I ordered a Radeon HD 2600 Xt graphics card and a 4000+ socket 939 CPU and they arrived today. I've installed the graphics card and it's an obvious improvement over my older ( 4 years?) Radeon 9600.Now my next job will be to instll the CPU. I've found this site which looks ok;http://www.hardwarezone.com/guides/amd-soc...index.php?&pg=6On that page of the guide, they are applying thermal paste. The paper with the CPU also mentioned this. I guess I'll have to get a little tube of that. Any suggestions or guidelines to consider?Thanks in advance for any help!

If your CPU is bought new it should have come with a fan. The fan has thermal paste already. If that's not the case then yes you need to buy some thermal paste. Make sure you study the instructions. I'm always surprised how little paste is supposed to be applied.Jason

If your cpu came with a fan, it may already have the paste. But if you're not sure, a small tube would not be a bad idea. Intel paste is gray.Bob

I didn't order the fan as I'll just use the heatsink/fan that's over my current CPU.I'll ask a semi computer/electronics store tonight when I go to the mall.

DK8290,I would not recommend that guide at all. That is entirely to much thermal paste. More is not better, and more can decrease heat dissipation from the CPU.If you are plannning on using a CPU compound other than what is on the the stock cooler, I would recommend that you use a silver oxide based thermal compund. As they have the best heat dissipation properties. Of course you would need to clean the exsisting compound off of the stock cooler.Here is a link for the application of the compound to AMD CPUs:http://www.arcticsilver.com/ins_route_step2amdas5.htmlNotice how little compound is actually needed!!

I agree with Sargeski...I learned to assemble computers years ago, and followed the lead of a old electronics guru guy. He would apply a drop of heatsink compound, and then using a flat piece of metal like the edge of an eraser template (anyone who drafted in the 60s and 70s will know what that is), he would spread the goo until you had a semi-see-through even layer. The point is to establish an intimate contact between the heatsink and the cpu, without adding extra thermal resistance. You're just trying to fill the air pockets present when two metal surfaces touch.Bob

What sargeski said. Arctic Siler 5 paste. Use their help page as to how to apply it.Cinch the heatsink down. Measure your temps.You may get slightly better temps after the paste has had time to "set".

Hi,AMD used to have videos on their site on how to mount cpu and cooler on a motherboard. Very instructive. And I must agree with previous posters: Just a very thin layer of thermal past is perfect. The past is supposed to make contact between cpu and cooler very tight to allow heat to pass from cpu to cooler. A thick layer will have an opposite effect.Ulf B

Thanks for the suggestions guys!I did the installation today. The heatsink/fan assembly wasn't too bad to get off but that lever was horrible difficult to swing back into place once everything was done. I was afraid I'd snap it off or break something. I put a small blob in the middle of the back of the CPU about the size of two pieces of rice. The installation of the heatsink/fan would squish this into the appropriate flattened pancake smudge LOL. Now my 3200+ CPU has been replaced by the 4000+ CPU.I tried it out in FS2004 and between the new Radeon HIS HD2600 XT 512MD DDR3 graphics card and this CPU upgrade, everything is so fluid and smooth! Ground textures are loaded in all the time (with very minor exceptions) .I don't know what my frame-rates are since I've turned off all scren text in the fs9.cfg (gets rid of text and forces me to actually look at the instruments instead of the screen-top text ;-) ) but it's just plain smooth.I haven't changed anything in the BIOS. I wonder if I need to alter anything due to the new CPU?