Surgical Spirit for cleaning a CPU?

[Neural Net]

I've just got hold of some surgical spirit locally as I've read in past threads on these forums that this is also known as rubbing spirit and is suitable to clean thermal paste of CPUs (It contains ethanol and methanol).

The reason I want to do it is that my temps are high at the moment, I have my PC (specs in sig) running at 2.24ghz and my scythe ninja rev b is cool to the touch. Intel thermal analysis tool reads the temps at 42 degrees C at the moment and rises to about 55 degrees under load.

So can I use this to clean the cpu and heatsink?

 

[nvidiaOCmaster]

Yea, its ok. Let it dry good first though.

 

[Neural Net]

Yea, its ok. Let it dry good first though.

Thanks!

 

[FastRedPonyCar]

Whatever happened to just good old rubbing alcohol? It's worked like a champ for me for a good 6 years now building PC's.

Alcohol + Q Tip = FTW!!

 

[dicecca112]

99% Isopropyl works great, gotta love Walgreens.

 

[Neural Net]

Ok guys, I just wiped the heatsink and the CPU clean with the surgical spirit. I reapplied AS5 evenly using a blade onto the heatsink, then re attached the heatsink. Temperatures are even worse (65 degrees C in Orthos)!! I read that you're meant to have a thin layer of AS5, before it seemed pretty thick. To be honest I think it is the actuall contact the Heatsink is getting with the cpu, and not a problem with the application of the thermal compound.

I really don't like the mounting method of the 775 socket, the plastic connectors dont seem to hold it rock steady as screws would.

What do you reckon I should do?

 

[deathman20]

Its trickey but as you said it could be the IHS and the CPU not the mounting. I had an ok (wasn't horrible nor good) E6400 that ran warm even for low clocks. Could be the mounts, on the heatsink, never delt with that heatsink before.

Main reasons (and we know the side of the case off doesn't help much already)
1) The heatsink for some reason isn't mounting properly
2) The IHS is badly convex or concave, take your pick
3) The IHS isn't properly attached to the Core, which increases the tempature and well nothing you can do about it, unless you get risky and take it off or heat it up to try remelting the soder back on the CPU
4) The heatsink isn't flat as well, either convex or concave.

Try the suggestion i just gave ya though first. Second and third easiest one is to lap the heatsink, and third is lap the CPU if you wish to really void the warrenty on it.

 

[Neural Net]

Ok thanks!

I'll check out the mounting and reapply AS5 to the IHS and then mount the heatsink again. Wish me luck!

 

[Neural Net]

Well, it seems the plastic pins for the scythe to mount aren't doing the job well enough, one side of the the CPU doesn't gain good contact, and while the temps are better since I fiddled around with it, I've ordered a Thermalright Ultra 120 instead. Going to return the Scythe, simply isn't good enough.

 

[Wickedbear]

Whatever happened to just good old rubbing alcohol? It's worked like a champ for me for a good 6 years now building PC's.

Alcohol + Q Tip = FTW!!

Is a Q Tip really that great of an idea? won't it leave lint on the processor? Ive always been using coffee filters.

 

[Neural Net]

Is a Q Tip really that great of an idea? won't it leave lint on the processor? Ive always been using coffee filters.

Hasn't seemed to have affected my temps badly - 49 load E6300 3.1Ghz.