What to use to wipe off thermal paste

Hi guys, I'm about to repaste my 780M GPU in my Sager which has the original stock paste. I bought some Artic MX-4 to reapply with. I have a few questions that i'm hoping to get answered.

Please correct me if these instructions i'm about to write are wrong in anyway.
Step 1: Remove the bottom cover
Step 2: Remove the four screws that hold the heatsink against the GPU.
Step 3: I have 70% Isopropyl Alcohol Pads to clean off the old paste on the GPU and the heatsink.

Question 1: Can i use tissue to wipe it all of or will the alcohol pad itself be sufficient ?

Question 2: How long do I have to wait for it to dry before proceeding to apply the new paste ?

After it dries, I will place a small bead of thermal paste in the middle of the GPU. Then I will reapply the heatsink back on top.

 

1. A Q tip or coffee filter works great!
2. The alcohol dries pretty quick. About a minute or slightly less is all you need.

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I use Q tips + isopropanol 100%. Dries up almost instantly.
Remember to ground yourself and treat the gpu/cpu die very delicately.

 

I wouldn't use 70% alcohol.

91% is the minimum I would go for. I have 99.98% alcohol at home.

You could also use the Arcticlean stuff.

 

I been using IPA for a long time. I decided to try Artic Clean, and it works much better on the dried up stuff. It honestly smells like goof off or goo gone (The orange smelling one) not saying to buy those just what I think it smells like.

 

Well, it is preferable to smelling isopropyl alcohol fumes.

 

How come not 70% rubbing alcohol? What about 90%? The stuff that's sold at Walmart ok?

 

I usually use q tips and acetone and that works fine.

 

The stronger the better 70% should he fine, just might have to scrub harder which is not as safe

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Also, don't use the green mint version lol. I've seen that happen before

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Acetone is a good solvent for many plastics. You do NOT want to use that on your CPU/GPU die carrier (or anywhere else in your computer).

 

Just the lower % has higher water amount which is not good for electronics of course. Higher the better. If I can get 99% I usually use that, otherwise I can usually easily find 90-92% and use that if I have to. Plus the higher alcohol content the better it cleans and the quicker it dries.

 

Damn, you truly are a godsend, buddy!

 

Damn. Oh well. I've been using it for over a year after reading that it worked wonders for several users so I rolled with it. Haven't had a single problem to date with it so maybe I'm just lucky?

 

Considering there is very little plastic around a GPU die, I doubt you have to worry much lol. Just don't drown anything.

 

High % isopropyl alcohol and some q tips was what i just recently used.

Out of curiosity, i have some pure ethanol (moonshine). Now, i would never waste it on my sager (my sager is an alcoholic and goes to meetings) but just out of curiosity, could you use an ethanol based solution to clean off paste, or would there be a problem with its sugar content?

 

Well, most of the die carrier / mainboard is made from synthetic resins (which are not plastics), alas there may be plastic coatings, IC housings, cables and such and Acetone will eat those. Better use Isopropanol 100% next time. ;-)

 

You want something that will evaporate leaving as little residue as possible basically.

Thermal compound should only be on the IC itself though lol, so unless you dip the thing in liquid you should be using tiny quantities in very small areas.

 

An anhydrous solvent, meaning without water; preferably something that doesnt dissolve resins and plastics... 90%+ rubbing or isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol) is good for this .

 

I had really diluted rubbing alcohol at home that didn't really do the job, so I bought some of this:

Arctic Silver Incorporated - ArctiClean

Worked quite well, I had to use it maybe three or four times on the die to fully get rid of everything, but it did its job as advertised.