microfiber cloth to remove thermal paste?

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logdirects181

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Aug 24, 2010
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i have to remove and apply new thermal paste..
i have been told that any lint free cotton cloth will do..
well it's very easy for me to use the microfiber cloth which i use to clean my spectacles or camera lens(i have a whole bunch of them)...
i think it's lint free but not sure if it's 100% cotton..can i use them??
here's a picture of them..
micro.jpg


can i use them??
 
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Novuake

Novuake

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Toilet paper does the job just as well. Just apply decent pressure to get everything off. CPUs are tougher than you think.

And dont use the microfiber... You will never get all of the paste off of the CPU with it and also never get the cloth clean again.
 
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Novuake

Novuake

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Damn I have a dirty mind... :ouch:
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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May 11, 2012
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I was under the impression that 100% ethanol (alcohol) combusts when exposed to air...
Use whatever alcohol cleaning fluid you have on hand, I'v used White spirits (not the drinking kind) and Metheylated Spirits straight from a Trangia bottle (Those of who camp often know what this is :lol:)
 
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coozie7

coozie7

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AFAIK all alcohols will burn, and they burn very hot, but as long as there is no source of ignition there's no danger.
It's best to use a pure cleaning fluid that leaves no residue, I use Surgical Spirit (the stuff they use to sterilise your skin before giving you a jab) but IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) is also superb and there is various cleaning fluids on the market, they'll all do the same job perfectly.
 
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logdirects181

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well,before you replied i got off the computer and started the process because of the first two replies..
yes, you were right, i had to use several pieces of this microfiber cloth to completely clean the surface..well,it's done now..


 
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logdirects181

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well i have done it,now writing this from pc only
but, now the main thing is..even though i'm very sure that it's microfiber cloth and i also don't see any residue on my spectacles (which i clean daily with it..),after the process of cleaning, i noticed some scratches on cpu and heatsink,not sure if it was residue because i tried to remove those scratches with my hand very hardly but none of them even moved,
i think if it was residue it would get removed with my hand or would at least move..

well, should i be worried??
 
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logdirects181

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thank you for all the help guys..
really?? so it means more scratches with more cleanings??
how do they get on?? like when we are wiping off does some of the dried paste rubs itself against the surface??
do these scratches not harm the cpu or heatsink??

 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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Not really, just a CPU can get small scratches and its not really an issue.
TBH, no idea how your scratches got on there, could have happened at the factory, tiny particles of metal in the cloth you were using. Or in my case, accidentally clamped down my cooler unevenly and due to the slightly convex shape of the baseplate left an small imprint.

The point of thermal paste is to fill all the small defects in the heatsink and CPU IHS. In a perfect world they would be dead flat, making 100% surface area contact with each other, but its not so.

The scratches will compromise cooling to some degree, but not significantly. The CPU itself is about 3mm underneath the top surface of the IHS, so you would have to get a pretty deep scratch to damage the CPU die.
Besides, some people deliberately sand down the CPU IHS for better performance.
 
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coozie7

coozie7

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The surface is fairly soft so it is easily scratched, even a tiny piece of dirt the size of a pinprick will leave a visible scratch in an otherwise smooth surface.
As manofchalk says, this is the purpose of the thermal paste, to fill these small imperfections and correct for the inevitable tiny deviations in flatness of the CPU and cooler mating surfaces.
Do n't let it worry you.
 
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