Did I ruin my new hardware?

[neosempai]

I'm doing my first build and I made the mistake of facing my heatsink the wrong way... so I took it off and turned it around to the right direction and installed it... but the problem was when I did this... some of the thermal pad came off.. so it might be more thermal stuff on say the left side than the right or vice versa... please tell me i didnt kill my new machine before its done

 

[Cabbs]

It should be fine. Some coolers are designed to be rotated anyway. As for the thermal paste, whats left should be fine for it to run. I would run down to your nearest computer store to pick some up and reapply with a small drop, about the size of one or two rice grains. Even Best Buy carries it.

 

[neosempai]

Thank you!

 

[mammikoura]

yeah it's not ruined. But I'd clean the cpu and heatsink and then apply new thermal paste on it. Right now the cooling is probably a little messed up since it sounds like the thermal compound isn't there like it should be.

 

[Tommy Boy]

No big deal, it's not going to hurt it, but like others said, I would clean it off and reapply some more. Arctic Silver 5 is what you should use.

 

[Juice1]

LOL It's not damaged that creamy stuff is made to come off, you can replace it by purchasing more and reapplying it like cabbspapp said

 

[ashaiba]

as someone has told me, use rubbing alcohol and a qtip