Removing thermal paste

[Deleted]

Strangely, I cleaned it off really easy with just a cotten bud, it was quite soft. I have heard people having to use alcohol and other methods to get rid of it. Is that just to get rid of the thick of it when its solid, or is it necessary to use it to completely remove the compound? I cant see any paste on the CPU, should I just stick my new cooler on it without using any cleaner?

[Sephiracle]

I would still use some rubbing alcohol to ensure both surfaces are clean and the new paste will adhere properly.

[Deleted]

It's always advisable to use some form of high concentrated alcohol. Even if you use a cotton swab and think you got it all, there will still be a thin layer afaik. For best cooling performance with the new paste, it needs to be as close to 100% clean as possible; thus, use alcohol.

[BicycleMafioso]

Cleaning alcohol, like Acetone in Sweden. Like nail-polish remover or whatever
Use non-lint cotton pads.

[FlawlessSoul]

If you do use acetone (nail polish remover) make sure it is not one with a scent or anything else added.

You should be able to pick up a bottle of isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol) at a chemist/pharmacy. It's the perfect thing to use.

[fangless]

Just invest in a bottle of the arctic silver removal product. There's two actually, some sort of cleanser and a primer. If you're gonna do it, do it right :P Plus you can use it down the road when reapplying old heatsinks on cpus or gpus.

[morbidjbyrd]

Try cleaning the surface with a Q-tip and some alcohol. Please use Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol 99% for this purpose. You do not want to use Rubbing alcohol that contains ethanol. Isopropyl Alcohol 99% or 100% pure is commonly found in most all drug stores and medicine cabinets.

[Deleted]

ok, Ill go out and buy something just to be safe. Thanks for the swift replies.

[ispano]

Like others have said, Alcohol. In the US this is that rubbing alcohol you find in pharmacies and such. I use a bottle of 91% personally, the less water, the better, but likely won't be an issue if it's like 75% or something. What it is, is it gets in the little fissures and stuff in the surface, as well as the fact that TIM tends to cake on over time and get more annoying to remove.

[asmussen]

Cleaning it off with a cotton swab will probably be adequate most of the time, especially if you aren't overclocking and have good airflow in your case. However, for best transfer of heat between the cpu and the heatsink, there shouldn't be anything at all besides the new layer of thermal compound separating the two. Even a fingerprint can contain enough material to measurably affect the temperature the cpu will run at under load. Will it affect it enough to make a difference to the average user? Probably not. But for extreme overclockers, trying to squeeze every last performance out of their system, every little bit of extra cooling helps. At any rate, properly cleaning the old compound off isn't particularly difficult, so I do it on my own systems even though I'm not overclocking. If you're going to do it, you should use high purity isopropyl alcohol. Preferably something around 99%. You want to avoid putting water inside of your computer whenever possible, and that's what lower purity alcohol is diluted with. And finally, you should use a lint free cloth instead of a q-tip, because you don't want to leave behind bits of cotton on the surface. Coffee filters are often recommended for this purpose. They are inexpensive, and designed to be lint free as to not contaminate the coffee while brewing.

[Ghâzh]

Higher percent, the faster it will dry. If it only has distilled water in addition to the acohol it will be fine what ever percent but if it also has things like colour, scent or oil in it those will be bad. Ethanol will do as well, as will isopropyl / propanol.

Easy thing like this can be harder than you'd think if you live in Finland. Drug stores don't seem to be selling 99% isopropyl that freely anymore and if they do they don't list what that 1% includes. PC stores sell thermal paste cleaning sets but those are ridiculously over priced for what they actually include. Found out that you get best bang for your buck from gas stations when you buy a 10 litres of this "anti ice" thingy you use in cars, aka, propanol .

[Cyanotical]

Just invest in a bottle of the arctic silver removal product. There's two actually, some sort of cleanser and a primer. If you're gonna do it, do it right :P Plus you can use it down the road when reapplying old heatsinks on cpus or gpus.

i've always felt that stuff was for those who sand and polish their CPU and Heatsink, but not for most people