So I got done rebuilding my PC a while ago, I just bought my new case and 650W PSU for my machine, and now I'm looking forward to upgrading my C2D to a C2Q and overclocking it quite a bit, but I was wondering, I am going to get a seperate heatsink with my new CPU for lower temps and better OCing, so do I need to buy some thermal paste too? And how much will I need to put on?

Thanks in advance!!!

I dunno if you should use it, but whatever you do, only use a single drop of that crap. Otherwise you'll make the heating problems worse.
Safest thing to do is to have some guy in your local hardware shop do it if you're having doubts.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=62

If you can get it, arctic silver 5 is what i use, best stuff thats most common at most big computer stores, it may be up around 10$ a small tube but it lasts for quite along time.

The review tests 80 TIM's (Thermal interface materials) and also tells you how to apply it.

Also when touching the cpu's and any computer part, make sure you are grounded, perferbely not on carpet,


As for overclocking, you must remember, its not the chip, its the motherbored and ram. you must have a mother bored that can change the ram timings, FSB, multiplier , dram voltage, cpu voltage, and you also need to have good cooling on the cpu. If you don't know what any of those mean, then you need to do alot more reading or you will risk killing your cpu/motherbored/ram or other stuff.

Don't most motherboards cut out if it gets too hot?

Yes, you have heat-induced separation of solder. That is the big threat to motherboards. Most home applications can get around this issue with a large number of fans, but there is a large following of computer fabrication enthusiasts who favor liquid cooling. Honestly, there's no real reason to use that in an at-home environment besides "Cool Factor." Which is not to say that isn't a valid reason. The computer market is full of after-market materials for hot-roddin your machine like a Honda de Sol.