Thermal Paste

M

Mr Dead

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After upgrading my cpu from a 1400 thunderbird to an XP2100 my mate wants to buy the old cpu/heatsink + fan. The cpu has quite a bit of thermal paste left on the die and surrounding area. So my question is whats the best method to clean up the chip? Ive heard nail varnish remover does the job, but do I use a cloth or an old toothbrush or does someone have a better suggestion?
 
Clean the mating surfaces completely with a low residual solvent (High-purity isopropyl alcohol or acetone will work) and a LINT FREE cloth. (i.e. lens cleaning cloth) If another thermal compound has previously been applied to the heatsink, the mounting surface should be thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned with a xylene based cleaner, (Goof Off and some carburetor cleaners) acetone, mineral spirits, or 99% pure isopropyl alcohol. It is important to keep the surfaces free of foreign materials and NOT to touch the surfaces (a hair, piece of lint, and even dead skin cells can significantly affect the thermal interfaces performance, especially on modern small core CPUs as the surface area is already severely limited). In addition, oils from your fingers can adversely affect the performance by preventing the micronized silver fill from directly contacting the metal surface. (Fingerprints can be as thick as 0.005")
 
the thermal paste you're talking about.. is it the big square thermal pad thing on the bottom? the kind you have to scrape off? that stuff's a pain. to start, try using hot water and a scrubbing sponge to get the bulk off, or scrape it off with something... then use, as nick m said, rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover to take off the leftover residue and make it shiny.
 

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