Does the heat sink that came with the Banana Pi R3 router kit require thermal paste?

The block is aluminum fins with two captive screws in the first picture. Just need to know if needs thermal paste.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BLVF9697

If so, does it matter if I use conductive paste or not?

yes thermal paste is required, because some chips on the motherboard don’t have the same thickness and the heatsink won’t make contact without it.

Why don’t you take for at least the same price the version with the active fan + the paste ?? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BDG6R41Q/

image

133$ with the coupon code.

If you’re worried about the noise the fan might make, rest assured, you’ll never hear it. Mine is set to start at 50°C, and it never started up to now cause i never reached that temp. Even if i set it to start at 40°c the fan run but you don’t hear it, unless you put your ear close to the case.

Avoid use thermal paste, can damage components once is dry ,simply use thermal pads.

I’m using 0,5 mm thermalpads

you’re right, i said “thermal paste”, but it’s thermal pads, because of the thickness difference of the chips. the pads they give have 2 diffrent thickness, i think 1mm and 1.5mm maybe.

Good to know.

@Rooot I already purchased it + my hearing is usually more sensitive than most.

Side note: today I found out thermal pads can be electrically conductive. This was from a 3rd party seller on Newegg.

And this is from direct from MemoryC.com Thermal Grizzly KryoSheet Graphene Thermal Pad - 24 x 12 mm

To reask (mostly) the same question; is it okay to use a conductive pad or not?

I have received my heatsink with 2 thermal pads,one 0.5mm (switch) and one 1.5mm (soc)

Based on the link i need some more 1.5 for ram and wifi frontends. I guess they are not needed for thermal reasons,but for mechanical reasons i will add them.