Quote Originally Posted by dglienna
I've seen a HP HSF a month ago, and it came with a piece of thermal tape attached to it. I asked about it, and was told that thermal paste isn't used anymore, as people were using the wrong amounts, and it wasn't effective.

If there isn't a gray piece of tape-like substance stuck to the HSF, then, and only then would I use any thermal paste. Turned out that the wrong HSF was shipped, so I didn't get it replaced. It did have metal screws in it, though.

This was a HP Multimedia center with an AMD processor.
Well, i only applied a light covering, and i mean light covering. The the theory being that less was more Otherwise it would have been insulating instead of conductive.

As for the pads, at this rate i think i will be sticking to Thermal Paste. I'm sure i will always be able to get my hands on some.

My Packard Bell came with some horrible black gunk that supposedly worked... Left my processor at almost 70'C idle. I hated it, so dismantled the heatsink (and all the dust, this was a brand new machine, why was it dusty?) and scraped all the gunk off, then reapplied lovely thermal paste and a Zalman cooler. Runs lovely now