Cleaning heatsinks and re-applying paste

thesnowdog1971

thesnowdog1971

thesnowdog1971

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Just thought I'd ask your advice before cleaning the thermal paste off my CPU and heatsink. My temps are too high and I might have bunged a bit too much on. I know that isoprophyl alcohol is the best thing to use but what's the best thing to use to wipe the gunk off with? Have had a quick google and it's telling me to use a 'lint free' cloth. I really don't want to ruin a perfectly good sheet or t-shirt so was wondering what else I could use..? I was thinking of those cloth thingies that you use to clean glasses but am not sure if they sell them in the chemist and whether it'll do the job.

I'm assuming I just apply the alcohol to the cloth and wipe the stuff off, then polish it with a clean lint free cloth afterwards?

And I've noticed that the method of applying paste differs between different products. The paste that I got with my Noctua is supposed to be applied in a blob in the center of the heatsink but AS5 is supposed to be applied in a straight line. Which is best, or should I just go for the Noctua method regardless?

Thanks in advance for any help given! Ta :)
 
isoprophyl alcohol is indeed best, but the alaska TIM cleaner is very good.

Blob in the center works fine - especially on non-lapped surfaces.

Coffee filters (the paper kind) as the cheapest alturnative to lint free cloths.

I know I shouldn't but I use kitchen roll myself to remove all the gunk with the alaska stuff above - when it stops being black/silver then I use a lint free lense cloth on the 'clean' copper to remove and paper fibers. This uses more remover then needed but keeps my limited supply of cloths relatively reusable.
 
I spray on the alcohol, wipe off the majority with a standard tissue, then do finer cleaning with a cotton swab and more alcohol :)
 
Couldn't manage to get Isophyl Alcohol, the chemists have to have a license to sell it!!! :eek: lol

So I got some of that akasa TIM clean stuff from ******s. I also decided to treat myself to some new speakers, and a wireless mouse and keyboard too :D Have paid over the odds for it (and didn't manage to get a bloody receipt either :( ) but have bunged it on my flexible friend.

Only got a pair of Logitech X-140s, was going to go for a 2.1 speaker system but I'll only end up annoying the bloke in the flat downstairs with a bloody great big Woofer so 2.0 will do for me. Going to be better than the cheapo ones I'm using at the moment and I'm all colour co-ordinated now lol :D

The wireless keyboard and mouse is an A4Tech G6Saver Wireless Desktop. Never heard of them but the keyboard is great, the feel of the keys is perfect if that makes any sense?

I'd better burn something to watch on my DVD player whilst I'm waiting for this machine to cool down, left it on while I was out! Doh!!!
 
Good old TIM and kitchen roll for the big bits,lint free cloth for clean finish = sorted!

Gets annoying when switching cpu's and blocks etc tho..
 
I dipped a bit of cloth in white spirit, and rung it out till just damp, gunk came straight off. I then rubbed it with a dry piece of cloth and kitchen towel until it came up clean.

It not reco that use use WS tho, so when i cahnge my zalman for a Nocturna ill prob use some proper stuff.

Meth spitits should also be fine its alcohol basically, as long as you dont use loads and loads.
 
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Well 've reapplied it using less this time and straight from booting up and going into the BIOS to check the temps has shown an improvement of a few degrees, Asus PC Probe II has improved by 4 degrees and Core Temp has shown an improvement of 1 degree for each core. How accurate is Core Temp..? More accurate than the BIOS temp..? I've read on here that PC Probe is a bit pants but surely the Motherboard BIOS will be reasonably accurate?

I'm still not too sure about how long to let this cook for and cool down so that the thermal paste can bed in? 6-8 hours idle then a break followed by another 6-8 hours..? Or will it be more beneficial to let it run 24 hours for a few days.

I know that these temps will drop over time but do you think these temps are still too toasty running everything in my sig at stock and the machine being reasonably idle? Temps in Core Temp are:

Tj Max 100%
Core #0 37
Core #1 29
Core #3 34
Core #4 33/34

I'm not used to running an Intel machine and have only had dual cores before but I was kind of expecting temps in the late 20s given the case and cooling I'm using :confused:
 
I use nail varnish remover :)

For IPA try a local litho printers, they'll probably fill you a turps bottle for the price of a pint.
 
The temps above look fine at idle, what are the full load temps like.
Core temp is fairly accurate as it reads the actual core temps and not the socket or heat spreader.
 
Well my Northbridge and Southbridge temps have gone down since I re-seated the heatsink so that's an improvement anyway. Haven't tried it at full load, what would you suggest..? Prime 95 for 30 minutes or so..?
 
I nearly crapped myself a few minutes ago, for some strange reason when I had RealTemp, CoreTemp and Everest running at the same time my motherboard temp hit 119 degrees. PC Probe alarm went off, reset the machine and checked the BIOS. 119 bloody degrees!!!! Held down the power button until the machine turned off and gave it a rest and turned back on. All temps normal. No idea what just happened but it scared the buggering flip out of me lol :eek:
 
Okay, I've just run Prime for 25 minutes with the small FFTs and am getting the following from RealTemp:

Minimum Temperature

Core 0 30
Core 1 24
Core 2 29
Core 3 29

Maximum Temperature

Core 0 46
Core 1 44
Core 2 45
Core 3 42

Core Temp at its maximum temp was 5 degrees above the maximum Real Temp figures.


Which one is the most accurate..? The temperatures for Real Temp seem to be more in line with what I was expecting but I really haven't got a clue which one to believe. Perhaps I should just split the difference lol :D
 
Not using AS5, I'm using the NT-H1 supplied with the Noctua NH-U12P. Thought it might take a while but didn't realise it'd be that long.

Just had a quick go at overclocking but it all went severely **** up lol. Too many things to change :confused:
 
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