Isopropanol ok to Remove ArcticSilver?

Hi, I'm changing a motherboard, I have Isopropanol to clean Artic silver from the heatsink and cpu, do I really need anything other than this? Local shops have Akasa TimClean and Arcticsilver recommend their own stuff which I'd have to order and wait for, isopropanol good enough? thanks

It'll be fine.

I used a tissue to get rid of the stock intel thermal paste from the CPU.

oh okay thanks :)

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Originally Posted by Link97

I used a tissue to get rid of the stock intel thermal paste from the CPU.

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Whilst this is good using something like rubbing alcohol or pure ethanol can help remove any invisible traces so when you apply the next layer it's all 'clean'.

It should be ok though. What I've done in the past is dipped a cotton bud in some cleaning spirit and polished the cpu heatspreader with that. Last time I just rubbed it off with toilet paper and smudged some new stuff on though, depends what I've got at the time...

IPA wipes are sent out with every HP motherboard swap, so yeh its fine.

Isopropranol, or IPA, is ideal. Its probably the best stuff you could use, but be careful not to spill any on plastics - you'll regret it ;)

Use lint free cloth..... (or coffee filters..) as tissue and cotton buds can leave tiny particles behind....

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Originally Posted by EarlGrey

Isopropranol, or IPA, is ideal. Its probably the best stuff you could use, but be careful not to spill any on plastics - you'll regret it ;)

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Err no he won't, you are thinking of acetone which can attack some plastics. IPA is absolutely fine with plastics and it's the reason why it is preferred over acetone for cpu cleaning.

yeh i use it to get fag smoke stains off pub projectors when they come in for repair, not melted one yet.

I use baby wipes to clean my puter bits.

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Originally Posted by iranu

you are thinking of acetone which can attack some plastics. IPA is absolutely fine with plastics and it's the reason why it is preferred over acetone for cpu cleaning.

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oh, ok - fair enough :surrender: Useful to know :)

TFT screen clean wipes work too.

tbh i used to clean the worse junk off with kitchen roll. then clean up with isoproponal and swabs.

Cleaning off the caked on junk is /interesting/ at times. Worst one i had to use a razor blade to slowly scrape it off with.

todays pastes and pads tend to be alot better than the older stuff.
The old white paste junk was horrible for drying out and sticking HSF to chips.

:edit: FYI Articsilver is conductive afaik so dont get it on traces or anything that could short.