Do I *need* thermal paste cleaner?

[NoRomanBatmansAllowed]

Hey LTT community!

I've been seeing these thermal paste cleaners this like around the web & in videos.

Do I need to buy it (do you guys recommend it?), and can I get by just using isopropyl Alcohol.

 

 

[Skiiwee29]

No, Isopropyl alcohol will work just fine. The higher the % the better. It is recommended to use a coffee filter to wipe with since it is lint free. I personally use the Arctic Silver stuff and have for many a years now. Probably about 10-15 years I would gander. 

[ARikozuM]

You NEED a thermal paste cleaner. It's called isopropyl alcohol.

 

It looks like this:

[MoonlightSylv]

I've just used a paper towel, it's worked fine.

I do recommend using Isopropyl alcohol.

[Hero7750]

I've used vodka before

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

You NEED a thermal paste cleaner. It's called isopropyl alcohol.

 

It looks like this:

I am sorry but as far as my chemistry class is good enough I don't think molecules are colored

[ARikozuM]

5 minutes ago, dexxterlab97 said:

I am sorry but as far as my chemistry class is good enough I don't think molecules are colored

They're not. But the colors correspond to the most common elements: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, etc.

 

Edit: electron shells don't look like rings either.

[SageOfSpice]

Yeah, you might have to look around a bit for it, people don't usually put it back where it belongs.

 

[SuperShermanTanker]

I just use either dry tissues or dry paper towels your cleaning off a metal cap that is on top of the CPU's actual die and the CPU cooler is mainly metal and a paper towel wont really affect metal and I have had no thermal issues after using a paper towel to rub off thermal paste and havn't seen any wear on the chip's metal cover or my CPU cooler

[Guest]

Just now, ARikozuM said:

They're not. But the colors correspond to the most common elements: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, etc.

Yes I know. But as far as I know. You don't actually see molecules by eyes so your answer is technically incorrect lol

 

Unless you are secretly Batman then I have nothing to say

[Guest]

1 minute ago, SageOfSpice said:

Yeah, you might have to look around a bit for it, people don't usually put it back where it belongs.

 

who would put alcohol next to toothbrushes??

[Skiiwee29]

1 minute ago, dexxterlab97 said:

who would put alcohol next to toothbrushes??

a drunk?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, legacy99 said:

a drunk?

Let me put a bottle of alcohol back because I am done drinking

[YedZed]

9 minutes ago, dexxterlab97 said:

I am sorry but as far as my chemistry class is good enough I don't think molecules are colored

Last I checked we don't use optical microscopes for molecule viewing. The model also suggests Dalton/Thomson atom model, which is obviously incorrect. 

Deal with it.

[Enderman]

22 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

You NEED a thermal paste cleaner. It's called isopropyl alcohol.

Not really, you can just use a paper towel and some water.

Doesn't make a temp difference at all if you remove the last bits of thermal paste.

[mariushm]

Any substance with cleaning qualities can be used to clean solder paste off a CPU. Best is to use Isopropyl alcohol (recommended 95% or better purity) it's very easy to find and cheap.

 

You can also use sanitary alcohol, you could use other solvents like benzene or even WD-40 (a big part of which is basically cleaning fluid), though they're not as effective ... note though that some of these solvents don't evaporate as fast as isopropyl alcohol and some may leave some tiny amount of crap after evaporation so they may have to be cleaned with distilled water off the cpu.

Some solvents aren't recommended to be used with computer parts because they can eat plastics or dissolve inks, so you'd lose the markings off components... that's why isopropyl alcohol is recommended as an all-around good cleaning solution, as it's safe for everything and evaporates quickly. 

 

Anyway... getting back to basics. People really exaggerate the effects of thermal pastes and make everything too complicated. Basically, thermal pastes make the heat transfer between cpu and heatsink of the cooler more efficient, that's all. Thermal paste properly applied in a thin layer between cpu and heatsink reduces temperature by around 3-6 C degrees. 

You can clean the majority of the paste even with just a napkin dabbed in some regular water and just leave whatever old thermal paste left on the CPU there, because it won't "contaminate" the new thermal paste, and it's such a tiny amount that it won't make any visible effect compared to the new thermal paste.

If you're really clean freak or can't stand the thought that you may have some old thermal paste on the cpu, then feel free to use a better cleaning fluid.

 

[Maxxie]

On 28/09/2016 at 3:29 AM, ARikozuM said:

They're not. But the colors correspond to the most common elements: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, etc.

 

Edit: electron shells don't look like rings either.

Molecules can and, in millions of cases, most certainly are coloured.

 

On 28/09/2016 at 3:31 AM, dexxterlab97 said:

Yes I know. But as far as I know. You don't actually see molecules by eyes so your answer is technically incorrect lol

 

Unless you are secretly Batman then I have nothing to say

The answer wasn't wrong. It was mostly right (except the bit about molecules not being coloured).

[ARikozuM]

5 hours ago, Maxxie said:

Molecules can and, in millions of cases, most certainly are coloured.

 

The answer wasn't wrong. It was mostly right (except the bit about molecules not being coloured).

You're likely speaking about the radiant energy the electrons emit as they drop and raise from levels. But I believe that @dexxterlab97 and I were speaking of a singular color for the atoms themselves.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

You're likely speaking about the radiant energy the electrons emit as they drop and raise from levels. But I believe that @dexxterlab97 and I were speaking of a singular color for the atoms themselves.

Don't mention me because I suck at chemistry and physics

[Maxxie]

7 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

You're likely speaking about the radiant energy the electrons emit as they drop and raise from levels. But I believe that @dexxterlab97 and I were speaking of a singular color for the atoms themselves.

I'm not  coloured molecules have an absorbance spectrum in the visible region. The actual colour of a compound or molecule is an intrinsic property (i.e. it is not dependent on how much material there is).
 

EDIT: From what you both wrote, it looked like you were talking about molecules, not atoms. However, atoms in a molecule will contribute to the overall properties, rather than having distinguishable properties themselves. E.g. Sodium is very soft, sodium chloride is not.