Hey i dont have any special thermal compound removal liquid. My Q6600 came with cheap, **** and unevenly spread thermal compound on it that i want to get rid of. Can i use alcohol like vodka or something?

Whats your recomendation for getting the compound off.

Thanks.

alcohol.vodka,lighter fluid,acetone,they all work well..:> )

vodka? that's alcohol abuse!

only use 99-97 alchole and rub - some take alot of elbow grease they all will come off

denatured alchol as last result

acetone will damge other things

It also won't work very well as vodka is only 80 proof (40% ethanol v/v.) That 60% water pretty much makes it useless- you might as well just get a damp rag and scrub. You have to use a solvent that has far less water in it than that- 10% water is about as much as you can have before the solvent becomes more aqueous than organic in character and quits working well. Rubbing alcohol works okay but only if you get the 91% stuff at the drug store. The typical 70% rubbing alcohol you see does not work well at all as I have tried to use it before.

I have used 95%/5% ethanol (190 proof) and lab-grade absolute ethanol (200 proof, anhydrous) and it works well but my choice is a consumer product, Goof-Off. It's mostly toluene and xylene and has about 0.5% water by volume and cuts through your average used thermal compound immediately and caked-solid thermal compound with just a little bit of rubbing. I just used some to remove thermal compound on a ten-year-old PPGA Celeron heatsink after the chip underneath had fried. That stuff was as hard as concrete and about 2 mm thick, but some Goof-Off and a little rubbing took it off in about 45 seconds. You can get Goof-Off in any hardware store's paint aisle. It comes in a yellow can about 500 mL in size and costs about $6.

You can also use any other nearly-anhydrous organic solvent as well. Any of the aromatics (benzene, toluene, xylene) work very well. Denatured alcohol (roughly 95% ethanol, a few percent gasoline or methanol, 1-2% water) works well too. I've heard of people using acetone and gasoline as solvents but I've not personally used them. They should in theory work if they are pure enough and don't have too much water but both stink more than alcohol or aromatics and thus I don't use them.

Avoid rubbing alchohol... as others have stated it can have water... but some of them might include OIL as well.

AND: I suggest using unbleached coffee filters instead of something like paper towels.

(I would avoid acetone... it will melt anything plastic... which could include some IC cases.)

Two simple steps:

1. use 91% isopropyl rubbing alcohol or higher (you can buy at any drug store) on a lint free cloth and rub all of the compound off. It will come off easily.

2. I then use dust off or any compressed air can and air dry the chip before putting another compound on. This blows away any of the residue left on the chip and any lint/ dust that may be on the rag or in the air.

I do these two steps for all my cpu/gpu and have never had any problems.

rubbing alcohol is good since it is not corrosive like other solvants
heavy solvents can damage the insulation or the pcb

water is ok,that is the water in the rubbing A, so if you have 70/30 or 99/1 its fine - rubbing alcohol must put on the label whats in it. 99% is hard to find as cheapies now sell 97%

stonger solvants are ok if your careful

HINT: i use alcohol pads, presoaked cottom for injections, again they must list all ingredients, i buy a box of 100 couple times a year.

good for getting sticky residue from tape or stickers off cases too!

I've used a product called superKleen. Its water based. Using a clean rag lightly soaked, turn the rag and wipe slowly. It wont eat the skin off you fingers either.

Still I prefer Arctic Clean... No Alcohol, plus it can sometimes be cheaper...

would Goo Gone be to strong? i know in the Army i used that stuff alot and it works phenomenal with removing things that become stick or adhere though never on anything electrical. but i used it on cloth and metal objects with nothing but the stickers or Duct tape residue being removed. love the stuff.

Goo Gone has a bunch of orange oil in it and is also a pretty weak organic solvent. It will work well for stickers, labels, gum, and such but not much more.

@callahs: What kind of thermal compound were you able to remove with a water-based solvent? All of the thermal compounds I've ever seen only dissolve in organic solvents.

@keithlm: The rubbing alcohols with oils generally are colored and the straight alcohol/water mixtures are clear. The oily ones also tend to have a smell that's not the typical sharp smell rubbing alcohol has. Coffee filters are a good idea for a wiper but I just use old t-shirts I cut up into rags with a utility knife to remove thermal compound. Any t-shirt that makes it into the rag bag is at least 5 years old and has had 100+ washes, so it is pretty much lint-less.