So I picked up a new HSF a couple of days ago (Thermaltake Silent 939 K8) and used its stock thermal paste. Yesterday, I realized that the thermal paste we had lying around the house that we picked up at Fry's a while back was not generic thermal paste but Arctic Alumina. I figured, "Hey! That stuff is sure to get my temps lower than they are now!" (And it is.) So I removed the HSF, and I got totally shock/awed.
There was thermal paste in the socket. Mind you, it's a very small amount, and the stuff is actually inside only two or three pinholes.
How did this happen? Eh, I guess I went a little too happy with the previous thermal paste, and as I was taking off the HSF the paste already on the CPU dribbled over. On removing the CPU, the dripping paste got onto the socket. I put the CPU back into the socket and closed it, then removed it. Amazingly, there was no thermal paste on any of the pins! Cool. That particular computer (Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, Athlon 64 X2 4200+ @ 2.53MHz) is currently running Prime95, and I've yet to find an incident that I could blame on getting the paste into the socket.
I realize that since it's not damaging the socket or the CPU it should probably just stay there. But how would I go about removing this?
(I thought about taking a Q-Tip with ArctiCleaner Thermal Material Remover, but I wanted some opinions.)
Thanks for the help.
There was thermal paste in the socket. Mind you, it's a very small amount, and the stuff is actually inside only two or three pinholes.
How did this happen? Eh, I guess I went a little too happy with the previous thermal paste, and as I was taking off the HSF the paste already on the CPU dribbled over. On removing the CPU, the dripping paste got onto the socket. I put the CPU back into the socket and closed it, then removed it. Amazingly, there was no thermal paste on any of the pins! Cool. That particular computer (Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, Athlon 64 X2 4200+ @ 2.53MHz) is currently running Prime95, and I've yet to find an incident that I could blame on getting the paste into the socket.
I realize that since it's not damaging the socket or the CPU it should probably just stay there. But how would I go about removing this?
(I thought about taking a Q-Tip with ArctiCleaner Thermal Material Remover, but I wanted some opinions.)
Thanks for the help.