factory applied thermal grease question

[kem]

On my mobo I installed a phenom II x4 in year 2011. The included Copper AMD heatsink looked fine to install and I did not overclock this and will not so I installed it.

I recently started getting these thoughts of overheating so I started monitoring the cpu fan speed and it was fluctuating so I thought the fan was crapping out, so I purchased an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro rev2 HS/F, this came with pre-installed thermal paste; Should I leave the grease or remove it and apply the 3 yr. old Arctic Silver 5 ?

kev

 

[Dude]

I'm not sure if shelf life is a problem with the Arctic Silver. I would recommend it but it would not hurt to try the pre-installed first. If it is not good, then remove and apply the Arctic Silver

 

[paulpicks21]

Yeah I agree with Doug, in your situation the pre-applied stuff should be more than up to the job.

 

[kem]

Thanks Guys.

 

[kem]

I wanted to tell you guys this; My ati video card was idling at 52°c; I played Call of Duty2 for a bit and when I stopped the card temp was a blazing 74°c. I took out the ati 5770, opened the shroud and cleaned it (it was dirty) and in the process decided to replace the thermal paste with the 3 yr. old arctic silver 5 I had and now it is at 41°c just watching youtube n surfin the net. Haven't played any games yet till it seats awhile. Just did it about 3 hrs. ago but it seems fine.

Prior to using the 3yr. old A.S.5 I kept it upright for a couple of days then turned it upside down for a couple days I did this for about a week. It looks good.

 

[Layback Bear]

Another little trick with any AS 5 or other compounds is to put the tube in hot water for a while and then squeeze the tube to mix the compound. Might help and can't hurt.

 

[kem]

seems like it would. help I mean