Question regarding heat sink paste

[Moondoggy]

I'm a newbie to building system so I'm having a guy that has built some systems help me the first time out but I'm wondering if he's right or wrong in regard to heat sink paste.

I bought a new Intel Core I7 920 CPU and I assumed that it came with heat sink paste but when we opened the box there wasn't any. The guy that was helping me said I would need to buy some at the local parts store which isn't the issue. Today I was speaking with another associate who said none was needed as the cpu fan that came with the processor alreay has the paste applied as 3 thin strips of gray material. I contacted the guy helping me and he said that what is there isn't enough a bit more would be needed if I was ever going to overclock the machine. I talked to yet another associate who said that putting more paste on top of what was already there was the wrong thing to do as it would not spread evenly and create hot spots.

So my question is who's right? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[b1gapl]

The person helping you is sort of wrong. You really do not need alot of thermal paste to overclock a CPU. Just a pea-sized drop of paste will do. It's the heatsink that will determine how far you can overclock a processor. Since you're using the stock heatsink that came with the CPU, you won't get that far compared to an aftermarket heatsink, regardless of the amount of thermal paste you apply.

The second associate is correct in the way that you should not put thermal paste on top of what is already applied to the stock heatsink (thermal pad), because you should not mix thermal pastes together.

 

[Shumway]

*EDIT

b1gapl beat me to it...lol

 

[patonb]

+1 to above..

Even alot of aftermarket coolers come pre-pasted.

 

[Moondoggy]

Thanks for the replies.

I probably won't be overclocking the system at all and intend on using the fan that came with the CPU. I have posts on many forums asking the same question and one person suggested that it would be better to clean 3 stips off the stock fan while others say leave it as is as intel has pre-determined what amount needs to be there. Any thoughts?

 

[Slaymate]

Do not add more. If more was added then you should remove the heatsink and clean the paste off of the heatsink and the cpu. You should then apply a small amount of paste to the center of the cpu (about the size of a single grain of rice). Then you want to center the heatsink to the cpu and "slightly" wiggle it to aid in the spreading of the paste. And then you snap the retaining tabs into the mobo holes and plug the fan into the cpu power header.

I don't know what type of paste your friend was wanting to use but I hope it wasn't a white color. White pastes are the worst performing but they are better than nothing. You should order some of this and follow my steps above when it arrives

Newegg.com - Tuniq TX-2 Cooling Thermal Compound - Thermal Compound / Grease

 

[b1gapl]

If you don't have plans on overclocking, the thermal paste or pad that is already applied to the stock heatsink is adequate. But it would keep the CPU a little cooler if you did buy an aftermarket paste, cleaned off the stock, and apply.