Thermal paste to replace thermal pads

[Kohrak]

Hello, I'm writing here again to get advice from all your wisdom

 

I have this laptop, an HP elitebook 8440p and I had this thing for like 8 or 9 years. Before moving to the UK it was pretty hard to get good thermal paste and thermal pads to keep things cool, so it has been with some crappy paste for a while and the same thermal pad from the factory.

Since i'm living here I want to do proper maintenance on this laptop to keep it running for a few more months until I can build a desktop. Thing is I need to change the thermal paste from the cpu and the thermal paste of the integrated nvidia gpu. Researching on the internet I found that I can replace the thermal pad from the gpu with a specific kind of thermal paste, the high-density ones are supposed to be able to replace that but looking on amazon I just don't know what to get.

 

So here are my questions: it is true that I can replace the thermal pad for thermal paste? Wil the arctic silver 5 will do?  In case that I need a different kind of paste, that paste will do for my cpu as well or should I get a different one for that? if the arctic silver 5 is not the right one then which one should I get?  I'm just really lost on this one

 

Thanks

[Majestic]

Depends a little on the application. If it's some 2mm thick gooey tape it probably needs that thickness to bridge the gap.

If it's one of those thin pads you can probably just replace it with thermalpaste. But the issue is mostly getting the old stuff off. Usually goes best with some old creditcard or something. Don't use any metal to scrape it off, you permanently damage it.

 

If it has one of those velvet squares around the paste, you can blast it with a hairdryer until it's hot, and peel it off with an exacto knife. Scrape off the paste and reapply the velvet square.

[Kohrak]

2 minutes ago, Majestic said:

Depends a little on the application. If it's some 2mm thick gooey tape it probably needs that thickness to bridge the gap.

If it's one of those thin pads you can probably just replace it with thermalpaste. But the issue is mostly getting the old stuff off. Usually goes best with some old creditcard or something. Don't use any metal to scrape it off, you permanently damage it.

I don't think is a really thick thermal pad because is supposed to be a corporative gpu instead of a gaming one. You think I should go with arctic 5?

[Majestic]

1 minute ago, Kohrak said:

I don't think is a really thick thermal pad because is supposed to be a corporative gpu instead of a gaming one. You think I should go with arctic 5?

You mean a professional one? Use whatever you have laying around tbh.

[Kohrak]

Just now, Majestic said:

You mean a professional one?

This one https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arctic-Silver-Thermal-Compound-3-5g/dp/B0087X728K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1497648157&sr=8-2&keywords=arctic+5

[LogicalDrm]

What are the pads covering? You just can't use paste with chipset, RAM etc. because they don't have any "wall" to keep paste in order. It will be messy and could short out something.

 

If you can't buy good pads in UK, how about ordering them from mainland Europe while UK is still in EU? Like from German stores.