If I switch heatsinks, what will I need to do?

[psy44]

I don't really understand thermal paste, artic silver, thermal pads, shims, etc....I have a stock intel heatsink on my cpu, but I want to exchange it for a Volcano 7+, do I need to do add anything (thermal compound or whatever)?

 

[eklass]

you're going to need some thermal paste.. if you're not really concerned about overclocking or anything, some good ol' white goop will do just fine. the HSF will probably come with some. if not, head over to radio shack and pick up a tube of "thermal grease" for 2 dollars

 

[Robohood326]

Originally posted by: psy44
do I need to do add anything (thermal compound or whatever)?

I would suggest some Arctic Silver. Here's some instructions to help you apply it.

 

[brucehao]

You just need to apply thermal compound. You can find a good tutorial explaining how to apply it here.

If you're very concerned with performance and noise, you probably should not get the Volcano 7+. I had one before, and it was extremely loud and not a very effective cpu cooler. You'd probably be happier with a ThermalRight heatsink and a Panaflow or YS Tech fan.

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: brucehao
You just need to apply thermal compound. You can find a good tutorial explaining how to apply it here.

If you're very concerned with performance and noise, you probably should not get the Volcano 7+. I had one before, and it was extremely loud and not a very effective cpu cooler. You'd probably be happier with a ThermalRight heatsink and a Panaflow or YS Tech fan.

STAY AWAY FROM THERMALTAKE THEY EVIL

Go with ThemeralRight, Speeze, Switchtech, Vantec and you'll be alot happier

 

[DAPUNISHER]

What Tabb said.

 

[YoungChowFun]

I think it doesn't matter what type of thermal goop you apply to the cpu. I have two friends in which their systems were almost completely identical (same tower, same mb, samce cpu, same hd, same hsf, different video cards.) We were curious on the topic of which goop did better so on one we applied arctic alumina (white goop) and on the other we applied AS3. We ran prime95 for bout ten hours and read the temps (pcalert3 and mbm5) and they were very similar. I think they would both run at 40-41C full load. It made no difference. My other friend however got mad because he spent like five bucks more for the AS3. But yah, according to my reference, it makes no difference.

 

[eklass]

if you're not real big on o/cing or looks, pretty much anything you can buy is gonna work just fine