Hi, ive never before removed a heatsink and replaced it with another one, so im just wanting some advice please. Which kind of thermal paste is best for Athlon XP CPU's? Also, does anybody recommend those thermal pads instead? Oh and one more, what is the best liquid to use to remove the original thermal paste on the CPU? Thankyou cant fit my system in

On the cpu I just installed, the xp2200, I used the paste from radio shack. I am not having any cooling problems and a lot cheaper than the Artic Silver. To remove the old paste I used Goofoff that can be purchased from Homedepot. This has many other uses around the house. Just use a tooth brush or a small paint brush and use only a dab to clean the cpu and the bottom of the heat sink. Wipe with a clean paper towel and you are ready to go. It dries quickly.

AMD recommends a pad only. I usually use the pad for the initial install, then if I remove the HSF for some reason, I go with paste. I use Radio Shack paste too. It sells for about $2 a tube & works damn near as good as the high priced stuff, but I'm sure many will sing the praises of Arctic Silver. Scrape the old pad off with a non-metal object - the edge of a credit card or something similar works well. Clean off the residue with some sort of solvent that doesn't leave a residue of it's own behind. Goofoff works well, so does lacquer thinner, acetone, or alcohol (100% if you can find it). Once it's clean, do NOT touch the bottom of the heatsink or the CPU core - dirt, skin oil, fingerprints, etc can contaminate the surface & reduce thermal transfer. Arctic Silver has excellent instructions. Follow them no matter which brand of paste you use: http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm Asus A7N8X-X 1800+ @8x210mhz 512mb PC3200 Ti4200/8X 128mb WDC 60GB

I've been a great fan of the generic thermal paste and found several reviews that supported its use over more expensive thermal pastes. I recently purchased a retail box Athlon64 3200+. The supplied HSF from AMD has a thermal pad and removing it voids the warranty so I didn't. Without any case mods other than a couple of case fans in the standard (in front bottom, out rear top) configuration, I've got a CPU temp of 31C. I don't know if this a fluke or if AMD has magic material. My friend has this same CPU in a computer put together by Xotic PC and his CPU is running about 61C.