question about thermal compound and AMD cpu

[Beowulf]

I am ready to assemble my new system-- AMD cpu (AMD Athlon X2 4400, dual
core cpu) came with heat sink and fan and the cpu, but no thermal
compound. I am not sure if I need to apply thermal compound as I have in
the past for CPUs. The instructions for installing the cpu are very
brief, almost non-existent except for pictures; the instructions do say
that if the cpu is ever RE-installed to apply thermal compound. It looks
like there is some odd looking material on the base of the heatsink, not a
paste or gell but looks like a soft web-like material. I am guessing that
might be some sort of thermal compound??? What should I do?

 

[JinWV]

Older AMD's had a thermal compound (phase-change)
covered with tape on on the AMD heatsink.
It was an install once product, kind of like a thermal paste/glue.

Check the AMD website - you might find the answer there
for your processor. You can see what they recommend for heatsink
& thermal grease.

 

[Dave]

I am ready to assemble my new system-- AMD cpu (AMD Athlon X2 4400, dual
core cpu) came with heat sink and fan and the cpu, but no thermal
compound. I am not sure if I need to apply thermal compound as I have in
the past for CPUs. The instructions for installing the cpu are very
brief, almost non-existent except for pictures; the instructions do say
that if the cpu is ever RE-installed to apply thermal compound. It looks
like there is some odd looking material on the base of the heatsink, not a
paste or gell but looks like a soft web-like material. I am guessing that
might be some sort of thermal compound??? What should I do?

You are right. It is a thermal pad. In some cases, this thermal pad might
have one or more plastic covers to protect it in shipping. Those should be
removed, obviously. But . . . was the heatsink in a plastic container
form-fitted around the bottom of the heatsink? If so, then that might have
been the only thing protecting the thermal pad. The thermal pads I have
seen seem to be made of some kind of waxy substance which will liquify when
heated up, to form more of a pasty substance.

There will be many people who advise you to remove the thermal pad and use
thermal paste instead. That is not necessary. -Dave

 

[BobN]

I am ready to assemble my new system-- AMD cpu (AMD Athlon X2 4400, dual
core cpu) came with heat sink and fan and the cpu, but no thermal
compound. I am not sure if I need to apply thermal compound as I have in
the past for CPUs. The instructions for installing the cpu are very
brief, almost non-existent except for pictures; the instructions do say
that if the cpu is ever RE-installed to apply thermal compound. It looks
like there is some odd looking material on the base of the heatsink, not a
paste or gell but looks like a soft web-like material. I am guessing that
might be some sort of thermal compound??? What should I do?

The thermal pad will work just fine. Remember, the AMD-supplied
heatsink/fan comes with a three year warranty. Thermal compound does not.

 

[Beowulf]

You are right. It is a thermal pad. In some cases, this thermal pad might
have one or more plastic covers to protect it in shipping. Those should be
removed, obviously. But . . . was the heatsink in a plastic container
form-fitted around the bottom of the heatsink? If so, then that might have
been the only thing protecting the thermal pad. The thermal pads I have
seen seem to be made of some kind of waxy substance which will liquify when
heated up, to form more of a pasty substance.

There will be many people who advise you to remove the thermal pad and use
thermal paste instead. That is not necessary. -Dave

Thanks all. I decided not to use any extra thermal paste, went with
thermal pad material already on the heatsink (yes it was in a plastic
container). Put together system yesterday, helped teach a friend do it at
the same time (he is building identical system). Booted system with just
CD drive installed and using Knoppix bootable Linux OS and it worked
great! Linux detected the two cpus (the dual core cpu). Going to add in
all my hard drives later today, and install nvidia driver for linux off
nvidia.com (I was so happy this morning to see on nvidia site that nvidia
provides the graphics card driver for 64-bit linux, so soon I will have my
system running dual core 64-bit linux with 64-bit driver for nvidia
graphics GeForce 7900, should be a screaming fast system-- gaming graphics
and speed should be nice!