Should i change my thermal paste?

aspec

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Apr 23, 2009
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i have a compaq presario pc i bought almost 5 years ago, it has amd athlon 64 3400+ which still has stock heatsink + thermal paste, would it help if i replaced my paste with something else? the last time i tried to remove the heatsink(back in 2006) my cpu came off with it also so im not sure if its possible to get heatsink off now, probably stuck to it too tight now. was gonna overclock my agp card finally until i build a new pc a few months from now. going to buy a 2nd hdd to store my games/music/movies on so not sure if i should waste my time getting paste to replace the stock stuff if its possible to remove the heatsink now?
 

ulysses35

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you might gain a couple of degrees improvement by using something like AS5 or MX2 - however you could easily achieve the same with better airflow through the case.

If you have a HSF that is stuck to the CPU - then use the system for a couple of hours then shut down..... the HSF should come off easier now as the thermal compound will have softened because of the heat generated by the CPU
 

aspec

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Apr 23, 2009
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was going to compusa to just buy my new HDD instead of waiting for it to be shipped from newegg, is any of the paste they have good? and is there a certain way to take the HS off without pulling processor too? read somewhere that turning the heatsink works clockwise then counterclockwise or something breaks the paste? dont wanna bend any of the pins on cpu though, bent 1 before when it came off w/ heatsink. only possible way to increase airflow is a new case, wont be getting 1 until i build my own pc in a few months. was looking at a pci slot card for heat to help with overclocking my old gpu that doesnt have a fan just heatsink. one of the ones that runs off the psu not pci.

http://www.compusa.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=804&name=Expansion-Slot-Fans&Nav=|c:494|&Sort=0&Recs=10