thermal paste or thermal pad

[Jabediah]

I'm a newbie at installing a CPU. I do not know which thermal interface should I use on a AMD Slot A Athlon. Does it require a thermal paste or pad? Where extactly do I apply this thermal interface? Just in the middle of this cpu where the fan would rest on top. Or apply it everywhere the heatsink and fan touch the Cpu? Need help!

thanks

 

[marneus]

Pad will do the job but that is the cheap option... paste is better designed for the job of allowing the heatsink to draw the heat from your CPU

no-one shouts louder than someone who is being ignored, or in the case of techies, to be heard over the noise of their PC's ;-)