asus p5e motherboard heatsink problem

[scatmanwfm]

Hey, I had a question about my motherboard so I thought I'd post my problem. I have the asus p5e motherboard. Had it for about 2 years now. Its real similar to the maximus formula, actually if you take the p5e sticker off the motherboard it says underneath it maximus formula. Well I've been trying to get into overclocking and noticed that my northbridge runs kinda hot. I've seen vids how some have taken their motherboard heatsinks off and taken the stock thermal compound off and put on their own to help lower the temps. I decided to remove mine and put some arctic silver 5 on. I removed it and cleaned the north and southbridge and the corresponding spots on the heatsink but on the other parts of the heatsink there are what I believe to be thermal pads. Heres some pics.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8466/motherboarde.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/6194/motherboardheatsink.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/2342/motherboardpad.jpg
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7374/motherboardpad2.jpg

My main question is when I put this back on can I still use those pads and just reapply them or since they have been removed has it lessened the affect and they wont stay on good. Also could I purchase some that would be of better quality and just use those? Thanks for any help I appreciate it.

[patio]

1) Once removed the pad material is worthless and needs to be removed and cleaned thoroughly replaced with a proper application of thermal paste/or a new thermal pad.

2) Having said that it seems you've gone to alot of trouble to lower your temps by a few degrees C...Did you consider a northbridge cooling fan before this experiment ? ?

I have 2 of the same boards and it worked rather well on my end for this...

How high are your temps BTW ? ?

[scatmanwfm]

My motherboard was running at 38c idle but when I opened up the side of my case and put my hand on the NB after about 3 seconds it would burn my hand. The paste that was on the northbridge was rock solid seems like real crappy stuff.

Wouldn't I have to take the mobo heatsink off to put a northbridge cooling fan on the chip? and the heatsink covers other components with the thermal pads. Wouldnt having a northbridge cooling fan instead keep those components from getting cooled? Never really thought much about getting a cooler for the NB. I dont know too much about this, I also wanted to just get some experience with it since im a noob guess that wasn't such a bright idea heh. I was just planning on putting some better paste and getting new thermal pads but i'll def have to look into what you said since it might work better. Thanks for the help btw man.