Removing thermal paste...

SeeKified · 23 Jun 2011 at 19:10

So I got my H60 delivered today. And I've got a bottle of acetone (couldn't find any rubbing alcohol/isopropyl). What I don't seem to have, despite looking through quite a few shops, is lint-free cloth. All I've got in that department is the cloth that came with my TV half a year ago, and if I soak it in acetone it bleeds blue dye of some sort.

So. Just how big a difference does it make if you don't have a proper cloth to wipe off the thermal paste with?

I'm eager to get the H60 mounted, but I just can't seem to find any good cloth anywhere (and obviously everything's closed by now). Was thinking about going to an optician for some "glasses cloth", does that work?

Plec · 23 Jun 2011 at 19:13

Use paper towel and earbuds - tried and tested method on the forums (all i've ever used).

SeeKified · 23 Jun 2011 at 19:38

Right, will have to hold this off till tomorrow then, don't even have any of that stuff.

Unless you mean paper towel as in kitchen roll of course. :confused:

Another rather silly question (never bothered with cooling much in the past), does the orientation of a case fan (in this case the H60 fan) matter? Basically there's arrows on the actual fan to help you turn it the right way, but if I follow the arrows' instructions the fan's power cable will be very awkwardly stretched right over the CPU and motherboard heatsinks. So, I turned it 45 degrees and now it's much better. Just need to know if that'll be a problem.

Plec · 23 Jun 2011 at 19:47

SeeKified said:
Unless you mean paper towel as in kitchen roll of course.

Yes i do.

SeeKified · 23 Jun 2011 at 19:48

Plec said:
Yes i do.

Awesome, there's an abundance of that around here.

Will give that a go, thanks!

Plec · 23 Jun 2011 at 19:49

SeeKified said:
So, I turned it 45 degrees and now it's much better. Just need to know if that'll be a problem.

Turning a fan 45, 90, 180 degrees will have no effect.

It's only when you turn it from back to front - i.e. from pull to push that it makes a difference.

SeeKified · 23 Jun 2011 at 21:04

Plec said:
Turning a fan 45, 90, 180 degrees will have no effect.

It's only when you turn it from back to front - i.e. from pull to push that it makes a difference.

Great.

Got the H60 installed now, not really sure... I did screw up while mounting it and I think I may have lifted it slightly so the paste is probably screwed up anyway. Temps are at 38C idle, with my cpu at 3.2GHz, 1.404V. Not sure if that's good or not, was around 46 with stock though.

j.col · 23 Jun 2011 at 21:25

imo, once the cooler is fitted, you should never lift it up or you will get air into the paste.
i would remove the cpu plate and reapply the thermal paste, without lifting it up.
have a look on youtube, if you are not sure about applying thermal paste,
too little or too much can affect your temps

SeeKified · 23 Jun 2011 at 21:57

Yeah, probably will. Darn shame... I dropped one of the screws as I was mounting the cooler on the CPU and it took me more than five minutes to sort it out. Somewhere along the line I think I lifted it.

EDIT: Tried adjusting the cooler base with the screws which apparently made it a lot worse. On stock settings (two cores locked, 3.2GHz) it now climbs to 70C very rapidly on idle. Gahhh.