Noisecontrol banged up. Still usable?

[shyguy74]

I've put on and taken off my NoiseControl Silverado several times, and in the proceses, the silver on the bottom has gotten a bit scratched up, and there's an imprint of the AMD cpu I was using that seems permanently tatooed onto it, no matter how much I rub it with alcohol. So is my CPU cooler still usable?

I can't test it out now since my CPU recently died. I'm not sure if it's from overheating, but whenever I checked, it always seemed well within bounds. Basically, I'm suspecting it was my cooler which failed at some point to dissipate enough heat, causing a malfunction. I paid a lot for the cooler, so it'd be a shame to toss it away.

Thoughts?

 

[Woody419]

I think the Silverado is fine. The imprint the CPU is light and the new CPU will either fit into the imprint or make a new one, thermal paste will fill in the imprint too. I have seen plain old heatsinks with deeper grooves from the milling process work just fine.

The Silverado can be tricky to install. I suspect the last time you put it on it didn't make complete contact with the CPU.

 

[chizow]

You could always lap it if you haven't already.

Chiz