When building a new system, is it absolutely necessary to use thermal paste? If not, just what are the detriments associated with not using it? I ask because I'm lazily putting together a new system, and don't have any handy, nor do I feel particularly inclined to go out and get some.
And it's not really necessary, but it makes disapating heat much faster from the CPU to the Heatsink. If you have a good heatsink/fan, and you're not overclocking, there really isn't that much difference.
Lol. no. Your CPU won't fire/smoke unless you remove the heatsink/fan while its running, and even then, it depends on the CPU (ie. Athlon chips will smoke, P4 chips won't even notice the missing heatsink/fan lol)