Consider your options carefully before deciding.
Consider your options carefully before deciding.
Hey there, I tried to jump into building a new setup today despite not getting much rest. My instincts said to wait, but I ended up working on it anyway. After some trouble fitting the mounting brackets, I noticed the heatsink wasn’t securing properly, so I took it off, fixed the brackets, and reattached it. Since I didn’t have isopropyl alcohol, I had to remount it myself. I’m a bit nervous about whether this will affect the heat transfer between the heatsink and CPU, and I’d love your thoughts on it.
I kept the heatsink in place and didn’t reapply thermal paste, but cooling performance stayed the same. (Removed SpinQ to install Optane drive.)
From my experience, reapplying thermal paste after removing the cooler works better for GPUs compared to CPUs. I haven’t done it on my own systems, but I saw others skip this step and still didn’t notice any temperature changes. It seems safe to proceed.
You'll be fine, done this several times to systems and noticed no difference in performance.