thermal paste removal

[Corporate Thug]

i want to remove the generic thermal paste and try AS3. how would i go about doing this? wipe down the base of the heatsink with alcohol? what about the cpu? thanx

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

"best" way is with isopropyl (the 90somehting percent one, not the 70something)

i just use a couple qtips for the core (AMD cpu) and paper towel for heatsink, followed by a nice qtip rub in where the cpu core will contact (small square)

for intel it'd probably be alot easier to just buy some isopropyl and use a qtip or something to clean off the bulk of it off the heatspreader, and then use isopropyl to clean up with

 

[Egrimm]

I agree on isopropyl alcohol, removes all traces of the material. I use 99% on a soft cloth both for AMDs and Intel and it gets the job done very easily.

 

[Corporate Thug]

is there any possibilty of alchohol damaging the core?

 

[SinfulWeeper]

nope. i myself use acetone though. works much better than alcohol.

 

[Goi]

There's nothing wrong with 70% isopropyl alcohol IMHO. I use it all the time with great results.

 

[Antoneo]

Yep, isopropyl alchohol works fine and there is no harm in using it. Take care not to use oil based cleaners/solvents since they might get absorbed. Just pour a bit of the alchohol onto a clean paper towel and wipe the thermal paste off completely on both CPU heatspeader/core and heatsink. Dry and re-apply 🙂.

 

[onza]

what about goo gone??

jk

ya alcohol just gets rid of all.

 

[Jeff7181]

Arctic Silver instructions say to use alcohol to prep the heatsink and core for application of AS3. Alcohol is fairly cheap, you can get it at any drug store... so why the hell do people keep asking "can I use goo gone? can I use acetone? can I use soap and water? can I use brake cleaner? can I use gasoline?" DO WHAT THE INSTRUCTIONS TELL YOU TO DO

 

[onza]

wow, i guess ppl cant take a hint of scarcasim.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

Originally posted by: onza
wow, i guess ppl cant take a hint of scarcasim.

actually goo gone to remove it is just fine if you want, but to clean up u should use isopropyl
acetone works just fine too, but since its "impure" unlike isopropyl it'll leave crap on your die which you dont want there....doesnt really matter probably by much, but for some its gotta be as clean as they can get it lol

 

[Boobers]

Acetone is the best. It will even dissolve TIM pads easily.

If the paste or Arctic Silver won't wipe off, use a pencil eraser to simply "erase" the old grease. You won't believe how well the eraser works until you try it.