Intel stock cooler-thermal paste question

I'm going to use the Intel stock cooler with my i7-920 (at least for the time being) & am in a quandry about wether to apply thermal paste to the cpu.

I notice the bottom of the stock cooler has 3 neat lines of paste already applied by the factory.

Should I put some on the cpu also or just slap the cooler on & use the factory stuff?

In other words, one surface or both?

I followed the instructions found on this page on the Arctic Silver website with my Core i7 and they worked very well.

The CPU should work fine with the material on the stock cooler, but it may run a little hotter than with a better grade of paste. Just be sure to follow Ferny's advice and remove the stock stuff completely if you're going to apply something else.

If you already have a better thermal grease use it. The stock TIM is quite thick and is a little bit hard to clean-up should you decide to use it.

thanks for the replies & the links.

i've decided to try it with the stock paste on cooler only & then if temps are too hot pull it apart & redo with as5.

i'm aware of the tricky push pins. the mobo will be out of the case so i should be able to double check them.

i'll report back temps once its all together.

there are a hell of a lot of conflicting opinions on this subject. No wonder theres so many posts on it. tho i suspect a lot of it is caused by oc vs not oc.