry gunk again. Every time the seal between the CPU and Heatsink by the thermal compound is broken you want to clean both CPU and Heatsink then reapply paste. Don't use too much as it will make temps worse than a small amount.
 
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melonhead

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a small amount that sly is referring to is the size of a grain of rice. it may not seem like much, but taking into consideration how much that small amount will spread once you lay the heatsink on it, is quite a bit.
 
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