• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Replacing thermal compound on CPU...

BradF1979

Limp Gawd
2FA
Joined
Nov 27, 2009
Messages
183
What is the best way to do this... and safest? I've read you can use alcohol, but what concentration percentage? Should I leave the chip socketed while I clean it off and re-apply?

Also, which application method is best, pea size drop in middle, or thin layer? I'll be applying MX-2.
 
I use alcohol with a paper towel to clean leaving the cpu in socket, then apply a small drop of paste in cpu and let the heatsink pressure do the spreading.
 
Alcohol will not harm components, but you want as few contaminates as possible, go with the highest percentage as you can find in the store.

You can leave the chip in the socket. Use a lint-free type cloth.

Arctic Silver has an application guide on their website. Different advice based on make, model, and number of cores.
 
i got one of those alcohol pens ... they work really well, but be sure to clean off the compound off the tip of the pen, otherwise it'll ruin it down the road.
 
I got everything cleaned up and put about a pea size dab in the middle of my i5. Switched out the stock cooler for the Hyper 212 + and my load temps dropped 20c. Very nice.
 
Back
Top