I need to replace my motherbaord due to a faulty AGP slot and I have never installed a CPU before. I am moving a AMD xp1800 plus and according to AMD literature once the heatsink has been removed from the processor it cannot be used again. When I remove the processor will the heatsink stay attached or do I need to include a new one the the purchase? I am gratefull for any help, or any guides you might be able to point me to on swaping the processor to a new board. I have found plenty on installing a new chip.

rudeboy,

AMD reguires you to use a fresh thermal pad between the heatsink and processor to keep the warranty in effect. And the way to get a freah thermal pad is to buy a new heatsink. It's not much money. Under $10, I think.

If you are out of warranty you can scrape the thermal pad from the heatsink and use a thermal paste such as Arctic Silver if you would like.

While Arctic Silver will technically void the warranty on the chip, it does provide better temperature protection if you install it properly. Regardless, the old heatsink is fine, it just needs some type of thermal pad or paste to work properly and AMD probably doesn't think most users can handle that....

I am just wondering before I delve into the brain transplant how difficult this will be. Reading directions from AMD and Artic Silver it seems to be performing brain surgery to apply the thermal paste. Yet I have been reading from other sources is seems that you only need to put on a glob and go from there. So just how careful and operation should this be? Thanks for the help.

Heh heh...If you look through the directions at the Arctic Silver site it does look prety complex. But that is because they go into such detail. Once you do it, you will see that it's not all that bad.

The most inportant thing is to make sure that the processor and heatsink are REAL clean. I use rubbing alcohol because it leave little if any residue.

The second most important point is don't use to much. A little bit goes a long way. You don't want any squeezing out from between the HS and processor.

The actual transfer of the processor is easy. Lift the lever, put in the chip and close the lever. Just be careful not to bend any pins. ;)

The main thing with Arctic Silver (other than not using too much and getting the surfaces clean) is to use some method to keep it off the chip. I use 4 postit notes around the edges of the contact plate and smear the paste on with an old plastic card (like a credit card). This keeps it thin and you can just remove the postit notes and toss them. Others use masking tape or other options. If you get the paste on the chip body, it can cause damage, so this is important.