No compound between heatsink and cpu?

[CeeDub]

I just bought quad core q6600 and when I opened the box, there was no compound to put in between the cpu and heatsink. I was under the impression that it was necessary. But nowhere in the instructions does it say that I need it. So what do I do?

Another Question:

Also concerning placing the ram. I have Asus p5k-e and 2 sticks (2 gig) of ddr2 800 ram. I always thought that the two sticks always should go side by side. But now I'm reading the manual (and it's a little confusing on this issue), it seems like to take advantage of the dual channel, I need to put these sticks on two different channels, essentialing breaking up the pair. Is this right?

[shadowpr]

On the heatsink that came with it, you should notice some sticky stuff on there. That's the retail stuff that is used just like thermal compound. They did the work for you basically.

[CeeDub]

On the heatsink that came with it, you should notice some sticky stuff on there. That's the retail stuff that is used just like thermal compound. They did the work for you basically.

That's a relief. That's the one thing I was dreading about building my own.

Now that ram question....

[hudson80]

RE: ram follow the manual. If dual channel you have to use both modules

[flanzig1]

There doesn't seem to be s set standard for the lay out of ram sockets on motherboards as to which pair of sockets are for dual channel. Some go by the color of the pair/some by the side by side sockets(can be 2 different colors or same). Mobo manuals usually have a ram socket map that explains the pairs of dual channels.

[CeeDub]

Well, I got all that figured out. Thanks for everyone's help. Now one last question. What temperature should I expect the quad to be at? I ran it for about 5-10 minutes and looked in the bios. It was up to about 120 degrees. That seems a bit hot to me. Please tell me that everything is ok. I'm not going to turn it back on until someone let's me know. Thanks

[shadowpr]

That's way too hot. Is that in celsius?

If so, make usre you have all 4 pins of the heatsink in fully.

[CeeDub]

That's in fahrenheit. 50-52 celsius

[shadowpr]

That's safe then.