i have a socket 754 3400+ cpu. When putting on the thermal paste, do i have to cover the whole square of the cpu, or just in the middle like i see in most tutorials?

A little is better than way too much. I know they sell a whole tube but if you insist then test fit and see results of squash area. Again less is more.

"... like i see in most tutorials? "

So - you've checked out tutorials, but you've decided to doubt that the information presented is accurate? Ok then

Here's the classic Arctic Silver one

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock

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Heck, if you paid for the whole tube, only to turn around and use a tiny blob, you are wasting money - simple rule of economics!

Go crazy with it that tube man.................j/k

The Secret Letter From Iraq

All you need is a paper thin surface and use a box cuttrer blade to spread it even or an old credit card.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ OC 2.7ghz
2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200
Nvidia 7900GT
SATA II 2x 300gig 7200rpm 16mb cache RAID-0
Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

yeh i got a quick question..

i just got a Pentium D but i didnt apply any paste (still a bit of a noob) but the heatsink already had like a square film on the bottom of it.. was i meant to peel that off and put paste on.. or was i meant to just put it on? p.s when i first booted up, it gave the temp as 47*C (dont no bout fahrenheit) in the bios for bout the 10 mins i was in bios.

brickwood,

Thread jacking is not good. But you have a quick question so I answer you. Thermal grease is not mandatory, even though it is prefered by most overclockers. The thermal pad is OK.

Later on, if you decide to go with thermal grease, you do need to peel off the pad, you MUST NOT use both simulteanously.

The Secret Letter From Iraq

(even quicker!) should i use thermal grease to oc?

It doesn't cost but nothing - so why not ;-)

The Secret Letter From Iraq

Follow the instructions jboy linked to regardless of the compound you use.

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