I have, what may seem a stupid question for the gurus here
How safe is it to take off the FOP38 hs/fan off of a t-bird? I have heard that AMD core is very fragile and taking off a h/s can crush it. Also, another question - I assume there is thermal paste between the h/s and the cpu - so would that get into my way if i tried to connect the L1 bridges? Can I scrape the paste off safely? Will appreciate any reply, thanks.

[Rob Cork]

I don't know what the clip's like on the FOP38, but it should come off without too much fuss (I had a taisol with a crap clip and I had to use pliers and a lot of force to get it on, probably lucky not to kill my core). The thermal paste should just be between the raised cpu core and the hsf - the L1 bridges are on the ceramic away from the core, so they won't be affected by thermal paste. If it's thermal paste like arctic silver it'll just wipe off - anything like a thermal pad will have to be scraped off, use something that won't sratch the cpu or heatsink like a plastic knife or toothpick.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

Take it off slowly and keep even pressure on the HS so it doesnt rock back and forth on the processor and you should be fine.