Working with s754 & s939 cpus

[cubby1223]

I build computers for people and use the retail AMD processors, sometimes I leave the thermal pad on, sometimes I wipe that off and use Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Ceramique, Arctic Alumina, whatever I feel like at the moment.

I'm finding that I'm having a very difficult time removing the stock hsf after some time. Whether I stay with the thermal pad or use thermal paste, I cannot pull the hsf off of the cpu, and I've yanked the cpus right out of the sockets even though the lever is down. Once then I even had to use a screwdriver like a chisel to break the cpu away from the thermal pad! And don't even get me started on the feeling I got when I had to bend 10 or so pins back straight in a brand new X2 4400+...

Could I doing something wrong? I can't imagine, there's not much in the way of sitting the hsf on the cpu and engaging the clips. Anyone else have difficulties with this?

 

[jonnythan]

I've always had pretty good luck with heat. Put a hair dryer on the HSF for a minute or two, then pry or slide the thing off.

 

[Hacp]

Heat kinda works. I usually do a prime run for around 1 hour with the case fans off. Then I slowly twist the HS/Fan off until it pops off by itself. Never failed for me.

 

[Zap]

Are these systems overclocked? If not and you're using the retail box HSF, just leave the paste on there and be done with it.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: Zap
Are these systems overclocked? If not and you're using the retail box HSF, just leave the paste on there and be done with it.

No overclocking. I had been just using the thermal pad from the stock hsf, but the first time when I had to chisel the cpu off the hsf, I thought maybe I should switch to always using paste to try & prevent the cpu from sticking to the hsf.

It does sound like a good idea to have the machine running for a bit if I run into another stuck cpu, thanks for the tip!

 

[klocwerk]

I hate the stock thermal paste. It's usually really inefficient, and it will eventually dry out something fierce, and be rather useless after a year or two.
When you consider the cost of a tube of arctic silver spread over quite a few installs, it's really cheap, and can make a major difference in the life of a machine.

I see no reason NOT to use it on every cpu/gpu I touch.