Thermal Paste and other 1st time build paranoia questions!?

[Senator80]

So I am at a stopping point, one due to work, and two due to the fact that my Antec 550W True power has a 20 point 24v connection and my new mobo requires a 24 point 24v connection and an 8 point 12v connection. That being said, I have a few questions about my build and hope that i am not too far gone.

My first concern. I installed my new E6600 intel chip into the Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe mobo, and it seemed to fit well. When i went to close the bracket (for lack of better words) it gave me slight resistance and made a squeezing noise. It did not require an exorbanant amount of pressure, but i was just checking to see if this is normal.

Secondly I installed my CPU and heatsink/fan (Arctic Freeze 7) while the mobo was out of the case. I used the mobo box and a piece of cardboard under the mobo to due my work. It did take some pressure to get the clips from the heatsink to set on the mobo. It may have flexed the mobo slightly and was curious how fragile mobos really are when using a little pressure to fit some of these components. Will this short out and/or will it ruin a mobo?

Finally, the Arctic Freeze came with thermal paste already applied. In my monkeying around with getting the clips to set, i went back when it was done and notice a small amount of paste had smeared, almost seeped slightly from the north and south ends of the processor. It wasnt a large amount, i was just cuirios if i had to go back and clean it off and reapply a new paste? If so what paste, and what would you recommend to clean it? Thanks again!!

[flanzig1]

Take another look at the PSU connectors. For the 24 pin connection, there should be a 4 pin connector that snaps onto the 20 pin to make the 24 pin. Same goes for the 8 pin, 2 more 4 pin that snap together to make the 8 pin.
The squeeking sound doesn't sound right. I would redo the CPU to make sure that the CPU is in correctly.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Senator80 My first concern. I installed my new E6600 intel chip into the Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe mobo, and it seemed to fit well. When i went to close the bracket (for lack of better words) it gave me slight resistance and made a squeezing noise. It did not require an exorbanant amount of pressure, but i was just checking to see if this is normal.

Are you sure you oriented the CPU properly before you dropped it into the socket?

Originally Posted by Senator80 Secondly I installed my CPU and heatsink/fan (Arctic Freeze 7) while the mobo was out of the case. I used the mobo box and a piece of cardboard under the mobo to due my work. It did take some pressure to get the clips from the heatsink to set on the mobo. It may have flexed the mobo slightly and was curious how fragile mobos really are when using a little pressure to fit some of these components. Will this short out and/or will it ruin a mobo?

Nope. Motherboard PCBs are surprisingly tough and can withstand quite a bit of force before something gives.

Originally Posted by Senator80 Finally, the Arctic Freeze came with thermal paste already applied. In my monkeying around with getting the clips to set, i went back when it was done and notice a small amount of paste had smeared, almost seeped slightly from the north and south ends of the processor. It wasnt a large amount, i was just cuirios if i had to go back and clean it off and reapply a new paste? If so what paste, and what would you recommend to clean it? Thanks again!!

Since the thermal compound is basically new you can just re-smear it evenly around the CPU heatspreader and the heatsink surfaces.

Cricket

[sgtspector]

Did you take the little cover out of the processor clamp before installing the processor?

[not important]

This is the cover that sgtspector referred to. http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3...tcloseddl5.jpg

[Senator80]

Just wanted to say thanks to the very helpful community, as my first build from scratch has thus far (knock on wood) been a complete success. It must have been normal, because my machine is screaming! (screaming - good) Thanks again!