Stock HSF, AMD APU (A8-7650k), Thermal Compound

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I'm just about to start building a system with an A8 chip. The system isn't for me, and I've never used a retail-included-in-box heatsink before.

It LOOKS like there is already some grey textured thermal compound/pad (looks like spread old chewing gum) on the heat sink. The bottom isn't shiny and there is no plastic adhesive to remove.

The instructions from AMD look generic for all of their chips and it says you need to use an 'approved' thermal compounds.

Is that grey stuff (photo can be posted if needed) thermal compound and should I just scrape it off and add Arctic Silver 5 instead (which I already have).

Edit: Dang, AMD is trying to make me blind that print is small. Anyway, further down, after it says all processors require approved thermal compound it does say that there is a TIM pre-applied.

So I guess then the question is, even if at most planning a light overclocking down the road, is AS5 just a good idea.
 
Solution
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You're not going to gain much by applying AS5, whether the user chooses to overclock or not. The grey patch is indeed Thermal Interface Material, and works just fine for the initial application. As it melts into place during usage, you generally don't want to reuse it if you ever decide to remove the heat sink.
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bigpinkdragon286

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You're not going to gain much by applying AS5, whether the user chooses to overclock or not. The grey patch is indeed Thermal Interface Material, and works just fine for the initial application. As it melts into place during usage, you generally don't want to reuse it if you ever decide to remove the heat sink.
 
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I noticed Arctic Silver says to remove AMD's compound completely. It is paraffin based and once it has had a heat cycle, its molecules will have contaminated the metal.

It's one of the reasons I wanted to know if AS5 was a reasonable improvement.
 
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bigpinkdragon286

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Oct 3, 2012
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You may already be unable to completely remove all of the original TIM. It's pretty sticky, messy stuff. I would question if it's warm when they first apply it, as it's already well adhered to the base of the heat sink. The need to have the base of the heat sink thoroughly cleaned shouldn't be such a big deal. The point of TIM / heat sink compound is to make the surfaces mate better, not to be electrically conductive. Contaminated metal sounds more like marketing gibberish.
 
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Bit the bullet and tried to clean it. Used an old credit card first and it came off like soft chewing gum.
Switched to paper towels and alcohol. Under the compound the metal is darkly discolored. It took lots of rubbing, lots of towels and lots of alcohol to get it silver and the towels to come up clean.

Finished up with coffee filter paper and alcohol.
Hopefully this was worth it... maybe not, but I was too paranoid not to. Thanks guys for the comments.
 
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