An important question regarding processsor heat sink paste

I'm a newbie to building system so I'm having a guy that has built some systems help me the first time out but I'm wondering if he's right or wrong in regard to heat sink paste.

I bought a new Intel Core I7 920 CPU and I assumed that it came with heat sink paste but when we opened the box there wasn't any. The guy that was helping me said I would need to buy some at the local parts store which isn't the issue. Today I was speaking with another associate who said none was needed as the cpu fan that came with the processor already has the paste applied as 3 thin strips of gray material. I contacted the guy helping me and he said that what is there isn't enough and a bit more would be needed if I was ever going to overclock the machine. I talked to yet another associate who said that putting more paste on top of what was already there was the wrong thing to do as it would not spread evenly and create hot spots.

So my question is who's right? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

On a New Intel CPU there is 3 strips of a gray paste on the bottom side of the heat sink / fan.  This is generally good enough.

If you plan on overclocking that CPU you have multiple things to consider.  One is how far are you planning on pushing it?  That CPU is capable of 4.0 - 4.2 GHz on air.  That said, you would need to purchase an after market heat sink / can such as the Cooler Master V8.  This combo will keep your CPU cool.  You would definitely want to consider a much better thermal compound such as Artic Silver 5.  Other things to consider is your motherboard and memory.

To answer your question directly.  The stock fan and thermal compont is enough for stock settings and speeds.  If you plan on overclocking and using the factory heat sink and fan you should consider cleaning the thermal compound that is on there and use smomething like Artic Silver 5.  The stock heatsink and fan should get you around 3.0 GHz before it needs to be replaced with a much better one.

Thermal paste is only applied in a very thin layer, it is not supposed to be thick at all, you will actually cause more heat if you apply thermal paste on top of what Intel has already provided.

Personall I run a Core i7 940 and have it OC'ed and running at 4.0 GHz stable on air using the Cooler Master V8.

I hope this helps.

There is paste already on there...the paste will spread out due to the pressure applied to that region.  Thats why there is only 3 lines.  It should be fine.  There are aftermarket TIM's on the market.  They will lower the temps of the computer by a few celsius.  Also, you can overclock with the stock cooler, however you wont get that high of an overclock with it.

I think that the stock coolers are designed for running a CPU at stock settings. They have the right amount of goop/ shtuff/crud on them already to work as designed.

If you are gonna Over Clock the system then use an aftermarket cooler with some Arctic Silver paste on it. Do not over-do the paste either.

Another way to cool down is this. For the price it is a very effective solution.

Good luck with it.

Arctic Silver = win

As the others have already said:  The coolers usually come with a wax already applied that does the job (it melts to fill in the pits when you start using the PC).

If you want to use a paste instead, you need to completely get rid of that wax, or you'll end up with a mix that's less efficient.