Question: thermal compound mess, lapping, HDD, and vid. memory temp HDD

ok, first ill tell the whole story, my smt fan 2 died on me, so i whent to the local computer shop where i purchased the volcano 9, they said they couldnt just give me the fan and i needed the whole heatsink, so i had to take the mobo out and get the heatsink and all that, when i realized that from looking at the cpu, the heatsink definatly needed a lapping, so i got the new one and I cleaned off the cpu.......

1.) compound mess
so i kinda slipped when cleaning it, and this silver paste went all over the cpu, including the bridges, i tried cleaning it as best i could with rubbing alchohol, but there is still a big silver colored mess on top of the cpu, is it just stained or does this pose a large problem? Is there anything i can do that might clean it up a little better?

2.) lapping
This new volcano 9 is just like the last one, so rough on the bottem i can file my nails on the copper base if i wanted too, so, i have some 400 grit sandpaper lying around. That is the finest i can get here . Where do you guys go to get the really fine stuff? Is there a certain type of sanding block i should use? do i even need one?

3.) HDD on PSU
I know this is kinda frowned upon, but, i know this should be posted in the HDD and PSU section, but i figure ill just ask it all in one thread.

OK, first, im going to be building my own case out of plexiglass, to save on those L-brackets can i just let the Hard drive sit on top of the power supply? i wont be moving it much, but im just wondering if the PSU will throw off some type of crap that might interfear with my HDD, so is it safe?

4.) Video Memory temp

i noticed when i overclocked my radeon 9000 pro 128 MB, the memory got kinda warm, not hot, but relatively warm, is this ok? And one more thing, my GPU has this little orb thingy on it, kinda like a stock north bridge cooler, with the little fan in it, would it be better to take this off, and cut a chunk from some old used heatsink, that will be fairly large and have it passivly cooled? i will have some case airflow moving past it.

Thanks in advance

Cheers!
-f1

i cannot answer all your questions, but you can find 600/800/1000/1500/2000 grit at an auto store. took me a while to figure that out. Sanding block? i just lap on a piece of glass...
If your ram is not hot, i think you are ok, but if you have some ramsinks, you might want to stick some of those on there. If you want you can also put an old stock cpu cooler on you 9800... i think that unless you are overclocking your card alot, the stock cpu cooler would be much better than the orb thing.

To answer one question, you can find the finer grits of sandpaper at automotive stores like pep boys (auto body sanding). They usually sell them in packs of different grades. You might want to go as high as 800 or 1000, after that I don't think you'll see much more benefit, if any. People recommend using a piece of glass to lap your sink on (because its a very flat surface).

Lol, I guess I'm a slow typist!

Thanks for the reply's everyone!

I never thought to look in an auto parts store. I asked a bit to many questions up there I think.

well, i guess its better than flooding the forums wiht different threads. At least i got the most important question answered. i might just post the cpu one in the amd section, i think it might be more apropriet and for the HDD i think ill just attach it with some L-Brackets.

Thanks again!
-Nick