amd cooling paste

just got athlon fx cpu i take it the grey square on the heatsink is the thermal paste.is it ok to go ahead and fit,or do i need some other form of thermal paste if so do i need to remove the other stuff

 

Its warrantied by AMD. Its not great stuff, but will work. It is a thermal pad, not paste.

 

how do i remove it and whats the best thermal paste to use

 

Arctic Silver 5 for the best, Arctic Silver ceramique for a mixture of the best, and safer to use (non conductive material). Its not quite as good as AS 5.

You can remove the pad with high alcohol content isopropyl alcohol and cotton swab sticks. Try to go for 90+ percent. 99 is best. I've used 91 without issue, but it can leave some residue, so beware.

 

thank you for ur time and help

 

Check out there web site:

www.articsilver.com

will provide excellent advice on removal procedures and application of their products (or generically for thermal pastes in general). I bought a 3g tube of Artic Silver 5, lowered temps by 5C avg. and for AU$8 prob. ~US$5 well worth it when you consider how much you pay for a sys.

 

I can also recommend their paste remover as well. I'm sure there are much cheaper ways (as suggested above) but it disolves thermal gunk really well and as far as I'm concerned why worry about £5 for de-gunk fluid when you're protecting £200 of CPU??