Removing thermal paste

[agsteague]

Hey all,
It seems that after 2 days of use, my Xigmatek Dark Knight CPU cooler has bit the dust. It stopped spinning, and when I plugged in the stock cooler, the fan ran fine. For the time being, I want to replace my Dark Knight with the stock cooler (which already has thermal paste pre-applied). 2 questions: Do I have to remove the old thermal paste? And, if I do, how do I do that?
Thanks

 

[goonting]

yep better clean it...with alcohol

 

[daft]

first, why not just buy a new fan?

though, after you take the heatsink off, i would suggest removing the cpu, taking a fine cloth, and a bit of rubbing alcohol. make sure its isopropyl alcohol of at least 80% (personal preference). 70% may work fine as well, put a little alcohol on the cloth and rub in a circular fashion on the cpu untill all the paste is off.

 

[dokk2]

If the old TIM is hard and dry remove it ,scrape it evenly with a plastic edge like a credit/dedit card,clean surface with rubbing alcohol/lighter fluid,reapply new TIM to the thickness of a cigarette paper,remember the purpose of the TIM is to fill the air spaces between the two pieces of metal,,thus facilitating the transfer of heat use Arctic Silver 5 or better,BE CAREFUL not to get it on any electric surface as it has silver in it...
PS,,.Can you not RMA your Dark Knight?????

 

[agsteague]

can you buy a new fan separate from the heatsink itself? will any 120mm fan do? also, i didnt want to have to deal with returning the heatsink to newegg, since I already had the stock heatsink....i will eventually return it, but in the meantime I wanted a solution

 

[daft]

not any 120mm fan will do, it will most likely be a 25mm deep fan, which is 98% of newegg.com's 120mm fans.
some suggestions if you decide to
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835168006 (not my choice, but its cheap and silent)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835226013 (may need a little bit of modding to fit, dont know for sure)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185060 (great performance, a little noise, get it if you don't mind noise to much)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185059 (about the exact same fan specs as the dark knight, except the slightest bit louder)