can i use ethylic alcohol 96% for thermal compound removal on the cpu/cooler?

[squallypo]

hi guys, im wondering if its fine to use this kind of alcohol, since i cant find ispropylic anywhere.

i wanna use it to clean my cpu and cpu cooler.

 

thanks for your time.

[puppo]

if you want to be 100% sure then buy some isopropyl alcohol at a higher percentage. if you only have the ethylic alcohol then just be super careful to not spill it and use a really small part 

[Demonic Donut]

Yes it should be fine to use.

 

Ethyl alcohol evaporates more quickly, but that's an good thing when it comes to PC parts. It's no more aggressive of a solvent than isopropyl.

 

Apply it to a cloth or cotton swab, if any spills over the edge of the CPU onto the substrate, give it a long time to evaporate. I thought I killed my GPU when I cleaned the die, but it ended up being fine after 24hrs to dry. Still a bit scary.

[BiotechBen]

do a dry wipe first, then dry q-tips to get the globs/clumps, then finish off with the eth-alc

[sub68]

If it evaps than its 100% fine

[squallypo]

i would have gotten isopropyl but as i said, couldnt find any at all.

so this is what i got and i wanted to make sure its A-OKAY to use for the cpu cleaning and cooler.

[mariushm]

On the metal of the cooler heatsink, you can use ANYTHING as long as you clean the surface of the cooler with water and dry it out afterwards.  SOLVENTS will soften the paste and make it easier to remove :

 

Isopropyl alcohol, 

acetone (nail polish remover),

WD40 (has a lot of isopropyl alcohol and solvents in it),

gas lighter fluid or gasoline (gasoline and derivates are solvents, they will soften stuff up, but you have to wash the surface afterwards and dry it out

sanitary alcohol (it's usually 70-85% ethanol which is solvent, distilled water for the rest, plus some drops of coloring and chemicals that make you puke if you drink it)

vodka will also work or some whisky .

 

You can also use all of the above on the actual cpu lid, but for some of the items you don't want to accidentally drop outside the metal lid on the cpu.  If you do, must clean and wait for that area to dry out.