Safe to remove brand-new heatsink without re-applying thermal paste?

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udpcon

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May 4, 2015
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So I just bought the parts for my first build and at the computer store I had one of the service guys show me how to put on the CPU onto my motherboard. Everything went well, except right before he put on the heatsink I thought I saw a tiny black spec on the CPU and I told myself it's probably nothing. Well it's been on my mind the whole day. I do not want any imperfections in my build, especially when it is my first time making a computer.

I am wondering if it is safe to take off the heatsink just to check if theres anything ontop of the CPU and then put it back on without re-applying any paste since I do not have any.

There was no power or anything running through the mobo, the heatsink has never been turned on either, so I dont think the paste could have melted onto the CPU or however it works.

Thanks!
 
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Karadjgne
Doesn't matter what it is. Thermal paste is a conduit to allow heat to travel from the cpu lid to the cooler base and properly applied is thinner than a strand of hair. If it's a piece of lint, piece of plastic, chunk of fuzz etc, it will interfere with the proper transfer of heat, creating a small spot of heat on the cpu die no bigger than the point of a pin that can be easily in excess of 200°C. The thermal sensor for that particular core area won't register that pin point spot of heat unless it's direct over the sensor. If it's off to one side, even a little, the surrounding metal/paste will absorb the heat rapidly as it's transfered to the cooler.

End result is you burn a pin point sized spot in 1 core which makes the whole core...
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udpcon

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Or maybe it doesn't matter? The CPU is hooked up properly to the MOBO and I guess that if there is a small dot on the CPU it may not affect it's performance.

 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Depends on what that dot is. If it was magic marker, it won't affect anything. If it was lint, it could be disastrous. Before removing the heatsink, run a stress test like p95 v26.6 and use realtemp, coretemp or speccy and look at the temps of individual cores. Given an average, all should be @ 5°+/- from that average. If one is too high, clean + repeat.
 
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udpcon

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May 4, 2015
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What if it was a tiny tiny piece of plastic (about the size of a letter on the labeling) ? I remember the black protective plastic cover flew off the mobo after he attached the latch and I guess a tiny piece could of broke off it and onto the CPU. I didn't see it clearly though, maybe it was just the labeling itself.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Dec 26, 2012
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Doesn't matter what it is. Thermal paste is a conduit to allow heat to travel from the cpu lid to the cooler base and properly applied is thinner than a strand of hair. If it's a piece of lint, piece of plastic, chunk of fuzz etc, it will interfere with the proper transfer of heat, creating a small spot of heat on the cpu die no bigger than the point of a pin that can be easily in excess of 200°C. The thermal sensor for that particular core area won't register that pin point spot of heat unless it's direct over the sensor. If it's off to one side, even a little, the surrounding metal/paste will absorb the heat rapidly as it's transfered to the cooler.

End result is you burn a pin point sized spot in 1 core which makes the whole core next to useless. Trapped airbubbles from reused paste have exactly the same results.

Pull the cooler, clean cpu and cooler with cheap 91% or better isopropyl rubbing alcohol and coffee filters until the filters don't remove any more grey. Repaste with a small pea sized drop of paste and reattach the cooler pressing firmly AMD maintain pressure until secured. Use an 'X' tightening rotation in steps, so as to not squash the paste to one side but spreading it evenly.

Not hard, and get used to it. You'll do it every 2 years at least, especially if you use arctic silver as that has a @200 heat cycle cure time.
 
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