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Artic Silver 5 For My New Build Opinion

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Richie13

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2002
Location
Long Island, NY
Hi folks,

I'm going to start assembling the system in my sig tomorrow morning. I'll be using the stock Intel heat sink for now and can't purchase a better heat sink at this time, but I won't be heavily OCing anyway. I did want to use AS5 from the start. I have a few questions. Does the stock Intel heat sink come with some type of thermal grease already applied? If so, is there a proceedure to remove it correctly? Can I simply use those alcohol prep pads usually found in first aid kits to clean it off? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Richie
 
90% aclohol isopropyl is the stuff to use when cleaning cpu or heatsink really.

My guess is that because your not actually cleaning the cpu you can easyily clean it with pretty much anything you like, just make sure you give whatever you use on it a good rinse from the heatsink and buff to make sure it's all gone and make sure it is 100% dry. Obviously just don't go near the cpu with anything you like :p
 
Just in case you needed other ideas, newegg carries a product specifically made for taking thermal grease off of heatsinks/cpus. Its called arcticlean (made by arctic silver). Maximum pc actually recommended this product in the most current issue that just came in the mail. Not sure how much of a better job (if any at all) it does than isopropanol but just posting anyways.
 
articlean leaves a much more "pure" surface for the next application of TIM. less impurities from old TIM and it'll take off any TIM from a heatsink. only from what i've seen though.
 
1cem4n said:
articlean leaves a much more "pure" surface for the next application of TIM.
Well thats good. I ordered some of that (when it was actually in stock) a few days ago....still waiting for it to come in the mail.
 
Isopropyl is just reccomended for work with computer parts because it is 90 alchol based, which means it practically evaporates instantly leaving a dry surface.
It has always worked great for me when armed with a piece of kitchen paper :p
 
Hi folks,

Thanks for all the replies. I initially used isopropyl to remove the 3 strips of heat sink paste from the Intel cooler. It just comes right off. I carefully wiped it down with a lint-free cloth and used some compressed air too. But I'm still going to purchase the Articlean. The Intel cooler is really lousy, so I'll be upgrading that very soon. Thanks again.

Richie
 
Just to report on my experience with arcticlean (came in the mail today). I poured on about 5 drops onto the heatsink and waited about 30 seconds. I took a soft cloth and wiped all of the thermal grease off. It was really easy to do. It also comes with that purifier that you can use after your done taking off the thermal paste. It was definitely worth it! :)
 
I use the 90%+ Isopropyl and Q tip like products. Costs about $1.50 for a pint. A lot cheaper the the arcticlean. Does take anther 30 seconds or so.
 
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