Thermal Paste + Cleaning tools?

Hi guys,

I finally received my notebook back from RMA and learned they re-applied the thermal paste on the GPU and did a really poor job at it. It now reaches 90C + instead of its former max of 78C, so I figured I want to clean the Gpu and do a new paste job.

What should I buy for cleaning it from the old paste and which thermal paste would you buy? I still have some IC diamond lying around somewhere.

Thanks in advance!

 

Isopropyl Alcohol over 70% and some cotton wipes. If you feel like sacrificing microfiber cloth for the final polish, even better.
I'd heard that IC Diamond may scratch the die, even though it has pretty good performance. I personally use Prolimatech PK-3. Lost 15 degrees compared to Arctic Silver 5 on my 920xm and 7970m.

 

As Sangemaru mentioned Isopropyl Alcohol is best. I always get 91% or higher, I've tried lower % and they dont seem to remove it as easily. I've never heard of IC Diamond actually scratching anything, i've only read a couple post where people have heard about it, like an urban legend.

 

It can cause minor scratching but not anything that will change the cooling performance.

You can also use citrus based products like akasa's which are pretty readily available.

 

I also have used isopropyl alcohol and it works well. Acetone will also get rid of it, though I'm not sure if it's any more or less efficient and/or safer.

Though there are some incidents where abrasion occurs from the nano diamonds in the IC Diamond compound, it's mild and does not affect the hardware.

 

I used the higher percentage isopropyl alcohol with cotton wipes and had good results. The specific wipes I used were these very soft and absorbent cotton makeup removal pads my wife keeps around the house and can be found at any Walgreens, Rite Aid, or Arbor Drugs (who remembers Arbor Drugs?). I used the alcohol to remove ICD7 several times and didn't have any problems with scratching.

In my signature there is a post of me comparing 3 thermal compounds with some talk of their application.

 

Wow thanks for the fast and helpful replies, much appreciated!

I will use up my IC tube that came with the x7200 680m upgrade kit then and buy some non-drinkable alcohol

 

What was the problem with your X7200?
Hope you can lower your temps soon .