Replacing Thermal Compound

[crazysteve240]

I am in the process of building a PC out of used parts and I was wondering what are the most necessary places to reapply the thermal compound (since I will be overclocking). I know the CPU is mandatory, but is reapplying thermal compound on the northbridge and southbridge chips also a good idea? What about reapplying thermal compound on the graphics card?

[Bananasplit_00]

GPU is usiually not needed, north and south brige i would do if i was overclocking but if not dont bother

[zMeul]

check the VRM heatsink(s), most likely it needs new thermal pad; same with mobo chipset(s)

GPU is also good place to replace thermal paste and pads on the video card's VRM and VRAM chips

[Ithanul]

I usually just do the CPU and GPU.  I only bother with north and south bridge if I was to put water blocks on those.

[crazysteve240]

2 minutes ago, zMeul said:

check the VRM heatsink(s), most likely it needs new thermal pad; same with mobo chipset(s)

GPU is also good place to replace thermal paste and pads on the video card's VRM and VRAM chips

 

Do you need to use thermal pads on the northbridge, southbridge, and GPU chips? Or can you just use ordinary thermal compound?

[zMeul]

2 minutes ago, crazysteve240 said:

Do you need to use thermal pads on the northbridge, southbridge, and GPU chips? Or can you just use ordinary thermal compound?

depends on the gap

if it had pre-applied thermal paste, use paste; otherwise use pad