Can I do this? Cooling question.

[ZurgDawg]

I had some crappy cheap thermal paste on my heatsink & cpu. Sill some left on each. Can I just put some artic silver back on there and start it up? or do I have to totally clean off the old stuff first? I"m sure it is better to do it that way, but does it REALLY matter?

Thanks!

zurg

 

[Egrimm]

You'll get higher temps if you don't remove all of the pad, maybe just as high temps as before or even higher.
Remove the rest of the pad, it'll probably be worth the little extra time.

 

[ZurgDawg]

What is the best way to remove the old paste?

 

[Lizardman]

Remove the old thermal paste useing a q-tip or cotton swab that has either nail polish remover on it of rubbing alcohol. After you do that on both heatsink and cpu use a dry cotton swab again and dry off the surfaces. Make sure there are no peices of thermal paste left on either surface. Also make sure there are no cotton threads on either part. Thats it

 

[mechBgon]

Is it the bubble-gum stuff that comes in a predefined square, or grease-type stuff? If it's thermal grease, try using a clean cotton rag and just rubbing. If it's the bubble-gummy stuff, try using the edge of a credit card, etc, to scrape off the bulk of it, then attack the residue with rubbing alcohol and a clean cotton rag.

 

[ZurgDawg]

It was cheap paste, basically looks like white toothpaste. Its not a pad, but I wouldn't really describe it as 'grease'

 

[nexus_7]

In that case, I would sugest Licking it up.

Greg

 

[ZurgDawg]

Everyone is a comedian ;-)

 

[johndoe52]

I use lighter fluid to clean my heat sink. Yes you need to clean it all off the heat sink before you reapply. That stuff will affect the as2's performance.