Do I need a Thermal Pad?

[apsoul]

I just installed XP Home Edition onto an old system that was given to me. When Installing the CPU I noticed that the TIM was a thermal pad as opposed to paste. My question is if "these little guys" need to be touching the thermal pad (do i need to transfer heat way from "these little guys") because you can see that "these little guys" are touching the thermal pad indicated by the dark spots (those little guys) in the second picture.

These little guys

Those little guys

^Thinking of sanding this down with the 1000 grit paper i've got. The HS looks like it was sanded down with a belt sander using 100 grit paper... very rough on bottom.

I was about to remove the thermal pad, when i noticed "those little guys" and i stopped in case i need to buy a thermal pad in order to remove heat from "these little guys"
Help is much appreciated

I have Tuniq TX-2. Should i apply to all of "these little guys" or just the main center piece? Or do i need a pad?

system specs of this build:
AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 900MHz (100MHz x9)
Compaq O6E4h mobo (prebuilt but has 100/133MHz jumper currently set to 100MHz can i change that?)
20GB Seagate (thats right, Twenty GB haha)
256MB(2x128MB) 100MHz DDR
ATI RAGE XL 8MB GPU
Gateway EV700 17in Monitor

 

[S0ULphIRE]

No you don't need a thermal pad, just normal paste is fine. I usually scrape the old stuff off whenever I do an older build, I don't even bother putting any paste on "those little guys".
Nothing to worry about

 

[Slaymate]

Don't put anything on those "little guys", it could short-out the cpu. The Thermal Pad is non-conductive while most modern Thermal Pastes are conductive.

 

[apsoul]

very good. thanks much I will clean, sand, and apply tx-2 tonight hopefully. I think i'm going to build this for rig for my parents x-mas present. They're currently running an old gateway with 700MHz intel, 64MB ram, win 98. So the jump to a 900MHz AMD, 256MB ram, XP Home Ed., and a OS-dedicated drive should make a BIG difference to them.

Thanks again.

 

[Ste]

off topic: In your sig the proper term is Dissociative identity disorder.

 

[Slaymate]

I will clean, sand, and apply tx-2 tonight

sand?? You've gotten my attention with that. What are you going to sand?

 

[S0ULphIRE]

off topic: In your sig the proper term is Dissociative identity disorder.

off topic: very true. So many people also confuse schizophrenia with Multiple Personality Disorder. poor poor people, being discriminated against for the wrong disorder...

 

[philbar71]

sand?? You've gotten my attention with that. What are you going to sand?

i think he means lap, or lapp.

 

[Ste]

off topic: very true. So many people also confuse schizophrenia with Multiple Personality Disorder. poor poor people, being discriminated against for the wrong disorder...

Well, Dissociative identity disorder is the new term in the new DSM for multiple personalities..

but yea..

 

[apsoul]

lol @ the lot of you. I understand and recognize the point you are all making, however my sig is a saying on a magnet that I saw once so I'm not changing it

Yes by "sand" i meant lap. I started it today, but got sidetracked by my baby-momma. Another 10-20min at it and I should be done... i don't have as fine of a sand paper as I would like, (i have 800grit) but the finish on the bottom of the heatsink was the equivalent of 60-100 grit, so the 800 should be a significant help.