DescentBB

That's my next step in my newbieish efforts to rebuild this system.

What is the best/safest/most effective method to remove the CPU and clean off the thermal gunk? I have some sweet arctic silver compound I'ma replace it with

And will a socket 478 Heatsink/Fan combo work with a socket 423 mobo/chip? I'm having a heck of a time finding out for sure just looking at ads.

I'm having a blast BTW, thanks for everyone's help

Pull mobo out of machine. Place on a table with foam underneath (like the sheet of foam that comes with moo's in the box). Take off old heatsink. Clean with cotton cloth and rubbing alcohol. Take off CPU, wipe off excess paste with paper towel, clean with rubbing alcohol dampened Q-tip and paper towel. Let dry. Put chip back in mobo (to safeguard the pins), put a small drop of psate on CPU, and spread it evenly with something. I used the cap from the paste, as it was rectangular w/ flat surface. Then attach HSF.

I use Carb & Choke Cleaner to clean the compound off the CPU. Works much better than alcohol.

DO NOT use carb/choke cleaner. While this may work fine on AMD CPUs, it could cause you a very large problem with the P4 as they use a heatspreader epoxied to the CPU package. Carb and choke cleaner is a solvent... see where this is going?

i agree, choke and carb cleaner will disolve the epoxy on the heatspreader.

Testiculese wrote:Pull mobo out of machine. Place on a table with foam underneath (like the sheet of foam that comes with moo's in the box). Take off old heatsink. Clean with cotton cloth and rubbing alcohol. Take off CPU, wipe off excess paste with paper towel, clean with rubbing alcohol dampened Q-tip and paper towel. Let dry. Put chip back in mobo (to safeguard the pins), put a small drop of psate on CPU, and spread it evenly with something. I used the cap from the paste, as it was rectangular w/ flat surface. Then attach HSF.

Just to add on to what Testi said, you can use an old credit card or a razor blade to smooth out the thermal paste as well. Depending on the brand, some actually give you a plastic card (basically a blank for a credit card) so you'll have a way of doing this. You also might want to take a VERY small drop (I'm talking way smaller than a grain of rice) and spread it out just so that it fills in any grooves in the heatsink where it makes contact with the chip's die itself. Sometimes just dabbing compound on the chip itself won't fill in the gaps left when the heatsink was machined. Make sure to spread it horizontally as well as vertically. Then mount the heatsink onto the chip.

Check these instructions for applying thermal compounds.

Here is a good 423 heatsink and it's pretty cheap:

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?in ... PB&cat=FAN

Make sure you use this coupon code to get another 10% off: JUMPONDEALS

While we're on the subject... is there any real difference among brands of thermal compound? My local MicroCenter only seems to stock the $10/tube silver stuff, but some places have really cheap stuff like this. I've been thinking of replacing my heat sink and wondering if it matters what kind I use.

Stick to arctic silver, and you'll never have a problem.

On the otherhand, if you use the G47 stuff (white goo) you will have to worry about it drying out and turning to powder.

Hmm I just looked and it's OCX not arctic silver, but I believe same difference... I bought the HS/F combo, thanks for the tip.

Well I plan to be very delicate in my compound removal, using q tips and attempting to blot it and keeping any solvent from contacting anywhere but the top of the heatspreader.

Worst case scenario, I'll up the ante to acetone since I have that on hand but I'll see how good old isopropyl works first.

I hope I don't have to go to carb cleaner, because that'd mean I have to buy it.

Dampen Qtip, hold chip upside down, then rub, if you're overly worried about getting it on the rest of the chip.

That's a bit obsessive isn't it?

Rubbing alcohol works great. Been using it for years to remove thermal goop and I'm done in 30 seconds.

WarAdvocat wrote:Well I plan to be very delicate in my compound removal, using q tips and attempting to blot it and keeping any solvent from contacting anywhere but the top of the heatspreader.

I wrote:Dampen Qtip, hold chip upside down, then rub, if you're overly worried about getting it on the rest of the chip.

WarAdvocat wrote:That's a bit obsessive isn't it?

Answer your own question there! If'n you want to be all cautious and stuff, there ya go, flip the chip and let it drip!

hmmm. Suddenly I am glad the athlon XP doesnt have a heat spreader on it, I can just use this great stuff called "goo gone" and wipe ASII/ASIII off instantly.