My 1st time un- and re-mounting of a CPU cooler heatsink - how to do it properly...?

[IloveYouSOmuch]

Hi gentlemen


I have an old board with an X370 chipset, Ryzen 1700 in it (the first generation). I have bought and have sitting here for about a month (in a drawer) a new CPU that should go into this board after the bios upgrade - 5950x.


I have a scythe ninja 4 cooler. I have built about 3 pc's in my life, but I have NEVER taken the cooler off and put it back on again, I have never cleaned the CPU nor the base of air cooler from paste, etc. and so im a bit worried about the proper way to do it. I want to ask a few things:


1) Uninstalling the cooler (passive) - carefully with various movements (rotating, tilting a little, etc.) simply in all possible directions SLOWLY and carefully try to remove the passive from the CPU (in case the existing old paste has "hardened" too much). Avoid greater upward pressure so that I don't accidentally pull the "glued" CPU out of the socket with the passive...? Yes?


2) To "de-grease" the old (6 years) paste from the CPU and the base of the radiator passive, I bought Isopropyl alcohol. Is this ok/safe for the paste?


3) What to use to degrease the paste? Tissues? Toilet paper? Cotton swabs? A small microfiber towel? Any fabric (old cotton t-shirt cut up)? Or it doesnt matter/its all the same?I'm afraid of cotton and microfiber because of static electricity(?) (probably nonsense), I don't "want" paper tissues or cotton swabs to accidentally leave "pieces/fibers" on the CPU or elsewhere. What the best to use (what do YOU use ?)


4) When applying the new thermal paste (I have an Arctic MX-4 2019 Edition (4g) ) to the 5950x, use the standard procedure - a pea-sized drop in the middle of the CPU...? Is this still the best practice? The 5950x area seems quite large, so use a BIGGER droplet rather than just "pea size" right...? What about other application methods (X cross, 5 dot, etc...?)


5) Then simply push the cooler onto the processor with the paste as much as possible from above/vertically? Don't turn, don't "wobble" (don't let air bubbles appear), just lower it from above (onto the cpu) as vertically and evenly as possible. Correct?


And that's about it... or is there anything else I should be careful about when de-mounting and re-mounting the passive/heatsink of an AIR cooler (and cleaning and reapplying paste, etc. and all that goes with it)?


Thanks

 

[Dg834man]

Your at the mercy of the paste that's on there whether it comes of easy but twist the cooler, rotate it back and forth and when it feels loose start to gently pull it while continuing to rotate it should come off. Isopropyl and microfiber will do great, use whatever method you feel like to apply the paste as long as there's enough it wont make much difference, yeah step 5 seems fine. Update the bios before the swap.

 

[mickyflinn]

Run your pc before removing the cooler to put heat into the old paste making it softer.

 

[Gavster]

Run your pc before removing the cooler to put heat into the old paste making it softer.

+1 for that, it makes life so much easier if the paste has gone a bit hard.

 

[Demon]

Hi gentlemen


I have an old board with an X370 chipset, Ryzen 1700 in it (the first generation). I have bought and have sitting here for about a month (in a drawer) a new CPU that should go into this board after the bios upgrade - 5950x.


I have a scythe ninja 4 cooler. I have built about 3 pc's in my life, but I have NEVER taken the cooler off and put it back on again, I have never cleaned the CPU nor the base of air cooler from paste, etc. and so im a bit worried about the proper way to do it. I want to ask a few things:


1) Uninstalling the cooler (passive) - carefully with various movements (rotating, tilting a little, etc.) simply in all possible directions SLOWLY and carefully try to remove the passive from the CPU (in case the existing old paste has "hardened" too much). Avoid greater upward pressure so that I don't accidentally pull the "glued" CPU out of the socket with the passive...? Yes?

Careful twisting is an option, however, in practice the number of people that just pull the heatsink upwards and the CPU comes out attached is fairly common.. as the pins on the CPU in your case, twisting should be done carefully, make sure you press down whilst twisting, you don't want the CPU to ride out the socket, the pins will then see the twisting force..
FWIW, I've pulled out a CPU twice vertically (by accident), then detached it from the heatsink with no issues.

2) To "de-grease" the old (6 years) paste from the CPU and the base of the radiator passive, I bought Isopropyl alcohol. Is this ok/safe for the paste?

I normally use a plastic implement and scrape it off first, using kitchen roll to take the paste off the plastic implement., then use IPA (or in my case, lens cleaning clothes (individual sachets)) or similar.. it's safe to use.
Using IPA initially on large quantities will lead to more 'mess' which is fine, more aesthetically displeasing, but the scraping off method with a plastic implement just makes less mess IME.
I use a blue spudger from an iFixit kit, it's soft, never scratches and gets 90% of the paste off before final cleaning.

3) What to use to degrease the paste? Tissues? Toilet paper? Cotton swabs? A small microfiber towel? Any fabric (old cotton t-shirt cut up)? Or it doesnt matter/its all the same?I'm afraid of cotton and microfiber because of static electricity(?) (probably nonsense), I don't "want" paper tissues or cotton swabs to accidentally leave "pieces/fibers" on the CPU or elsewhere. What the best to use (what do YOU use ?)

I do use lens wipes myself, as these come with lint free towels soaked.. if I didn't have those, I'd use IPA and kitchen roll or something, whilst it has fibres, it's damped with the IPA and honestly it will be clean enough. Static electricity won't build up if the cloth/kitchen roll is wet/damp..

4) When applying the new thermal paste (I have an Arctic MX-4 2019 Edition (4g) ) to the 5950x, use the standard procedure - a pea-sized drop in the middle of the CPU...? Is this still the best practice? The 5950x area seems quite large, so use a BIGGER droplet rather than just "pea size" right...? What about other application methods (X cross, 5 dot, etc...?)

I use the 'X' shaped method if I don't spread.. just run a bead corner to corner in an x-shape, some put a tiny drop in each quadrant as well.. I sometimes spread the paste using the supplied spreader (kryonaut) but I know that's overkill.

5) Then simply push the cooler onto the processor with the paste as much as possible from above/vertically? Don't turn, don't "wobble" (don't let air bubbles appear), just lower it from above (onto the cpu) as vertically and evenly as possible. Correct?

Don't worry about wobble/slight twisting, it's inevitable, just be as steady as you can, the paste will do most of the spreading when you start tightening it down.

And that's about it... or is there anything else I should be careful about when de-mounting and re-mounting the passive/heatsink of an AIR cooler (and cleaning and reapplying paste, etc. and all that goes with it)?


Thanks

No, it's always daunting the first time, but after a while you stop worrying..