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cleaning heatsink thermal paste


hakgipc

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I normally just rub it off with a bit of toilet paper.

I mean, who cares if a microscopic fraction stays behind? You're gonna add more thermal goop later anyways and it's all the same crap regardless.

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Best way is an alcohol wipe. Failing that, use high-concentration rubbing alcohol and a lint-free cloth or cotton pad.

If you leave old paste, or worse - lint from toilet paper or anything else, it could have an impact on the effectiveness of the heatsink. (and in the most extreme case, damage your CPU)

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http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm has plenty of instructions for removing thermal paste and applying it. I've used IPA with a bit of old ripped shirt, that worked quite well.

Looking at those instructions, last time I applied thermal paste I did it wrong :oops: , oh well, it still works it's just probably not quite thick enough.

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If you leave old paste, or worse - lint from toilet paper or anything else, it could have an impact on the effectiveness of the heatsink.

Yeah, and if you smoke, you could have an impact on global warming.

I mean, obviously you're not going to leave lumps of paper that you accidentally tore off just on there. You're cleaning the thing. Unless you've got a decidedly low quality heatsink, you keep rubbing until you can see your reflection in it.

The task of thermal goop is to see to it that there are no air gaps and other things between the heatsink and the CPU. The main difference in thermal goop quality is how long it stays plyable. DansData had a huge writeup on thermal goop using all manner of weird stuff (toothpaste, Yarmite) and they all pretty much performed equally well.

and in the most extreme case, damage your CPU

True, but primarily in AMD-land. Intels go to low-power mode when they get too hot, and even shut down when things are extreme. Maybe AMD's fixed their CPUs in this regard, but some years ago THG (yeah, I know, they suck) did a test where they removed the heatsink from a running system. Result?

AMD : Poof!

Intel : Slowed to a crawl, but remained operational.

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...being the gamer that you are, installing a 20-ton heatsink that broke off its retention bracket while in transit when you took that speed bump with a few more MPH than you should.

But yeah, a dead fan is probably the most likely cause of all.

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50% isopropyl alcohol and a cloth work great, just dump a little alcohol on the goop and it should come right off. let it dry for 5 mins before putting the new goop on.

yes VaKo, bluetack will work fine for your 486 :lol:

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...I mean, obviously you're not going to leave lumps of paper that you accidentally tore off just on there. You're cleaning the thing. Unless you've got a decidedly low quality heatsink, you keep rubbing until you can see your reflection in it.

The task of thermal goop is to see to it that there are no air gaps and other things between the heatsink and the CPU. ...

True, but the reason you don't want air in there is because it does not conduct the heat from the CPU to the HSF that well. I'm no scientist, but I would guess that paper fibres conduct heat even worse than tiny pockets of air.

Reasonably, if you do an exceptional job of cleaning until it shines, and then hit it with a few shots of canned air, you'd be pretty much OK, but I'd prefer to be sure when it comes to that.

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...some years ago THG (yeah, I know, they suck) did a test where they removed the heatsink from a running system. Result?

AMD : Poof!

Intel : Slowed to a crawl, but remained operational.

Great video. In case anyone's curious: http://www.tomshardware.com/2001/09/17/hot_spot/

It's pretty old, things change, I'm sure. (LOL it's older than WinXP even)

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