Is Thermal Paste needed with AMD X3 720?

[Billymac24]

Sorry, truly a newbie question, but trying to get bases covered before I build my first PC.

 

[hikaricloud]

The stock HSF comes with thermal paste already plastered on it. If you were buying an aftermarket HSF, you'd need thermal paste if it didn't come with it.

For the record, every cpu needs thermal paste.

 

[Billymac24]

I was hoping I would catch you on line Hikari, as you seem to be one of the more active experts. What do you think of this build? I am not a big gamer, but will be doing some light video editing and multi-tasking. I have the monitor and keyboard/mouse, and am looking to spend something shy of $900.

I am watching the prices of Memory and GPU's, thinking I might upgrade the GPU if the price is right.

CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V
Western Digital Caviar Black 640
Samsung 22X SpeedPlus
Cooler Master Centurion 690
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
HIS Radeon HD 4670 IceQ Turbo HDMI Dual DL-DVI HDCP 512MB 128bit GDDR3
BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W

Thanks for your time

 

[hikaricloud]

Looks like a good solid build. You'll be getting the same CPU/mobo/RAM I have, lol.

There's a combo deal that saves you 10 bucks with that mobo/RAM: Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

Also, there's a combo deal with the 720 and a 1tb WD Black series, which ends up being 8 bucks more than the 640gb drive you picked out, well worth the extra...besides, you'll basically be saving 2 bucks and getting a 1tb HDD with both these combos: Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

But really, great choice on the parts.

EDIT: You don't really need to upgrade the GPU if you aren't going to game. The onboard is actually more than sufficient, I even do light gaming on that. But if you can pick up a dedicated card, that's always good too, and you can game later if you want to. The 4670 will be fine.

 

[Billymac24]

Thanks man! I was hoping you would say that. I am in no hurry (1-2 months), so now just waiting and watching prices.

 

[hikaricloud]

Well, I checked the prices with the combos/free shipping on the case, it comes to just shy of 750 bucks, minus 30 bucks in MIRs. Not a bad deal at all for that machine. If you take out the 4670 (you can always upgrade later, and the onboard is pretty adequate for the time being), it would be just shy of $670, minus 20 bucks in MIRs. Dunno what kind of deals they will have later, but that's a machine worth pouncing on.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.