oh..my..please. The thermal grease goes between your processor and your heat sink (the waffel-lookin' thang), to more efficiently transfer heat away from the chip, and into the air. (These puppies can get up to 150 degrees..I should know, my son did it..;)
Usually there's a piece of plastic on the bottom of the heat sink. I don't know for yours, but that's most likely where it is. As long as there's a good connection between the heat sink and the processor, you're doing good. Some have a fan that blows on the processor, so much the better. 2 caveats on building your own..the cases are finished on the outside, but not the inside (I call it 'blood sacrifice to the Computer Gods'..;) Just be careful moving your fingers inside the case. It won't kill ya, but it does sting..;) 2nd- the hardest part I ever have is getting all those #$%^ little wires to the relevant parts on the system board. The wires are usually labelled, and sometimes there's a barely helpful diagram in the booklet..well, it depends on the manufacturer. Once you've got all the parts, you'll need some special screws called standoffs (unless the gave you a sort of plastic 'buttons' which is old-school..;) These go into the case itself. You'll know them because they have threads going into them. Line these up with the holes on your system boards (usually have a silver 'ring' around them), and screw them into the case (the case is built to take several different types of boards, so you may not have to screw them all in. Just enough to make sure the board doesn't bend. You'll probably need to punch out the I/O ports in the back (this is where I usually wind up making my 'blood sacrifice'..;), and often you'll get several plates to cover the back, but these aren't always necessary. Carefully line up the system board with the standoff screws, then take the other screws (should be a plastic bag full of them) out and screw them into the tops of the standoffs. Once that's done, you'll want to start threading cables. There should be at least 3; 2 for the hard drives/CD Roms/Burners, etc., and 1 for the floppy. On each, you'll notice that 1 side has a different color to it. That's the pin 1 side. If the board makers are nice, there should be a 1 on it, if not, usually there's one 'missing' pin that tells you which way the cable goes in. The main HD usually is on the first or primary socket on the system board, and if you use more than 2 HD/CD/etcs., you'll put them on the Secondary controller. (I should stop and talk about Master and Slave settings, but that's hopefully not a problem, since you're transferring from one unit to the other. Unless you're making changes [adding new drives, or removing one from the new machine], you shouldn't have to mess with them). once you have the drive cables connected, you need to attach the wire harness from the Power supply to the drives. There should be at least 1 harness that goes to the system board (it's usually keyed), but there may be 2. Drives are pretty much connected the same way they come out of the old one; they're also keyed so they can only go in 1 way. Once all your drives are attached and power cables connected, you're almost ready. Now, depending on how new your new system board is, you may be able to skip some of the cards you want to put in. However, check the manual before doing that. I got an ASUS for the one I built in November, which had an Nvidia, Digital sound, all the ports..yadayada..;) so I didn't have to put too much in. Take the slot covers off 1 at a time. If you have an AGP video card to put in, it's usually the oddball connector on the system board closest to the power supply. If not, you probably have PCI, which can fit in any slot. I would suggest the ones that have cables to be attached be put in in such a way that they don't get on top of each other (easier said than done) You can probably ignore the last..;) Once your cards are in, you have the unenviable job of connecting all the tiny wires to the edge of the system board. These are things like the hard drive light, power switch (sometimes this goes to another part of the system board, which is a blessing..;), etc. Look on the black plastic ends, and sometimes they'll say 'pwr', or 'hdd', etc., so you look on the system board for similar indications (there's usually 1-2 rows of copper pins sticking up, that's what you're looking for). Use your manual faithfully, and you should be good to go. Now if you're using some of the onboard features, like Video, or audio, etc., you should have a CD that has the drivers for this. This will come in handy. Treasure it, and put it in a place where you know you can lay your hands on it in the future..because you'll need it. Trust me..;) If everything's set right, the computer should come on, a little confused about it's identity, but hopefully with a readable screen (hate it when that happens). If you get a working screen, you'll get many messages saying, in effect 'hey boss, what is this thing, and what do I do with it?'..hence the driver disk. I know 95 (woops, dating myself..;) will 'discover' everything on the new system board, so don't worry about that. Once you get this far, you're pretty much ready to go. There will probably be some issues at first, because it's so many changes from one to the other. As I'm sure every lawyer would tell me, I hope the above is helpful, but I can't guarantee I'm right about all of it, since I don't know what you got. I've been building PC's since my first 'DIY' 286 (now I'm really dating myself..;) back in the early 90's. If the web site doesn't help, look for a Tech Support number. There's nothing like having a human bean to ask questions of..(I'm in the business, but more deskside support..;) and I use them to this day. Have the manual handy, it seldom goes right on the first try, but as long as there's no sparks, smoke, or loud beeping..it should be ok. If you do run into trouble, you might try Dialyn's approach..they do this every day. (Just make sure you back up your data first..programs can be reloaded, but when data's gone, it's gone..) Good luck, sorry to be long-winded..but you never know, it might be helpful..a little..

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)