renew cooling paste?

[europanorama]

after almost four years after i had added my actual processor to the mainboard, do i have to renew the cooling paste?
how can i secure check real temperature? i have my mainboard open sitting on a desktop. woldnt it be wise to construct additonal cooling device from the other side? putting the board onto starks first? thanks a lot, friends.

[Midknyte]

I would probably reapply the thermal paste. It can dry out.

I don't understand what you mean by cooling from the other side. i've seen people cut holes in the motherboard mounting plate and put a fan under the cpu. It's not like you can mount another heatsink under there.

http://www.overclockers.com/tips1177/

[europanorama]

its better direct hitting from below than coming from the sides, right? i must ask my father he was cooling expert. how large must be the paste, 2mm?
i could not yet find a solution to cool down my hdds. the cheapest ones will not work since the device must be mounted under the drive.
just 1 hour ago pc did not restart. was the first time ever. its quite hot today. i waited 1 h and it worked. also cleaning the contacts must be done quite often. storing my drives is also not solved. using antistatic is one possibility. my pc-shop cannot give away. another one i am actually using are household bags with zipper. i am waiting until drives are cooled down.
keep in mind i am using multiple drives(mostly backups). switching from one to the other.

[Midknyte]

http://www.arcticsilver.com/instructions.htm
The instructions are basically the same for any thermal paste.

There are some 5.25" cooler bays, but there isn't much you can do in a 3.5" bay. Keep the drives apart if you can.

[europanorama]

i have my pc outside of the case sitting on a desk(flat surface). so i have no bays. i have a special construction made for only one older 120gb diamond max plus 9drive which would get too hot. guided air to flow under the drive.cooling the board and the hdds outside with existing tools is my next task.