My new CPU is overheating

[Hefemeister]

You want to apply a very thin line down the middle of the cpu. Do not use too much. A little more than a grain of rice should suffice.

 

[EliTheComputerGuy]

The thermal paste is definitely a problem. I use Arctic Silver when building systems.

But also remember that you need a heat sink appropriate for your cpu. If you have some crappy heat sink built for a Celeron it won't be able to cool a hotter processor.

 

[rmg12]

well, i got to the store and purchased Thermaltake TX-1. Cleaned off the old compound from the processor and the heatsink (polished the copper to a nice shine). Reinstalled the processor, applied the compound and spread it over the processor, reinstalled the heatsink, making sure all four of those stupid Intel pins clicked and locked into place, turned on the computer and it booted and stayed on. Let it run for a few minutes, restarted and checked the BIOS. Temperature was stable at 42C. Played some games put the processor under a load, checked again and it did not go any higher than 51C. What a difference! Thanks to everyone who helped out.

 

[Hefemeister]

thanks for letting us know it all worked out.

Check the temps under load as well.

A stock heatsink should be fine for stock temps ie no overclocking.