best not too-expensive compound to clean thermal paste from CPU and acc.?

[Deivan8]

Hello.

 

I will want to buy some compound to clean the thermal paste from my cpu and to clean my accessories as mouse and keyboard. Any suggestions on what to use? I have heard that Isopropyl alcohol is the best material to clean the thermal paste from cpu, but how many percent of alcohol does it needs to have? Maybe smaller percentage (cheaper) would be good enough to clean keyboard (mechanical genesis RX75) and mouse (logitech g402)?

[adm0n]

I got 100ml of 100% (I think that is not true ...) isopropyl alcohol for under 2€, so it's pretty cheap. 

But I remember Linus saying, that 70% would be enough as well : D

[Deivan8]

On 9/13/2016 at 10:36 PM, adm0n said:

I got 100ml of 100% (I think that is not true ...) isopropyl alcohol for under 2€, so it's pretty cheap. 

In my country 1 liter of isopropyl alcohol 99.5 perc. costs 7 euro.

[Enderman]

60, 80, 99, they all work fine.

[adm0n]

3 minutes ago, Deivan8 said:

In my country 1 liter of isopropyl alcohol 99.5 perc. costs 7 euro.

You could use that liter for the rest of your life, if all you do is clean Thermal compound of your CPU every once in a while ._.

[K0NA]

7euros for 1 liter, is not that expensive i think, i probably would buy it, because you get 1 liter, and what do you get for 7 euros, you get a pizza for same money.

[Crunken]

4 minutes ago, Deivan8 said:

In my country 1 liter of isopropyl alcohol 99.5 perc. costs 7 euro.

That's cheap, get the highest you can but anything over 60 like @Enderman said is fine

[Deivan8]

On 9/13/2016 at 10:44 PM, Crunken said:

That's cheap, get the highest you can but anything over 60 like @Enderman said is fine

And is there any material in the isopropyl alcohol, which i should watch out? Or if it has 99.5-8% concentration i don't need to worry about it?

[Crunken]

1 minute ago, Deivan8 said:

And is there any material in the isopropyl alcohol, which i should watch out? Or if it has 99.5-8% concentration i don't need to worry about it?

Not sure but i don't think there can be any thing that would damage any component in isopropyl alcohol, and i think the highest is 99%

[Deivan8]

On 9/13/2016 at 10:50 PM, Crunken said:

Not sure but i don't think there can be any thing that would damage any component in isopropyl alcohol, and i think the highest is 99%

ANd then I will do any cleaning with isopropyl alcohol, will I need to wear gloves? In the safety paper it says in case of contact with skin wash the skin with soup and lots of water, contact doctor. 

[mariushm]

For cleaning, 70% purity or higher would work, but ideally you'd use something with 95% purity or higher, the price difference wouldn't be big.

You won't find 100% purity because isopropyl alcohol likes to absorb water from the air and through pores in the plastic bottles, and during the brief moments you keep the bottle opened. Companies usually buy the alcohol in barrels and then from barrels goes in tiny bottles and that's another point where purity goes down slightly.

Alcohol also evaporates quite fast so even if you buy one liter, it's not going to last for years, it will very very slowly leak evaporate, unless you keep it in glass bottles and fully sealed etc.

 

If you can't source isopropyl alcohol, you can use plain old sanitary alcohol you can buy at any pharmacy, but you need to make sure it's fully evaporated before applying thermal paste or setting the heatsink over the cpu.

 

Isopropyl alcohol is the main ingredient in rubbing alcohol, which is sold to be used for babies but usually it's mixed with some kind of perfume. It's also used by veterinarians a lot. You can try asking for rubbing alcohol without perfume and other added substances from the pharmacist. Or you could go to a vet and ask them to fill a tiny bottle for you and they'll probably do it.

[Deivan8]

On 9/13/2016 at 10:54 PM, mariushm said:

For cleaning, 70% purity or higher would work, but ideally you'd use something with 95% purity or higher, the price difference wouldn't be big.

You won't find 100% purity because isopropyl alcohol likes to absorb water from the air and through pores in the plastic bottles, and during the brief moments you keep the bottle opened. Companies usually buy the alcohol in barrels and then from barrels goes in tiny bottles and that's another point where purity goes down slightly.

Alcohol also evaporates quite fast so even if you buy one liter, it's not going to last for years, it will very very slowly leak evaporate, unless you keep it in glass bottles and fully sealed etc.

 

If you can't source isopropyl alcohol, you can use plain old sanitary alcohol you can buy at any pharmacy, but you need to make sure it's fully evaporated before applying thermal paste or setting the heatsink over the cpu.

 

Isopropyl alcohol is the main ingredient in rubbing alcohol, which is sold to be used for babies but usually it's mixed with some kind of perfume. It's also used by veterinarians a lot. You can try asking for rubbing alcohol without perfume and other added substances from the pharmacist. Or you could go to a vet and ask them to fill a tiny bottle for you and they'll probably do it.

Okay, thanks. And how about the usage of isopropyl alcohol? Is it that toxic, that I need to wear gloves? Because In the safety paper it says in case of contact with skin wash the skin with soup and lots of water, contact doctor. 

[mariushm]

It's not toxic at all, it's used on babies to clean their butts and to prevent their sensitive skin from cracking and it's also used to bring down fevers (as it evaporates it cools down the surface, but some doctors dispute that this actually helps with fevers) so if babies can tolerate it so can you.

It's just not smart to inhale a lot of it, because the smell can make you dizzy.

 

I usually just put a bunch of cotton wool in the cap of a coke bottle (or any 1+ bottle cap, you get the idea, just an empty cup basically) and pour a bit of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) on the wool to make it all wet and then close the bottle of IPA so it won't further evaporate. From that point, I can just twist a bit of cotton wool around the tip of a tiny screwdriver, press the tip down into the wet cotton wool to get it wet and gently rub the surfaces i want to clean (gently, so i won't scratch anything)

 

Alternatively, you can buy some of those cue tips with cotton wool preapplied on them, the kind people often wrongly use to clean their ears with, and dab those tips in alcohol.

 

[SkilledRebuilds]

I've used lighter fluid to clean my thermal paste on my Q6600 for years.

Did it once,properly..... it didn't eat anything, so I kept on doing it whenever I needed to re-thermal.

 

It works SOOOO fast, fastest way I've used so far..... it dissolves/breaks down the harder paste real quick into softer paste (in a few seconds), and wipe it off.

Dry or Wait to Dry,

Apply New Thermal paste.

 

/Not suggesting you do this, Its something I know works though.....and I would not do this to my daily driver, but the Q6600 is hardly used and I dont care if it dies... It's still running now, like a champ!

[Crunken]

11 minutes ago, Deivan8 said:

Okay, thanks. And how about the usage of isopropyl alcohol? Is it that toxic, that I need to wear gloves? Because In the safety paper it says in case of contact with skin wash the skin with soup and lots of water, contact doctor. 

No need to worry, just poor some on a piece of toilet or kitchen paper and wipe off 2-3 times, then it'll be like new

[Deivan8]

On 9/13/2016 at 11:07 PM, mariushm said:

It's not toxic at all, it's used on babies to clean their butts and to prevent their sensitive skin from cracking and it's also used to bring down fevers (as it evaporates it cools down the surface) so if babies can tolerate it so can you.

It's just not smart to inhale a lot of it, because the smell can make you dizzy.

 

I usually just put a bunch of cotton wool in the cap of a coke bottle (or any 1+ bottle cap, you get the idea, just an empty cup basically) and pour a bit of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) on the wool to make it all wet and then close the bottle of IPA so it won't further evaporate. From that point, I can just twist a bit of cotton wool around the tip of a tiny screwdriver, press the tip down into the wet cotton wool to get it wet and gently rub the surfaces i want to clean (gently, so i won't scratch anything)

 

Alternatively, you can buy some of those cue tips with cotton wool preapplied on them, the kind people often wrongly use to clean their ears with, and dab those tips in alcohol.

 

Interesting, I hope I won't buy some type of other isopropyl alcohol  It has a word next to it "Technical", not sure if it changes anything.  Molecular structure: C3H8O/ C3H7OH / (CH3)2CHOH Mole mass: 60,1 g/mol

[DunePilot]

Coffee filter and alcohol from the store, you need that anyways for cleaning cuts and scrapes... so yes, its 100% safe if you can use it to clean a wound.

You do not want to drink it though... it is not a Bud Light.

[mariushm]

4 minutes ago, SkilledRebuilds said:

I've used lighter fluid to clean my thermal paste on my Q6600 for years.

Did it once, it didn't blow up, kept on doing it.

 

It works SOOOO fast, it dissolves/breaks down the paste real quick, and wipe it off.

 

Lighter fluid is butane or naphtha (a mix of hydrocarbons) ... The later is somewhat dangerous, it's a bit carcinogenic, it can cause skin and eye irritation in quantity. Some materials used on circuit boards can also be affected by it (like silkscreen on pcb, or the ink used for texts on components like capacitors or resistors)

Yeah, they're both solvents so they'll soften the thermal paste and you'll get clean surfaces but they're not ideal. IPA is safer all around.

[Deivan8]

On 9/13/2016 at 11:18 PM, DunePilot said:

Coffee filter and alcohol from the store, you need that anyways for cleaning cuts and scrapes... so yes, its 100% safe if you can use it to clean a wound.

You do not want to drink it though... it is not a Bud Light.

So I will be going to buy some coffee filters then