Hope this doesn't sound too redundant, but let me just say I already tried searching these forums for an answer but to no avail so here goes with my question.

Im new to computer building, I even got a book to help me do it /biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /> but anyway when I got my AMD Athlon 64 4000+ san diego and opened the box I saw no extra thermal compound provided.

So my question is do I need to buy some or is the thermal compound already somehow applied to the chip? because in some examples ive seen they tell you to rub thermal compound all over the proc chip.

any help is greatly appreciated,
thanks!

Look on the bottom of the heatsink there should be compound already applied there with a plastic cover on it... remove the cover and, WITHOUT TOUCHING THE COMPOUND, mount the heatsink over the processor according to the directions.



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-The Desktop: Abit NF7-S V2 w/ the old AXP-M 2500+ (OC'd) and TT Volcano 12, 1 gig RAM, 37GB WD Raptor, 80Gb Hitachi, XFX NVidia GEForce FX 5700LE (OC'd), Enermax Aluminum Case and XClio 450watt psu, DL DVD-R/RW, DVD-ROM (+ floppy)
SB Audigy 2 ZS
-Everyday:HP Laptop 15.4WS w/Turion64x2 TL-56, 2gig, 160gb, Lightscribe DVD-R/RW, NVidia graphics, Vista

That compound isn't very efficient though, u'd better get some thermal paste, like arctic silver 5 for better cooling.
As for the application process, check their website' ">http://www.arcticsilver.com they have a nice guide.

I heard u'll void your warrenty if u change the compound though... I'm not sure about it, check it out

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Desktop:
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton) @ 200x10.5=2100MHz | Asus A7N8X Deluxe | Corsair 2xCMX512-3200C2PT @ 2.5-3-3-8 | MSI GeForce FX 5600 128MB | Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 160GB SATA II | Antec NeoPower 480W | Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty

Laptop:
Dell Latitude 120L | Intel Pentium M 740 | OCZ 2x1GB PC2-5400 | Western Digital Scorpio WD1200VE 120GB

If you're not planning on OC'ing the cpu, then the stock paste will be perfectly good enough.

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