Do I need Thermal Paste?

[mrjordann]

Hi. I have an i5 4690k, and it came with a stock cooler. The stock cooler already had thermal paste on it, and when I took the cooler off there's still most of it stuck on the CPU. I just got an AIO Raijinek Triton cooler, and I'm not sure if it came with the paste. If it didn't, do I need to add more, or will the dry part of it from the stock cooler work? If it does come with it, do I need to add more? Or should I scrape off the stock cooler paste off the CPU, then apply Raijintek's kind?

[mrjordann]

yes.

clean it all off

put new paste on

Thanks. Is there a proper way to clean it off?

[W-L]

Hi. I have an i5 4690k, and it came with a stock cooler. The stock cooler already had thermal paste on it, and when I took the cooler off there's still most of it stuck on the CPU. I just got an AIO Raijinek Triton cooler, and I'm not sure if it came with the paste. If it didn't, do I need to add more, or will the dry part of it from the stock cooler work? If it does come with it, do I need to add more? Or should I scrape off the stock cooler paste off the CPU, then apply Raijintek's kind?

 

It needs to be cleaned off with isoropyl alcohol and replaced with new paste every time a cooler is removed and reinstalled.

[daniellearmouth]

Use either isopropyl or a thermal paste removal solvent.

I use Akasa TIM Clean solvent, and it's worked pretty well for me when my CPU practically fused to the heatsink once.

 

I would also recommend you use coffee filters over something like toilet paper, since coffee filters don't leave tiny fibres all over the place when you're done with them and don't get in the way. They're also cheap.

 

If you simply can't get anything, though...well...you could just use deodorant and TP...

[tomas710]

Hi. I have an i5 4690k, and it came with a stock cooler. The stock cooler already had thermal paste on it, and when I took the cooler off there's still most of it stuck on the CPU. I just got an AIO Raijinek Triton cooler, and I'm not sure if it came with the paste. If it didn't, do I need to add more, or will the dry part of it from the stock cooler work? If it does come with it, do I need to add more? Or should I scrape off the stock cooler paste off the CPU, then apply Raijintek's kind?

70% or higher isopropyl alcohol. Wet a lint free cloth, a microfiber cloth or a coffee filter will work fine. Clean both the CPU and the waterblock until there is no residue, wait a minute for it to dry, apply thermal paste, an amount between an uncooked and a cooked grain of rice. If it came with a tube of thermal paste use that, if not, you will have to buy some, zalman STG2, MX-4, MX-2, noctua NT-H1, PK-1, IC diamond, arctic silver 5, Cooler master Thermalfusion 400, any of those, i use STG2, but get whatever it's available at a decent price, just don't get generic stuff.

[mrjordann]

70% or higher isopropyl alcohol. Wet a lint free cloth, a microfiber cloth or a coffee filter will work fine. Clean both the CPU and the waterblock until there is no residue, wait a minute for it to dry, apply thermal paste, an amount between an uncooked and a cooked grain of rice. If it came with a tube of thermal paste use that, if not, you will have to buy some, zalman STG2, MX-4, MX-2, noctua NT-H1, PK-1, IC diamond, arctic silver 5, Cooler master Thermalfusion 400, any of those, i use STG2, but get whatever it's available at a decent price, just don't get generic stuff.

Yeah it came with paste, thanks. But I scraped almost all of the old paste off, do I have to wipe it 100% clean with alcohol or can I just leave it as is? I wiped so much off, you can read the writing on the CPU. it's just a little bit.

[W-L]

Yeah it came with paste, thanks. But I scraped almost all of the old paste off, do I have to wipe it 100% clean with alcohol or can I just leave it as is? I wiped so much off, you can read the writing on the CPU. it's just a little bit.

 

You can just clean it with some barely damp paper towel it just won't be as clean as with isopropyl alcohol and clean into the pores or the metal.

[tomas710]

Yeah it came with paste, thanks. But I scraped almost all of the old paste off, do I have to wipe it 100% clean with alcohol or can I just leave it as is? I wiped so much off, you can read the writing on the CPU. it's just a little bit.

If you can't get isopropanol (even those wipes would do it) at least give it a pass with ethanol, better than leaving residue, make sure it's high porcentage if it's ethanol (90%+) Ideally you should be able to wipe with a clean cloth without it getting dirty, that's when it's clean.