Pink stuff on bottom of hsf...

[Avalanche]

what happens if the pink crap melts onto the chip....im gonna get a volcano 7 and artic silver II..do i need to scrape off the pink stuff before i apply it?

[LutaWicasa]

Yes, ya need to clean off the chip. Any contamination left on the chip or HS can inhibit the performance of the AS II. Gently remove what ya can and wash the remainder off with a good isopropyl alchohol.

[KaHNZa]

yea, get rid of that gay pink stuff. I wonder why they waste thier time putting it on there? Its sub-par even if your not overclocking.

[Wa11y]

That "Pink Stuff" is usually refered to as a thermal pad. It basicly serves the same purpose of arctic silver, in that it provides a better connection between the processor and heatsink, helping to facilitate thermal transfer. But the thermal pads that come on heatsinks tend to be really crappy at what they do. So yeah, it's best to remove it. Scrape it off carefully, so as to no damage the surface of the heat sink. What you can't scrape off can be disolved off with isopropyl alcohol usually, but sometimes you have to bust out the big guns in the form of acetone. Acetone is pretty cheap and can be found anywhere paint is sold. Just be sure that after you're done using the acetone, you clean your heatsink off very well with alcohol to make sure that there is no residue left that will inhibit the heat transfer.

Verbose enough for ya?

[Aesik]

Try scraping it off with a credit card or similar plastic thingie-ma-jig. Just don't use anything that could damage the base of the heatsink.

[Yodums]

If it got on the base of the heatsink you'll need to lap it as when taking the pink pad off it leaves some sticky stuff and the ASII will not work too good.

As for the core take a lint-free cloth and clean it gently w/ rubbing alcohol.

[flounder43]

Check this thread, what works for me to clean off those heat sinks...
http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55917&highlight=oops