P4 1.8A pad removal

[confusionfactor]

I am finally getting the P4 1.8A retail and I have read in some of the posts that Intel uses that stupid pad on their heatsinks. My question is what is the best way to get that stuff off the heatsink so I can use something else?

[micamica1217]

hi, and welcome to the forums.

just pull of the pad and use any rubing alcohol or nail polish remover to remove the rest of the gunk.

it's realy not hard...you'll see.

try to use AS3, as its the best.

mica

[venom9007]

yea, basically what mica said. this is from articsilver's website ( www.articsilver.com )

Remove any thermal pads or other interface material from the heatsink before applying the Arctic Silver. Thermal pads can be scraped off with a plastic tool that will not scratch the bottom then the remnants can be removed with a xylene based cleaner, (Goof Off and some carburetor cleaners) acetone, mineral spirits, or 99% pure isopropyl alcohol.

[AZN]

Originally posted by micamica1217

just pull of the pad and use any rubing alcohol or nail polish remover to remove the rest of the gunk.

mica
mica has nail polish remover hummm... JK hehe

I use my ladies nail polish remover too. its about the most gentle yet stronge enough to work thinner in the house.
IMHO the black junk and metal pad works pretty good. try it on then take it off and see if u really see a temp drop.

AZN

[larva]

Originally posted by AZN

IMHO the black junk and metal pad works pretty good. try it on then take it off and see if u really see a temp drop.

AZN

That's the truth. The Intel aluminum foil and black crap (Berquist something or other?) works well. I was able to take my retail 1.6a and its cooler and install them on my P4S533 and run the fsb up to 160 (2.5GHz+) and run quake. CPU temps hovered around 45 degrees... If I am going to install the heatsink and leave it I leave the Intel interface material in place. If you remove the assembly the black stuff clumps up and pulls apart so its time to remove the foil, all black gunk, and use a proper thermal compound as usual. I hate the bubble gum crap that comes on AMD's, but the foil is actually a pretty good performer. Do be aware the black coating is very thin and vulnerable, just setting the heatsink flat on the table prior to installation can damage it.

[AZN]

i think the foil is for better surface contact. It has a very stronge clamp and will flatten and touch pretty much the entire surface of the chip. These chips arent the best lapped surfaces, actually they suck and arnt flat at all. The aluminum foil helps bigtime. The stock HSF performs better then my ax478 and volcano. Given ofcourse the same fan speeds. I dont know what im doing wrong. I dont see to many ways i can mount the HSF. I dont know y maybe its the good mounting clamps but the stock for me just works alittle better. Dont be surprised if u see my new lapped ax478 in the classafieds.

AZN

[larva]

I just ordered an AX478 from SVC and they sent the AX-7 instead... doh. I hope the stock cooler isn't better :)

I got a Volcano7+ with my chip and board and found my temps where better with the retail Intel HSF as well. I used an extra 1.9GHz retail Intel HSF as it had a bigger 70mm fan on it. It spins slow like the 60mm one on the 1.6a version, 2700rpm.

I think the clamping force provided by the OEM retainer is superior to the aftermarket solutions as well. The retail cooler actually makes a scary degree of force, bulging the motherboad out underneath on every P4 I've seen.

I didn't like the V7+ at all. With the fan turned down to reasonable noise levels I got better temps with the Intel HSF. And blessed silence :D

[confusionfactor]

So I should try and leave the stuff that comes on the heatsink? I just bought some Antec silver compound to use on it..lol.

[phogen]

In my experience, nail polish remover doesnt work nearly as good as goo-gone. You should be able to get goo-gone at any major store. It's a citrus based remover. I just take a razer blade, and peel the black/silver pad off the heatsink, then remove the excess with goo gone. Make sure ONLY use the razor on the edge, where the CPU wont be touching, then pull the whole pad off. You dont want to risk scraching the heatsink where the cpu will make contact.

That black stuff on the pad is just wax. All it does is melt away and allow the chip to make direct contact with the heatsink. If that black stuff get's messed up I dont think it's that big a deal. Also, I heard that if you do use the stock heat pad, before switching to AS3 or some other substance, it wont work as good. What happens is the black wax get in all the little invisible areas of the chip/hs and no matter how hard you clean it, it will never come out. This greatly reduces the effectivness of AS3.

[looktall]

Originally posted by larva


That's the truth. The Intel aluminum foil and black crap (Berquist something or other?)

it's called powerstrate. made by power devices, who are a division of loctite.
dan of dan's data did a write up about it awhile back.
http://www.dansdata.com/powerdev.htm

it also comes in a stick applicator, called powerfilm and a similar, but white one called thermstrate TC.
they sound pretty convenient. i wouldn't mind getting hold of one to try out.

i used the foil and black crap on my celeron 1.1A. it's cirrently running at 1.6@1.70v. the temps sit around 35C, full load. so you can see it doesn't do too bad a job at all.