No thermal paste was included with my new AMD Ryzen 5 5600.
No thermal paste was included with my new AMD Ryzen 5 5600.
I am setting up a Ryzen 5 5600 on an MSI B550 Pro-VDH Wifi. The processor has a heatsink already mounted, but the manufacturer did not provide thermal paste and the user guide didn't mention using it. Should I apply thermal paste?
It should be applied before the heat sink, but an old issue has come up again. The AMD pre-applied paste can harden over time, causing the heat sink to stick too tightly to the CPU and even pull it out of the socket. If it wasn’t included in the factory, you didn’t miss anything. Thermal paste is necessary to ensure good contact, filling in micro bumps and hills so the surface reaches a more even texture—currently around mx-6, which seems to be a compromise between the old and new standards. I’ve just received a tube of mx-4, but it hasn’t cured properly and is sticking the CPU like concrete to the heatsink.