Thermal Pad Now and Grease Later?

[Bigg]

I have some Arctic Silver coming in the mail soon but all my components are all here and I want to build this sucker.

Is there a problem if I put everything together now and just use the thermal pad for the AMD Athlon 64 3500 Venice that I ordered? Then is it still safe to remove the thermal pad and apply the Arctic Silver when it finally arrives?

 

[Steeplerot]

The grey stuff on the bottom of the stock HSF is not a pad but shinetsu (basiclly artic silver)

Just clean it off good when your AS gets in and you might see a bit of a drop in your temps from the stock stuff. -the shinetsu is actually good stuff.

 

[Continuity27]

Of course it's safe to remove a thermal pad and apply arctic silver, but normally what happens is the pad melts into the microscopic imperfections of the heatsink and processor (better for transferring heat), and any material like arctic silver is essentially going over that. It won't make a huge difference, but it would definately be better to use only one kind of thermal interface material per processor.

Again though, you won't notice anything if you clean it off well before applying arctic silver, or whatever you will.

 

[imported_Kensai]

It's good enough. That'll work.

 

[Bigg]

OK. Thanks.