heat sink

D

Dioxin

New Member
Hey everyone,

I am building a computer, something I have not done in at least 7 years. I want to make sure I don't miss out any important steps. The sticky FAQ of computer building has helped me greatly. Now, I want to confirm that I am doing the right thing.

I have artic silver thermal paste. I know I must scrape off the manufacturers thermal junk on the heatsink. I took a picture of my heatsink and circled what I think I must scrape off in red. Can anyone confirm that I run a plastic card (like a credit card) across this grey substance to remove it before applying the thermal paste to the CPU. (The main reason for this post is that everything says to remove the black substance, which this heat sink has none of.)

heatsink.JPG
 
Yes, those three grey strips need to be removed prior to using AS5 (or anything else). A credit card may be a good idea to get most of it off, but your going to need a cloth of some sort to wipe off the excess. Everyone has their own ways, what I do is use the Newegg T-Shirt I got for free as a cleaning cloth :)
 
A credi card would only take the heavier bulk that could be forced off. But to see a good clean surface for the new application of Artic Silver you can use something like denatured or rubbing alcohol to break down the bond that the old dried out compound still has to some degree.

Some like to really get in there and scrub away to see a polished surface with a very fine emory paper. But that has to be done with plenty of "TLC" to avoid putting large markings into the surface. The idea is to clean the old stuff completely in order to prepare for the new application.
 
I use the Arctic Silver cleaning bundle stuff, it comes with a cleaner and a surface purifier if you want to call it that, it works incredible it will take anything off, I use napkins to get the bulk of and then coffee filters to finish it of since they are lint free.
 
bball4life said:
I use the Arctic Silver cleaning bundle stuff, it comes with a cleaner and a surface purifier if you want to call it that, it works incredible it will take anything off, I use napkins to get the bulk of and then coffee filters to finish it of since they are lint free.
Click to expand...

Coffee filters? hhhmm that's a different one. But you made sure it was lint and particle free.
 
Coffee Filters are suggested for use on the AS5 application web page since they are lint free. I have some lint free kimwipes that I can grab from work.


I could have bought the extra cleaning package, but I cheaped out. I'll go with some isopropyl alcohol.

Thanks everyone for the fast responses.
 
Another heatsink question. Figured I'd just add it in this thread.


So, I may have done something kind of stupid. I cleaned up the heat sink, applied a small amount of AS5 to the processor core and attached the heat sink. Everything was fine until I saw the little arrows on the locking feet of the heat sink. For some dumb reason, I thought those were to lock the heat sink. Much to my surprise, they released the heat sink. To remedy the problem, I simply reattached each locking foot of the heat sink.


Now, did I mess everything up with the thermal connection between the heatsink and the CPU?


I know this was a totally noob thing to do. Yeah, dumb me. However, if I need to fix something, I'd rather do it NOW rather than burn out the cpu. Thank you guys. Your help so far has been invaluable to me.

Dioxin
 
Are you monitoring the cpu temps? If not download something like SpeedFan fast. You can that freeware at http://www.majorgeeks.com/download337.html

If you didn't move the sink around at all or lift it up you may be alright if you had enough AS5 to form the layer needed. But if the temps stay up above 48-50C ouch time! You will have remove, clean, and reapply AS5 in order to reseat it again. Next time you'll have the routine down I guess. :P (ouch! that sink was hot! uch eech aww crap! :( oh well live and learn as they say.)
 
If you are in the bios too long the temps won't stay that way. When you are in there nothing is active to keep the cpu from running full steam ahead. Plus when you saw that your system apparently hadn't been running that long. The temps you want to keep an eye on are those seen while you are in Windows after several hours of use.

If the temps stay down you should be ok. But if you them staying high especially above the 50-55C mark after the first day or so a fresh application during a reseat would be needed.
 
Depends on make and model board there. One reason for the system idle process seen in Windows is to give the cpu something to do when no programs are being run. This keeps the processor from running unchecked.

The idea now is to see what the temps are after the first day. Once the system has been run for a good period of time and cooled the AS5 will have seen the initial bonding and heat transfer capability begin. What is the temp after running the system for several hours on the second day?
 
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