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removing old thermal paste?

SUPER_MOOSE93
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Just now, SUPER_MOOSE93 said:

how do you remove old thermal paste from a cpu and cooler? 

 

got a new cpu on the way so i will need to clean off my cooler and old cpu 

use isopropal alcohol and something soft like toilet paper or coffie filters 

Current Rig=  AMD Ryzen 9 5900x, Asus Crosshair Hero VIII, EVGA RTX 3070 FTW3 ultra, 32gb Corsair Vengence Pro RGB 3000hz White, EVGA 750 P2 PSU, 1TB Samsung 980 Pro, 500gb samsung 860 evo, 250GB Samsung 850 evo, 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus, 2TB seagate firecuda sshd,  LianLi PC 011 Dynamic XL ROG edition, Corsair h150i elite capelix

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Rubbing alcohol (90% is preferred, but 70% is fine if you let dry for a bit longer) and a paper towel generally works.

Current LTT F@H Rank: 24    Score: 10,097,484,643   Stats

Yes, I have 9 monitors.

My main PC:

OS: Windows 11

CPU: Ryzen 9 9950X

Cooler: Noctua NH-D15

Mobo: Asus ProArt X670E Creator WiFi

RAM: 96GB Trident Z Neo @6400 CL32

GPU: RTX 4090 Founders Edition, Radeon Pro WX 5100

PSU: Corsair RM1000e

SSDs: Samsung 990 Pro 4TB NVME, Samsung 970 evo plus 1TB NVME, 2x Samsung 870 evo 2TB, Samsung 860 evo 1TB, Samsung 970 evo 500GB NVME

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Black w/ Tempered Glass Side Panel Upgrade

Monitors: 9 Monitors: Alienware AW3423DWF 3440x1440@165Hz, Acer H236HLbid 1080p@77Hz, HP D7z72AA 1080p@60Hz, Dell Inspiron 24 3459 1080p@60Hz(used only as display), Dell U2724D 1440p@120Hz, ASUS VP228 1080p@60Hz, 2x HP ZR2440W 1200p@60Hz

 

unRAID server (Plex, Backups, NAS, Duplicati, game servers):

OS: unRAID 7.1.4

CPU: Ryzen R9 3900X

Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S

Mobo: Asus ROG Strix X470-F

RAM: 64GB G-Skill Ripjaws V @ 3200MHz

PSU: EVGA G3 850W

Total Storage: Raw: 94TB, Usable: 64TB

SSD: Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVME, Teamgroup 4TB NVME

HDDs: 4x HGST Dekstar NAS 4TB @ 7200RPM (3 data, 1 parity) + (7x Seagate Ironwolf NAS 8TB + 2x Toshiba N300 NAS 8TB in ZFS)

Case: Fractal Define 7 XL

Other: Added 3x Noctua NF-F12 intake, 2x Noctua NF-A8 exhaust, Inatek 5 port USB 3.0 expansion card with usb 3.0 front panel header

 

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For really old paste, I've found that plain toilet paper works wonderful for me with nothing else. 

Main System: Phobos

AMD Ryzen 7 2700 (8C/16T), ASRock B450 Steel Legend, 16GB G.SKILL Aegis DDR4 3000MHz, AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB (XFX), 960GB Crucial M500, 2TB Seagate BarraCuda, Windows 10 Pro for Workstations/macOS Catalina

 

Secondary System: York

Intel Core i7-2600 (4C/8T), ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3, 16GB GEIL Enhance Corsa DDR3 1600MHz, Zotac GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB, 240GB ADATA Ultimate SU650, Windows 10 Pro for Workstations

 

Older File Server: Yet to be named

Intel Pentium 4 HT (1C/2T), Intel D865GBF, 3GB DDR 400MHz, ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB (HIS), 80GB WD Caviar, 320GB Hitachi Deskstar, Windows XP Pro SP3, Windows Server 2003 R2

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8 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

For really old paste, I've found that plain toilet paper works wonderful for me with nothing else. 

How old are we talking about here? I recently cleaned the paste off a 10 year old desktop with my method and the alcohol worked wonders.

Current LTT F@H Rank: 24    Score: 10,097,484,643   Stats

Yes, I have 9 monitors.

My main PC:

OS: Windows 11

CPU: Ryzen 9 9950X

Cooler: Noctua NH-D15

Mobo: Asus ProArt X670E Creator WiFi

RAM: 96GB Trident Z Neo @6400 CL32

GPU: RTX 4090 Founders Edition, Radeon Pro WX 5100

PSU: Corsair RM1000e

SSDs: Samsung 990 Pro 4TB NVME, Samsung 970 evo plus 1TB NVME, 2x Samsung 870 evo 2TB, Samsung 860 evo 1TB, Samsung 970 evo 500GB NVME

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Black w/ Tempered Glass Side Panel Upgrade

Monitors: 9 Monitors: Alienware AW3423DWF 3440x1440@165Hz, Acer H236HLbid 1080p@77Hz, HP D7z72AA 1080p@60Hz, Dell Inspiron 24 3459 1080p@60Hz(used only as display), Dell U2724D 1440p@120Hz, ASUS VP228 1080p@60Hz, 2x HP ZR2440W 1200p@60Hz

 

unRAID server (Plex, Backups, NAS, Duplicati, game servers):

OS: unRAID 7.1.4

CPU: Ryzen R9 3900X

Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S

Mobo: Asus ROG Strix X470-F

RAM: 64GB G-Skill Ripjaws V @ 3200MHz

PSU: EVGA G3 850W

Total Storage: Raw: 94TB, Usable: 64TB

SSD: Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVME, Teamgroup 4TB NVME

HDDs: 4x HGST Dekstar NAS 4TB @ 7200RPM (3 data, 1 parity) + (7x Seagate Ironwolf NAS 8TB + 2x Toshiba N300 NAS 8TB in ZFS)

Case: Fractal Define 7 XL

Other: Added 3x Noctua NF-F12 intake, 2x Noctua NF-A8 exhaust, Inatek 5 port USB 3.0 expansion card with usb 3.0 front panel header

 

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1 hour ago, sazrocks said:

How old are we talking about here? I recently cleaned the paste off a 10 year old desktop with my method and the alcohol worked wonders.

13-14? I found it worked. I'm glad it did, because at the time I couldn't find my alcohol to clean it with.

Main System: Phobos

AMD Ryzen 7 2700 (8C/16T), ASRock B450 Steel Legend, 16GB G.SKILL Aegis DDR4 3000MHz, AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB (XFX), 960GB Crucial M500, 2TB Seagate BarraCuda, Windows 10 Pro for Workstations/macOS Catalina

 

Secondary System: York

Intel Core i7-2600 (4C/8T), ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3, 16GB GEIL Enhance Corsa DDR3 1600MHz, Zotac GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB, 240GB ADATA Ultimate SU650, Windows 10 Pro for Workstations

 

Older File Server: Yet to be named

Intel Pentium 4 HT (1C/2T), Intel D865GBF, 3GB DDR 400MHz, ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB (HIS), 80GB WD Caviar, 320GB Hitachi Deskstar, Windows XP Pro SP3, Windows Server 2003 R2

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