thermal compound question

A

ada///M

New Member
Hi, I just built my first computer today; well I didn't get to the wiring, but the mechanical assembly is complete, or so I hope. Anyway, my question about the thermal compound: How quickly will it set up? I used Tuniq TX-2 that came with my sunbeam heatsink and after I applied the TX-2 it took me a few minutes struggling with mounting hardware before I got it settled into place, lets say 15 minutes. I applied the compound pretty liberally, as per the instructions, and was just wondering if it's ok that the surfaces weren't set in place right away?


Also, something I'm quite worried about actually; when I was struggling with mounting the cpu cooler I bumped the heat sink mounted to the motherboard. This is the heat sink right next to the cpu on a gigabyte ep45-ds3l. It is held in place by 2 push pins that are spring loaded from the front. When I bumped it I saw it move ever so slightly. Should I attempt to remove the sink and try to reapply thermal compound? The springs keep this tensioned to the board but I'm nervous that I sheared the compound.

I hope that wasn't too long, thanks for any helpful advice.
 
I doubt you broke the seal with the thermal compound. It should be fine.

Check your temperatures in BIOS when you boot your system for the first time.

One thing that ticks me off with Intel is how cheap their stupid heatsink designs are. They manufacture an awesome processor and then you need to go third party to get a heatsink that is decent quality.
 
ok, another n00b indicator: does BIOS give a temp for the MB and the processor or just the processor? And lets say the connection is bad on either, as long as I figure it out rather quickly, am I likely to damage anything?


thanks again, you've helped me out with a few of my other questions as well!
 
ada///M said:
ok, another n00b indicator: does BIOS give a temp for the MB and the processor or just the processor? And lets say the connection is bad on either, as long as I figure it out rather quickly, am I likely to damage anything?


thanks again, you've helped me out with a few of my other questions as well!
Click to expand...

Check my sig for a hardware monitor
 
yes bios tells you your motherbored temp and your cpu temp, ive accedently turned on a computer without a heatsink it came on for like 5 secs then just turned off it still works, so it i dont think it will kill your proccesser if its not connected
 
ok well I got it fired up tonight and... I never went past BIOS but my CPU temps stabilize at about 25 or 26C buuuut my board temps were at 40C and probably still rising :( So I probably have to pull everything apart and try and re-seat that heatsink huh?

:(
 
I wouldn't do that yet. Get your operating system installed and then monitor your processor temperature every few minutes. Sometimes it takes time for the thermal compound to start doing its job. If you are seeing temperatures over 60 degrees Celsius you may want to shut down your computer then.
 
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