Question before I build my rig

[dorokhin]

I'm almost ready to assemble my rig. I have one question though...I know Athlon XP's need that thermal grease stuff applied before you stick on the heatsink/fan...Do the p4 northwoods need anything like that? FYI, I bought a retail 2.26GHZ Northwood; not OEM...

:banana:

[Marci]

EVERY processor requires thermal paste unless the heatsink al;ready has a thermal pad attached, but even still, that pad should be removed as paste is more efficient...

[dorokhin]

hmmm....can anyone else confirm that?

Looks like I need to spend some more cash...

there is a microcenter near my work. Could someone tell me what I should buy? www.microcenter.com (http://www.microcenter.com) has a product search. There are a lot of different thermal compounds there. Can someone please take 30 seconds and recommend me one?

[Unshra]

Marci is right thermal compound is needed to fill in the micro valleys. Checked out the site normally I recommend Arctic Silver 3 but Micro Center doesn’t seem to even carry Arctic Silver let alone Arctic Silver 2 or 3. Maybe someone can recommend something else; do you have a Fry’s near by?

[dorokhin]

i found this retailer: compubyte.net that sells Arctic Silver III for 5 bucks and shipping is free (they jam it into a USPS envelope or something :banana: ). Should I get that?

Will it matter if i set everything up today, use it for a week as is, and then apply the Arctic Silver when it arrives (shipping from cumpubyte is free but requires about a week)

[Unshra]

If you bought the retail P4 then the heat sink should have a pad or thermal grease on it. Those can hold you of till the AS3 comes in, I wouldn't recommend going naked while yes it can be done with our any major problems, it's always better to be safe then sorry.