I've got a X2 4200+ sitting in an Abit Fatality AN8SLI board that I will soon be replacing. I built the system myself but have no experience removing and reinstalling CPU's. Could someone provide or direct me to a detailed step by step procedure for this? Also, I know that I will need to reapply thermal paste when reseating the cooler, but am clueless about what type and how much and how to apply. I don't recall ever using thermal paste when installing the cpu in the first place. The CPU came with a stock cooler -- so was there already thermal past on the bottom of the cooler? I don't remember. There's going to be residure paste on top of my chip when I remove the cooler, so how I do remove that stuff? Do I need any special tools/materials for this. Anyway, any help would be great, as I'm going to be doing this soon and want to do it the right way and without voiding any warranties. Thanks!!

when you remove the heatsink fan from your board, be very careful and jiggle it around a bit to get it off. you dont want to yank it out which might result in your chip coming out of its socket. after removing the heatsink fan, you can clean the bottom of it to remove the old paste by using alcohol. you can clean the chip with alcohol as well but be careful not to get anything on the pins. after cleaning both parts, make sure they are dry before you add new grease. a good grease to use is Arctic Silver 5. AMD recommends others which i personally had a hard time finding so i just got the AS5. im not positive that it will or will not void warranty but as far as iv seen, as long as you follow directions on how to apply the grease, you should be fine. when you apply the grease, you want to put a small bit in the center and when you put the heatsink fan on top, it will spread out to cover the chip. if you feel more comfortable spreading it yourself insted of the pressure of the heatsink, thats fine as well. after installing your heatsink fan back and start using you computer, make sure you monitor your temperature for the cpu and make sure its in a good range. for AS5, it usually takes up to 200 hours to get optimal temps. good luck.

dot.

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AMD Opteron 165
ASUS A8N-SLi Deluxe
PNY 2x512MB DDR500
eVGA 7800GT
WD 2x160 / WD 250
ASUS 16x DVD-ROM / NEC 16x DVD-RW
Samsung 1.44
Ultra X-Finity 600

Thank you for the very helpful reply. Seems like this should be a fairly straightforward procedure. Still, I get nervous when playing around with a piece of electronics the size of a half dollar and a $350 pricetag. Thanks again and have a good rest of the weekend. This board is great!