Removing Thermal paste?

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18 May 2009
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Hi all i read that applying too much thermal paste can reduce cooling by upto 10c and i think i put too much on. I put some in the middle and rubbed it all around, so i want to remove it and im just wondering if using Nail Polish Remover is ok? it contains: Acetone, Aqua, Glycerine, Bitrex.

~Thanks!
 
Yeah, you don't need much.

Don't use that unless you're cleaning it off with alcohol afterwards, glycerine is a bad thing to be in the interface. Don't know what Bitrex is but can't be a good residue either.

I use citrus degreaser with akasa written on the bottle, followed by isopropyl alcohol. I think that's fairly standard.
 
problem is i dont really want to pay near £6 for something i will use once or twice and a bottle of pure acetone is only around 70p.

EDIT: i also read the vodka can be used? :S is this true?
 
Thanks:) i decided not to use acetone lol as it apparantly eats plastic for its dinner so il go to a chemist tommorow and see if they have some 99% alcohol.
 
Just scrape it off if you've just applied it.

Using acetone/alchohol etc is a good idea if you're re-applying after a while, but just to remove some of it you may aswell just scrape it off with a credit card.
 
It'll leave thermal paste behind, but you're about to put more paste on anyway so it doesn't matter greatly.

Credit card + cotton buds will probably do you fine, it's only worth the effort with solvents if changing to a different type of tim
 
It will leave residue, but if you're only reducing the amount, what's the harm?

It's like if I have a bowl of ice cream, but have too much ice cream. I can grab a spoon and scoop half of it out, leaving some ice cream in the bowl, or I can pour the ice cream out and wash the bowl.

If I'm putting soup in it (ie changing the thermal paste) I want to clean it, likewise if the ice cream (thermal paste) has been there for 6 months -- but if I've just scooped it out of the tub and realise I've got too much out, it won't do any harm to take half away.
 
Aren't you also a student Audigex?
Washing the bowl between soup and ice cream sounds like too much effort to me :)

+1 to meths, probably be fine. The purple dye will remain behind but doubt it'll do significant harm
 
lol Jon, spot on.

My idea of washing up is a quick rinse in the bathroom sink to get the potato residue off before dipping the knife in the butter to make a sandwich :-)

And I should have noted before, what a waste of alcohol...
 
Even if the alcohol in question is meths? Brave

Ever been tempted to use a shower for washing up? I'm not there yet, but perhaps only because the shower is upstairs and the sink isn't
 
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My bathroom is attached to my room, so the sink in there is pretty general purpose. Not used the shower yet, does it work well? I guess the water would blast off anything dangerous?

And it's quite amusing that we seem to be the only people online, and it's 5am :-P stereotypical students tbh
 
En suite? Classy, I get one of those next year. Looking forward to it.
I think the shower has a lot of potential, high temperature and high pressure. It's basically reinventing the dishwasher

It's good to be awake at 5am. Sun's up, birds are singing, pub opens in five hours and exams have finished. Life is very good :)
 
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i just re applyed my thermal paste and it seems my average temps have droped core 0 was average around 70c and core 1 2 and 3 never went above 70c so hopefully when the thermal paste full breaks according to arctiv silvers site i can expect around a 5c drop in temps :)
 
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