whats up guys, will be upgrading my CPU to the athlon X3 and also my CPU fan (heatsink fan) but someone said something about thermal paste on a forum? what is that? does it come with it? if not where do i buy it? and how di u put it on???
Thermal paste is used to transfer heat from the processor to the heatsink. You will need to buy some, I personally recommend Artic Cooling MX-4, however there are other cheaper pastes out there.
Retail packaged CPUs usually arrive with the TIM (Thermal Interface Material) pre-applied to the heatsink base.
You only need to keep around a tube if you remove the heatsink for cleaning and you need to clean and reapply the TIM or if you don't want to use the TIM that came with the retail packaged heatsink.
I've used IC Diamond 24 CARAT and Arctic Silver 5 in my builds.
Third-party CPU coolers usually include a tube of TIM.
Many after-market HSF come with paste either pre-applied or include a tube. The Hyper 212+ comes with a small tube which has enough paste for 3-4 applications.