Isopropyl alternative?

Maacck

Maacck

Maacck

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6 Sep 2010
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Are there any (household) alternatives for cleaning my CPU, as I don't want to order online and wait the added days. Need to get my pc up and running this weekend.

I checked PC World near me, and they don't sell it. As far as I know there's a small computer shop near me, which I'm gonna check out tomorrow. Maybe even chemist? Either way, Im 16 so will I be able to buy it without daddy holding my hand?
 
Certain cd cleaning fluids contain isopropyl alcohol, i cant reccomend brands tbh, ive used a generic bottle i bought years ago, works a treat, used it on cpu's, gpu's and motherboard chipsets.
 
Mosts chemists stock acetone, but at least a few don't stock IPA . I think because people may try to drink it. Meths will work but isn't ideal, likewise nail varnish remover or surgical spirit. All of these are likely to leave a residue behind, which may bother you or might not.

I've given up on cleaning processors as I don't think it makes any difference. The old paste gets removed with cotton buds (which I'm sure leave fibers on the chip) but no solvent, or if I can't find the tube of tim anywhere the old paste gets left where it is and reused. The old paste is normally as5 or mx2 though, not Intel's best approximation. I used a mix of mx2 and as5 for a while too, and the sky failed to fall.
 
Being a tight git, i used kitchen roll, (microfibre cloths are kept for my monitors) and the aforementioned cd cleaner, but i remember my wee bro, who got me into pc's, he wiped old paste of on his shirt sleeve and repasted, and the system worked grand, only died two weeks ago after being on for 3 years 24/7.
 
I was wondering that too, are there any negative effects on leaving the old paste behind? I personally can't see any downsides. But then I don't know tooo much and have a mindset of the more the merrier.

As I want to pick up a new cooler today/tomorrow and really I dont want to test my luck playing with liquids and my CPU :(
 
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When I replaced my stock cooler with a Freezer Pro 7, I wiped off the old paste without using any chemicals. Can't remember what I used now, but it was probably kitchen roll. The system idles at 32C and never gets above 64 under load (core temperatures).
 
Jokester said:
Vodka works a treat.
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Thats gotta be worth a ban for a couple of day's, for wasting a great drinking tipple > Vodka ;)

To dazzerd > white spirit is derived from parrafin lf i remember rightly and parrafin is derived from crude oil, might be ok for cleaning paint brush's,etc, but would not use it to clean anything like a CPU, Heatsink.
 
A certain high street electronics store (an anagram of lapmin) sells IPA in large tins of 500ml, but IPA evaporates very quickly because of its high volatility and as such you are better off with the tiny bottles that OcUK sells unless you have a lot of cleaning to do. I wouldn't personally advise drinking alcohol or paraffin derivative cleaners because they leave residues behind when the alcohol evaporates. But there are people for whom it worked fine so its your choice to do what you like with your machine :D
 
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Thanks for all the comments and help guys, I swooped into *Competitors!* and picked this badboy up:

*Arctic Cooling 7*

Just finished installing it, it looks awesome and its doing the job.

Stock cooler temps: 40-50c
New cooler temps:29-35c
(IDLE)

35c max when using it for general internet usage music/films.
Installing it was a damn load easier then them stock intel coolers.

Sorry , I forgot ^__^
 
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shroomz said:
A certain high street electronics store sells IPA in large tins of 500ml, but IPA evaporates very quickly because of its high volatility
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They also sell aerosol cans of Servisol Isopropyl Alcohol which obviously don't evaporate! :)

servisolisopropylalcoho.jpg
 
OLDPHART said:
Thats gotta be worth a ban for a couple of day's, for wasting a great drinking tipple > Vodka ;)

To dazzerd > white spirit is derived from parrafin lf i remember rightly and parrafin is derived from crude oil, might be ok for cleaning paint brush's,etc, but would not use it to clean anything like a CPU, Heatsink.
Click to expand...

May well be the case but have always used it with no apparent problems.
 
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