Help in choosing what thermal paste and what can I use for cleaning old TIM

[Yassassin]

Hello LTTians,

I need help with choosing new thermal paste and the which way to apply it?

Let's get to first question, I need to clean my old TIM off my GTX 760, I'm in a dilemma between Arctic MX-4 Thermal Compound and Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound.

This is my first time replacing TIM, so even though if I did a sloppy work, I don't wanna fry my GPU, so going for non conductive paste.

Question 2: As I'm a newbie in about these things, what should I use to clean TIM off the card in conjunction with Arctic Cleaning kit, I saw this one Kimtech Delicate Equipment Wiping Paper, Lint Free and Anti Static, White Color and SOBBY Microfibre Cleaning Cloth - 40 cm x 40 cm - 340 gsm

Please let me know what will be more ideal to get this job done between the above mentioned products.

 

Question 3: What method should I go while applying thermal paste good old rice gram (little pea) or straight line method, please lemme know what'll be more ideal in my case. If any thread regarding the thermal paste applying tutorial/how to in LTT, please post as a comment below.

P.S. Coffee filter papers aren't available in india for cheap, please kindly go to the above mentioned links and pick a suitable thing for me and staff(s) please move this thread to the appropriate forum sorry for the slack, thanks in advance.  

[lmeneses]

I mean, the difference will pretty much be 1 degree in which thermal paste you get (as long as it is from one of the main brands) and how you apply it. The simple pea dot method works great, and as for cleaning, just some Isopropyl alcohol and toilet paper

[mariushm]

If you didn't by it already, don't waste your money with Arctic Cleaning Kit , it's basically limonene and soy bean oil (for the articlean 1) and water, ethanol and propanol, the last two being  light solvents .. for the articlean 2 ...

 

You can clean the thermal paste with isopropyl alcohol, sanitary alcohol , acetone, vodka (because it has a high amount of alcohol). Just put a few drops on a soft paper towel or cotton swabs and you're done. LCD cleaning solutions also work, because they're mostly isopropyl alcohol (around 70%) and the rest is water and rarely they add some light perfume. You get the same results as using that kit.

Careful when whiping the surfaces so you won't accidentally break off tiny surface mounted components like capacitors or resistors, around the actual gpu die.

 

You can remove paste even with any other light solvents as long as you clean the surface afterwards (for example gasoline, lighter fluid, WD40) .. just make sure any solvent is cleaned off the surface.

 

Unless you go for a really expensive paste, the difference between pastes are of 1-2 degrees celsius. MX-4 is already quite good enough, no need to stress about it.

 

i generally use the pea method, but a bit bigger. If the die is kinda rectangular, maybe put two blobs ... don't stress too much about how much you put, in real world it kind of makes little difference if you put too much or just right, but it can be bad if you put too little. I'd suggest not spreading it manually, but even if you do, it won't be the end of the world.

[thedangerine]

Paper towel with some isopropyl alcohol will do the trick for cleaning, personally I like thermal grizzly kryonaut as its not conductive and has great thermal conductivity but really either of the ones you mentioned should work great as well