Ok, so I just built a new PC from scratch (my first time woohoo). I have a Q9550 with Zalman 9700LED and Arctic Silver 5 in between. Being a total noob, I somehow was using the directions for application of the AS5 for a dual core and not the quad core instructions. Basically the difference was that I was supposed to apply a horizontal line for the quad, but I applied a vertical line as you would do for a dual. As this was my first time mounting a HSF, I happened to slide the HSF around a bit on top of the CPU (so maybe the AS5 got nicely spread out?).
My temps are 30-35C on idle and with Prime95 it is pretty much locked at 45-50C (stress test with small TFTs testing a lot of RAM -- as it says). I'm not sure of the exact ambient/room temp, but it is pretty close to around 72F. So the temps on the CPU seem fine, but I plan to overclock the CPU from 2.83ghz to 3.4ghz and I want to make sure I don't need to reapply the AS5 first. The AS5 directions state in caps to make sure you apply the paste in the proper direction (DOH!).
Being that I'm new to this, I figured I would ask the experts. So basically: reapply in the proper direction or stay with what seems to be running fine.
My temps are 30-35C on idle and with Prime95 it is pretty much locked at 45-50C (stress test with small TFTs testing a lot of RAM -- as it says). I'm not sure of the exact ambient/room temp, but it is pretty close to around 72F. So the temps on the CPU seem fine, but I plan to overclock the CPU from 2.83ghz to 3.4ghz and I want to make sure I don't need to reapply the AS5 first. The AS5 directions state in caps to make sure you apply the paste in the proper direction (DOH!).
Being that I'm new to this, I figured I would ask the experts. So basically: reapply in the proper direction or stay with what seems to be running fine.