I'm building a relatively high-end PC without any overclocking. I have a stock CPU cooler with my Intel Xeon E3-1230V. I understand the stock CPU cooler comes with thermal paste pre-applied (three gray strips). My question is, do I need to buy and apply additional thermal paste directly onto the CPU chip itself? It seems like the thermal paste from the heatsink will naturally smear onto the CPU, but maybe the heatsink doesn't actually touch the CPU?
Thanks.
Best Answer
The thermal pads that comes on the stock heatsink and fan is all you need. If you ever remove the heatsink, you will need to remove this paste and reapply a different paste or pad.