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Cleaning CPU and CPU cooler

Stochastic

Stochastic

Member
I'm getting inconsistent temperatures across the cores of my freshly installed 3570K (cooled by a Hyper 212 Evo) so I'm planning on cleaning off the CPU and reinstalling the cooler. Hopefully I'll do a better job of applying thermal paste this time to yield better thermals.

I've read that isopropyl alcohol and coffee filters work well for cleaning. Can anyone verify this? Any general tips on CPU cleaning, cooler mounting, and thermal paste application would be appreciated, too.
 
It works fine. Rubbing Alcohol and some elbow grease. Let it air dry for a few minutes and then apply the thermal paste. To apply the thermal paste I use a small dot in the center of the CPU, about the size of a grain of rice or pea. Not too much. Then Press the heatsink down and bolt it on. I let the heatsink spread the TIM so you don't get air bubbles which is what you want to avoid. Never had any issues. SOme people say you should draw a line or a cross pattern with the TIM, I find this to apply too much.
 
The alcohol and coffee filters is tried and true. There are different schools of thought when it comes to applying the paste. Some prefer a pea sized dot in the center while others swear by a horizontal or vertical line. I have not messed with an Ivy bridge proc yet so I cant make a verified call on this one thougj.
 
cmdrdredd said:
It works fine. Rubbing Alcohol and some elbow grease. Let it air dry for a few minutes and then apply the thermal paste. To apply the thermal paste I use a small dot in the center of the CPU, about the size of a grain of rice or pea. Not too much. Then Press the heatsink down and bolt it on. I let the heatsink spread the TIM so you don't get air bubbles which is what you want to avoid. Never had any issues. SOme people say you should draw a line or a cross pattern with the TIM, I find this to apply too much.
Click to expand...

My bad...iPhone is slow tonight.
 
cmdrdredd said:
I let the heatsink spread the TIM so you don't get air bubbles which is what you want to avoid.
Click to expand...

I think that's what I did wrong the first time. I wanted to check to make sure that the thermal paste had spread properly and so lifted the cooler. Of course, when I placed it back on the CPU that probably introduced lots of air bubbles.
 
Stochastic said:
I think that's what I did wrong the first time. I wanted to check to make sure that the thermal paste had spread properly and so lifted the cooler. Of course, when I placed it back on the CPU that probably introduced lots of air bubbles.
Click to expand...

Possibly. Just bolt it on and you should be ok. Also, most TIM I'm familiar with has a break in period where it needs to heat up and cool a bit. So your temps might go down after a week of usage, but not by much at all really.
 
You dont need to worry about it as much as some will try and tell you. I have used Isopropyl alcohol and clean with every day paper towels, never had any issues in close to 10 years. The objective is just to make sure you arnt cleaning with something that leaves obvious lint or something of that nature.

When mounting cpu, you just want to make sure you press it down and arnt lifting up multiple times breaking the seal, that might be where people sometimes have issues.
 
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