CPU Heatsink Cleaning, your thoughts on this (long)

n00b question, what about the electronics cleaner spray that contains the stuff that manufacturers use in production that evaporates like 5 times as fast as alcohol? Spray on a heavy layer, wave your hand over it for 1-3 sec. and it's gone. It's never given me a problem and never left a film that I could detect.

DWolf

That sounds very similar to Isopropyl, though it could be a slight variation.

The Alcohol I use is...(fumbles around for tin) 98% pure.

M_N

Also fumbles around for can...

Contains:
Methanol 67-56-1
n-Hexane 110-54-3
Isohexane 107-83-5
Petroleum Distillate 64742-48-9
and Carbon Dioxide 124-38-9

CRC Industries QD(tm) Electronic Cleaner - Quick Drying Formula
(no CFCs)

DWolf

Edit: I understand the names (thank to high school chem teacher) but the numbers are pretty much Venusian to me (no slight to any Venusians perusing our boards )

There's a type of rubbing alcohol that's green and has wintergreen oil in it. I always presumed that to be the source of the "Rubbing alcohol is no good because it's got oil in it" discussions, because in former days it used to be more common.

The stuff I use is 70%, clear rubbing alcohol, tried a few times in the past to debunk the "it leaves residue" crowd by pointing out it doesn't leave smears on glass, and if you burn a bottle cap full, it all burns up. So unless anybody will tell me what particular oils and residues it leaves behind, I tend to disbelieve such claims. Although purer is better.

Lapping works, period. If heatsink compound was a way better conductor than the metals it interfaced, then area would be good. It's not, it's wayyy worse. Area is bad. Well in as much as it makes the average thickness of the TI compound greater, which is not what we want, a hairsbreadth or so more thickness than necessary is probably gonna knock out a 3 fold increase in transfer capability due to area due to how bad thermal greases are at conducting.

(warning the following may offend mainframe techs)
Some old jokes...

Q: How do you tell an IBM mainframe technician with a flat tyre?
A: He's changing one wheel at a time to see which one's flat.

Q: How do you tell an IBM mainframe engineer who's run out of gas?
A: He's changing one wheel at a time to see which one's flat.

Seriously though, Mainframes = huge amounts of not very large scale integration parts, which in themselves don't get all that hot. The cooling problem with mainframes is keeping the cabinet cool for the combined output of all the parts, rather than worrying about the particular heat output of a very large scale integration part. I'd as soon have a mainframe technician give me advice about cooling my PC as have Stephenson, Trevithic or Cugnot try and fix my car.
I would use pure acetone if I could get any though, that stuff will even remove the layer of air molecules that's adsorbed into the surface of the metal. So cleaning with that, then banging on the AS3 tout suite would probably show a measurable improvement (well maybe half a C, but that's measurable)

Hmmm, might come across as rude, but meant in good humour, and I'm shooting from the hip, as I see it.

regards,

Road Warrior

I've always used 99.7% pure Isopropyl, but I've got something better.....1.1.1 Trichloroethane which is forbidden by now, a good replacement is HDL:

The Solution Use an alternative solvent that:-
Complies fully with the Montreal Protocol
Dries quickly, effectively and film-free
Has a high Flash Point
Is compatible with painted surfaces, elastomers and rubber

HDL A unique, environmentally safe, critical cleaning contact solvent from Oil Technics Ltd that removes oil and grease residues rapidly and is plastic safe. HDL presents no compatibility risk, has a Flash Point of 41°C and a high dielectrical strength for electrical cleaning. HDL is available in a wide range of pack sizes, including aerosols and pre-saturated, lint free wipes.


How to use HDL

Use as required in immersion, spray, ultrasonic or bench top cleaning applications.
Note

For cleaning applications particularly in confined spaces, where products with higher Flash Points are required, Oil Technics Ltd manufacture two additional film free drying solvent cleaners – HDF and PCM. Solvent cleaner HDF, with a Flash Point of 58°C, is recommended for underground power cable jointing. Solvent cleaner PCM is suitable for use within submarines and military aircraft, where its Flash Point of 62°C meets the UK MOD Def Std 68-148.

Approvals

Rolls Royce Approval under CSS 253
Meets UK MOD Def Std 68-148 (except for Flash Point)
Registered in Germany as an environmentally acceptable cleaning agent with the Umwelt Bundes Amt (No. 3406-0006).

Click to expand...

Oiltechnics

Killer_BE?

I haven't seen you in a long-time.
How are you?
M_N

just fyi, they way they denature alcohol is they add mercury or lead to it, so you can't drink it, now since these are metal, they are probably pretty good conductors, where as the film left by isopropyl alcohol is probably an inorganic nonmetal catalyst, your other option, if you are of age, is to go to the liqour store and buy everclear, or the knock off, which in the great state of texas is named, mohawk, these are ninety five to ninety nine percent pure grain alcohols, basically denatured alcohol without the metal in it. I don't know how much merit either argument has, isopropyl alcohol hasn't really caused me any propblems, if someone comes up with I definite performance boost, please keep us all informed

So cleaning with that, then banging on the AS3 tout suite would probably show a measurable improvement (well maybe half a C, but that's measurable)

Hmmm, might come across as rude, but meant in good humour, and I'm shooting from the hip, as I see it.

regards,

Road Warrior

Click to expand...

measurable with what? I know of no temp sensor on a computer that is either accurate or precise enough to do half a degree and most of the time they're not close on both.
most temp sensors do not claim precision to anything less than 1 degree C and the ones that will report fractional degrees are your "guessed" place in significant figures. They cant be trusted to some range which nobody knows because mobo and chip manufacturers use the crappiest temp sensors known to mankind. As for being accurate, you have people with temp sensors saying they should be on fire when their chip is really perfectly fine and anyone who has seen dealt with pc temp sensors can tell you that you cannot compare them between systems, even with the same motherboard as discrepencies are so great that it makes any such comparison useless.


You're lucky if you get a temp sensor that is as least consistent with it's innacurate readings. Your computer has been touched by the hand of god to get one that might be reporting the correct temperature.

so how about i just try a cheap 98% ethilic alcohol sold in the drug stores to cure injures??? will that harm my cpu??? is that better than denatured alcohol or isopropyl alcohol?

ethilic alochol I think is denatured alcohol, not sure though, people got into a big scare over mecury and lead, and don't wanna put that stuff on their wounds, it's such small quantities that it won't matter, denatured alcohol is only ethanol with toxic substances in it

You can get QD Contact Cleaner at Home Depot for 6 bucks. It's exactly formulated for this job. The force of the spray is all you need to blow away Arctic Silver. It dries in seconds. What more could you want?

hmm...

According to the MSDS safety data for denatured alcohol,

Denatured alcohol is ethyl alcohol (ethanol) to which a small percentage of methyl alcohol (methanol) has been added to render the mixture poisonous. A blue dye may also be added to indicate that the liquid is not drinkable.

Click to expand...

Note, there is no lead or mercury. Methyl alcohol is wood alcohol and will blind you if you drink it and in severe cases destroys your liver and kills you. I may use this to clean my W/B and other electronic components.