Processor and heatsink cleaning

CarefulNow

I was reading the guide on how to apply arctic silver to the processor and it says that you have to clean it and then wipe it down with a lint free cloth. I got some CD cleaning wipes in Tesco,will these be ok for the job?

christophicus

Dont they have some kind of liquid in them? I would say that they would be bad.

CarefulNow

Yeah it says they are wet wipes. Grr.
So what can I use then?

Auvers

Clean the surfaces of the chip die or core using a solvent such as high-purity isopropyl alcohol & a lint free cloth is basically any cloth designed not to leave any lint behind or pick up and drag any abbrasive solids - eye glass or photography lens cloths are good examples

Anti

I have used set wiped before, didnt cause any problems.

stevejazzx

Just squeeze any excess liquid from the wipes before use.
As for the artic silver paste and even thin layer only on the top of the cpu

Anti

There are many different ways to apply it. Some use the credit card approach to smear the stuff in a thin layer. others do a line, and others a blob in the middle. I personally fine if you have a flat cpu and a flat hsf surface then a bit in the middle and use the weight of the hsf to spread it out works great for me. Each to their own though.

Auvers

But with Core2Duo CPUs its better with a very small strip of compond right down the middle of the heat spreader but make sure you orient you CPU in the right direction that being the triangle mark pointing down and to the left.

Anti

So intel say. But i found it made no difference at all with good thermal compound like AS5.

shanethemofo

scrape off the old stuff with a credit card, put a blob in the centre then smooth it into a thin layer over the cpu/ heatsink

Auvers

Anti wrote:

So intel say. But i found it made no difference at all with good thermal compound like AS5.

I don’t agree when I put AS5 on my present CPU with the Artic cooler pro 7 as my HSF using the usual method of scraping it over a CPU with a credit card, which I have been doing for years and temps were not good.

So I thought it needed bedding in time but temps remained pretty crappy, thinking the paste was just badly applied I reapplied it again and temps were still crappy.

I then followed the Artic Silver PDF of putting a small strip down the middle and immediately the CPU dropped around 10 degrees.

Anti

Thats good, but i have never seen any difference from the blob mentod or the line. I have not done a scrape since the socket A cpu's

dazftw

Dont mean to hijack the thread but would using canned air be ok for cleaning out dust and just like a wet cloth on fans?

I Antec 900 without dust filters :P

Shane your sig is class lol

christophicus

yepu can buy canned air spcifcally for pc's. Dont use a wet cloth!! you coul short something!!!

Anti

christophicus wrote:

yepu can buy canned air spcifcally for pc's. Dont use a wet cloth!! you coul short something!!!

QFT!!

Any compressed air is fine. Just give a few squirts away from the pc before ya start going mental, incase there is any condensation in the nozle.

dazftw

Nice bit of condensation came out lol... Everything is fine now though clean as a whistle

shanethemofo

"Shane your sig is class lol"

Thanks