How to clean gunk off CPU

L

lisa79

New Member
Hi, today my new motherboard arrives, so if im gonna go to all the trouble of swapping motherboards, i may as well upgrade my heatsink and fan, so ive bought a zalman fan/heatsink, so my question is right now i dont have any cleaning alcohol to clean the old paste from the cpu so i can add new paste, is there anything else i can use, wouldnt plain old water work? anyway is it that necessary to clean the old stuf off, couldnt i just put the new paste on top? i dunno :s, thanks
 
I would definitely clean it off, dont put new paste on top of old, that will ruin the connectivity of it. I wouldnt use water, might hurt the cpu, just get some rubbing alchol from your local pharmacy or cvs, put a little on a cue tip or cotton swab and whipe the junk off.
 
I wouldnt use water, might hurt the cpu,
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It shouldn't hurt it, as long as you let it dry before replacing it. I've used soap, water and a toothbrush before.
I also tend to use nail vanish remover quite a lot.

couldnt i just put the new paste on top?
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I cant stress the word no enough. The thermal paste should be thin! very thin!
 
Jeya

Just to add to what has been said, it should be approximately 0.5mm thick. You can use pure alcohol or what I use is Zippo lighter fuel. Works awsome.

JAN :D
 
Hey thanks for all the responses, im just impatient and lazy my motherboard and stuff is here now, and i just wanted to get started straight away :), i ordered antec thermal paste from ebuyer its here already but now im hearing artic 5 is the best stuff, anyway so what ur saying is it dont matter what u use to get the stuff off as long as its dry before adding the heatsink? cheers
 
Well, I wouldn't say it doesn't matter what you use. You wouldn't want to use hydrochloric acid to get the stuff off, but I'd say if you stick to alcohol, water, or a light soap it should be fine. I wouldn't recommend any strong house cleaning solutions or anything like that.
 
Yup ^. I would not think that there would be any great difference between the Antec paste and the Arctic Silver. Just make sure that there is no dust on the CPU or Heatsink prior to applying it. As well as that, I would clean it off until it shines like new.

JAN :D
 
Lisa puts the acid back in the cupboard, oops :P , nah cheers for the help, now imma get started i think, wish me luck :o
 
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