How to clean off Arctic Silver II

[YoungstaxGx]

how do i clean off artic silver off my cpu? im changing HEATSINK and i never done this before

[rivercom9]

Arctic Silver can be easily removed by taking some Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) or some acetone and clean it off with a lint free towel or something. Repeat this until all signs of the thermal grease are gone. Also, make sure to clean off your heatsink also with some of the IPA. You will not beable to fully remove all of the thermal grease off of the heatsink, but this can be solved by lapping it a bit (not required).

[YoungstaxGx]

any chance of damaging the chip

[rivercom9]

By using alcohol or acetone on the core of the cpu, no there is no chance of damaging the chip unless you use something that may chip the core of the cpu. You should be fine if you use a little towel to wipe the core with, but dont use sandpaper!:D

[rivercom9]

What kind of heatsink are you putting on the cpu?

[custoswashere]

I've used finger nail polish remover and that works great. You will need a lot of q-tips. Once they get paste on them, they tend to just spread it around. Just turn the q-tip in your fingers as you wipe accross the chip. That should get it. I've heard that you shouldn't use a lot of polish remover or alcohol since there is a possibility of it soaking into the chip casing but as long as you use good judgement you should be fine.

I've cleaned my three times and about to do it 4 when my artic silver 3 comes in. There are some more tips in other threads in here about using carb cleaner but I would personally not use that stuff. It cleans well but I think it leaves a residue and the nature of carb cleaner is that it gets the gunk off and then burns off. It just seems to have too many long-named chemicals that might cause a problem.

Just my 2.13 cents.

[Colin]

When all else fails, read the instructions. (http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm) ;)

[cjlax5]

Originally posted by Colin
When all else fails, read the instructions. (http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm) ;)

that is a very good idea, but not untill there is no other choice :D

[Colin]

Originally posted by cjlax5


that is a very good idea, but not untill there is no other choice :D

Forgive me, I must have temporarily forgotten this is a computer forum. ;)

[Yodums]

I would recommend isopropyl and a lint free cloth. A q-tip would leave risidue behind.

Yodums

[WA2]

409....it will take the sh*t right off

[Brant]

The best by far is carburator cleaner. I used it on my cpu because Isopropyl Alcohol didnt do much. It will be taken right off in seconds. Spray some on a cloth, and a few swipes later its all gone. You dont need much because it is strong. It will eat through plastic.

If you want to take anything of of anything use carburator cleaner. It is my universal solvent. Its also cheap.

[ocean]

If you use isopropyl alcohol make sure it is 99% isopropyl alcohol, it will evaporate faster.
I don't suggest nail polish remover since it is acetone with additives. Could leave a residue.
Up 'till now i've used both the isopropyl and pure acetone in combination to clean off the silver crap.
This is a tedious process no matter what you use, that arctic silver gets all over everything! I have since switched to something called "type 44" heat sink compound. This stuff is easy to clean off and I don't know that performance wise it is all that different to all the fancy silver stuff.
I think you can find it here (www.altex.com/store.htm)
Also I saw somewhere that "Goo Gone" works well .
Hope this helps.:D

[rivercom9]

Does the type44 heatsink compund have silver in it? Whether or not, I have never seen its performance, but I'm doubtful that it can outperform Arctic Silver II. I would rather have an excellent performing thermal grease thats hard to remove than grease thats easy to remove but not an excellent performer. I guess that you have to base your decisions on what you would like from a thermal grease, which I think matters more than what others think. Its your decision.

[ocean]

Check out this LINK (www.hardocp.com/reviews/cooling/compound/) Riverdude.
It's at least equal to AS2. Would like to see it compared to AS3 though.

[rivercom9]

How the heck did the AS and ASII get the same results? I do know that the ASII "should" perform better than the original AS. I just don't really trust the results.

[Gravity Man]

I use whatever the clear stuff is that flows through my parts washer.

[ocean]

There are a lot of variables in the testing for sure. And even though there a lot of numbers flying around, the results are "qualitative" at best.
All I can say is that on my machine, everything else being the same, that when I switched from AS2 to the type 44 compound I saw no loss in performance. Of course , your milage may vary as they say. So you see , that for me it made sense since I hate the messy clean-up of AS2.
That's all.:cool:

[Anonymous Jeff]

Originally posted by rivercom9
How the heck did the AS and ASII get the same results? I do know that the ASII "should" perform better than the original AS. I just don't really trust the results.

It's possible that the AS just wasn't cleaned off properly.

[Caffinehog]

I've been using Parks Quit'n time brush and roller cleaner. Works great on durons, t-birds, and xp's. No damage yet. And it contains toluene, which won't evaporate too quickly from whatever you are wiping it with, but will evaporate from the processor in a few seconds. It dissolves away ASII instantly.