25% ethanol for CPU and GPU cleaning.

I was about to repaste my alienware m14x. I read that 70% IPA works best. I visited almost every drug store but could not find one.All i could find was 25% ethanol spirit (75% distilled water).

So my question is will there be any problem if i use this even if i am letting it dry completely before applying paste?

 

To answer the question, I have used 95% Ethanol (Methylated Spirits) before with no ill effect, so I cant see you having problems with 25% ethanol. I have no idea if it works as well as 70%IPA though.

Note: I am skeptical that using a solvent impacts the results from re-pasting in a meaningful way.
As long as the die and heat-sink are "clean" you should be fine, to tell if it is clean wipe the surface with a paper towel and if you can see any residue on the towel its not clean enough.
I'm not saying it makes no difference, but people mess up a re-paste because they don't use the right amount of TIM, they get air pockets or don't seat the heat-sink correctly.... not because they forget to use a solvent to clean up. In my experience it makes no difference but I'm happy to stand corrected if someone has experienced otherwise.

 

The only real difference you might see is that using 25% IPA might require a bit more work to get things cleaned up due to the lower concentration. I find that using 'medical sterets' are a great way to clean....they're just little squares of tissue that are pre-soaked with 70% IPA - their use (normally) is for cleaning the skin before an injection.

 

if you are in the habit of cleaning your cpu/gpu and repasting many times in your life, then I recommend "ArcticClean" -1: "Thermal material remover" and then the 2: "Thermal Surface Purifier"

They will last you a few hundred ties using them on average (For me) which should be a few years, and totally worth a few bucks. As for the thing to wipe the surface, I go with unbleached #4 bamboo coffee filters. Always have, at least since the early 90" for electronics. This way I get very little fibers, the wiping leaves no residue or chemicals behind either. I also can use my fingers from the inside as if the filter is a semi glove like cloth, it absorbs any extra spills very easily, like oily spills, without getting weak and tearing, and becomes sort of transparent still.

Thats what I do, however, when it comes to re pasting, I like to consider myself a near pro, having done it for at least a thousand times.

 

I would say avoid the 25% stuff as the other 75% is water. I know most say use 75-90% alchohol or else a butane cleaner spray

alcohol wipes are one of my favorite way to prepare surfaces as well.

 

Apart from ensuring everything is perfectly clean, have you noticed any difference between cleaning up with solvents etc vs just wiping, can you see any difference between repastes (I haven't been able to yet) or does it improve performance long term?

 

yes, but only a few times, and almost always when i was pushing absolute benchmarks with extreme cpu's from intel. I have always chalked it up to possibly putting in extra effort, but I've gotten I'd say on average 1C less using the solvent I use in temps, afterwards. Also, the 2 part cleaning liquid works amazing. Its very lemony too but it gets greese and stuff off so well. compairing it to alcohol, its like comparing windex to mr clean. mr clean works great but still leaves abit more streaking then windex does... this solvent, leaves very little to nothing when used with coffee filters as i suggested.

Thermal paste when touched by this stuff seems to just cake and crack off and melt away so easily. Alcohol doesn't do that as easily. I also think it might be dependant on the TIM used as well. I used to use IC diamond, but now I use TX-4. over all its so much easier to use, that majority of applications will yield better results.

 

I see, a degree is worth while when your over clocking and technically will improve the life of a chip. I have never had a problem with IC diamond coming of after 6 month to a year of usage, having said that I don't benchmark often or overclock often, so if it helps cleaning stubborn TIM I can see why you use that 2 part method. Thanks.

 

Ethanol worked great. Thank you for your reply otherwise i would have dropped the plan of repasting.

 

Exactly what i felt. It took a whole pack of 50 Q-tips for just cpu and gpu. But the results were gr8.

 

Thank you for your idea of coffee filter. I had planned dry lens wipe but coffee filter worked even better. And the arctic thing was only on one website and was out of stock.

 

75% was distilled was so it din't caused any problem i guess. But it was pain to let it dry. I will try alcohol wipes on my second laptop to see the diffrence.

 

bounty and 70+% for a few years, zero problem. Almost no fibers (take them out with q-tip if paranoid, but hardly matters). Mirror reflection, yes even with a flash light hitting right on it.

Low concentration probably will leave streak, but should not alter the performance much.

 

Finally my experience.

I was shocked to see the cheap paste dell has used .It was all over except the cpu and gpu die. Seems like they have used toothpaste .
I used Noctua NT H1. Was easy to apply.Non conductive.

Full load temperatures (CPU turbo off)

GPU (Before) - 100C constant (Sudden shutdown after 10 mins of gaming)
GPU (After) - 75C

CPU (Before) - 99C constant
CPU (After) - 96C (Dont know where I went wrong.Or are these normal temperatures?)

Now lets see how it performs in summer when the ambient temps are between 45C - 49C (Yes you read that right )

 

The only difference with low concentration was i had wipe it over and over again. But it was Shinning in the end.

 

I ordered an Artic clean cleaning kit Plus Gelid GC Extreme TIM, the atric clean should do well rt ?
To be safe I ordered the medical sterets pack also (70% IPA).

 

I use a sturdy paper towl to clean my personal systems, does the job

 

96C is to hot for normal usage, have you got some details on you M14x, laptop age? what type of cpu? any overclocks?
This may be a basic question but I assume you cleaned the heatsink from dust?

You should also check to make sure that you got full coverage on the CPU...

Currently there is no way you will have safe temps on your cpu in +45C weather

 

This is what I used when I was a newbie, and still use till this day. It works like a charm.

Amazon.com: ArctiClean 60ml Kit (includes 30ml ArctiClean 1 and 30ml ArctiClean 2): Electronics

No sense is worrying about percentages and whatnot. It shouldn't take a chemist to clean and re-paste a computer.

Spoiler

P.S. Arctic Silver is not as good as IC Diamond. I used to use AS (a long time ago) because it was cheap, but I found it degraded much faster and ran about 5C-10C hotter.

 

ArctiClean 60ml Kit is what i use, works great.

 

It dropped to 80C after a couple of days ... seems like that burn in thing.

 

ok that sounds better