Installing A CPU

From TheBestCaseScenario

[edit] Things Needed

• CPU
• Heatsink
• Thermal Paste *Optional*
• Paper Towel *Optional*
• Arctic Silver Cleaner or Ethyl Alcohol *Optional*

[edit] AMD CPUs

Installing a CPU is very easy, especially with AMD, since they don't use the push-pin style holding mechanism on their stock heatsinks, first thing you want to do is locate the "Golden Arrow" on the corner of the CPU, next, lift the lever on the socket and align the CPUs "Golden Arrow" with the arrow on the socket, then gently sit the CPU onto the socket, if it won't go in, do NOT force it, just try again until it's perfectly aligned, after that, just lower the lever and you're almost done.

Now, what you want to do is grab the heatsink and sit it ontop of the CPU, make sure that the locking mechanism, is holding both of the "arms" that are on the sitting panel, after that, just lock the heatsink into place by twisting the plastic lever, and then just plug in the fan into the CPU fan header and you're done!

[edit] How to use your own Thermal Paste

Do you want to lower your CPU temperature without buying a new heatsink? Well, you've come to the right place!

[edit] Installation of Thermal Paste

First thing you want to do is wipe off the pre-applied thermal paste from the heatsink and CPU (the CPU will have the pre-applied thermal paste on it ONLY if you have INSTALLED the heatsink), to do this in a much cleaner/faster way, you may use Arctic Silver Cleaner on the heatsink and CPU, first use Arctic Silver Cleaner #1 on the CPU, this loosens the thermal paste, wait approximately 30 seconds, then use a little paper towel to wipe it off, repeat if necessary, after you've wiped off the thermal compound, the CPU might look a little dim, darker than it was when you first laid your eyes on it, this is where Arctic Silver Cleaner #2 comes to action, apply some (3~5 drops onto the heatsink or CPU) and wait approximately 15~25 seconds, then start wiping it off, once again, with paper towel.

Now that you've cleaned both the CPU and heatsink, you have to apply the new thermal paste, I personally recommend Arctic Silver 5 (because it lowers the temperature by almost 10 degrees when PROPERLY applied, but the downside is that it has curing time) and OCZ Freeze Extreme (because it lowers temperatures by approximately 6~8 degrees, and has NO curing time).

The proper way for installing thermal paste on a single or dual core CPU is to put an amount equal to the size of a grain of rice on the center of the CPU, for a quad core, you may do the same, but it's recommended to pour the thermal paste in the shape of a vertical line on the center of the CPU.