Hi all,

I recieved a boxed Intel processor today for a system and upon inspection some of the thermal coating on the bottom of the heatsink seemed to have been scraped off in shipping. I have seen a few with minor scratches here or there but this one had quite a bit and it seemed like more could seen flaking off.

I called the IPD tech line to see if I should replace it and they told me to (and this is the moral of the story)-
1)Scrape it all off.
2)Apply an ENTIRE TUBE of Intel thermal grease in the center of the processor.
3)Install the heatsink.

Two points of interest here. The amount of compound they wanted me to use.
The fact that the tech claims if any (as in ANY...even one little tiny piece)of original compound is missing then it all needs to go.

Just thought I would pass this along.

Jimi_l

Valid concern. All grease is a heat insulator, just not as good as air. So you want as thin a layer as possible with no air between the chip back and the heatsink. Any tiny chip in the old compound might leave a little air space. Any chip of the old compound left might raise the heatsink and result in a thick layer of thermal grease between them causing low heat transfer.

As for the amount? Over kill, but too much is far better than not enough. I guess they think the grease is still better than air in the area around the chip.