New thermal pad????

[A_Bayesian]

Hi everyone,

I've been building my own computer recently.. fun task hahaha.... The CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 3800+.... Anyways, I was reading the instructions, and it says

"If your remove the heatsink/fan after initial installation, you must first clean the heatsink surface and apply new thermal interface material before reinstalling the heatsink/fan on your computer."

Is this absolutely necessary? I temporarily removed my heatsink after a day of installation. After placement of the heatsink back onto the CPU, my computer still seems to work fine. My motherboard also has a temperature sensor, and it gives a idling temperature of about 41 Celsius.

That seems about right. But I'm still a little worried. That is, do I have the change the thermal pad, or apply some thermal grease?... Can you experts please shed some light in this matter? Thanks a bundle!!!

[efd753]

41 to me seems alittle high i get into the 40s when on load.

[PrntRhd]

With thermal pads, you should replace the pad like they said. With thermal paste, you should also clean and replace the layer of paste.
No air gaps, no overheating...no problems.