Thermal Compound - Is One Better Than The Other?

Oh, thank you!! :)

This will help a lot, in fact.

The compound came today. Swapped my CPU over to the new motherboard (in my laptop), installed the new motherboard, hooked everything up for a test, and it works! My laptop lives!


But, um, now, I have a question. I'm not planning to do much with my laptop QUITE yet, until my new fan and heatsink module arrive (yeah, this whole dead-mobo problem resulted from me just wanting to get the part number off my fan module to order a new one, story of my life). So, is there anything I need to do, like cleaning the old compound off my CPU before applying new compound? I'm not sure how to do that, if I need to at all.

kbronski said:

...So, is there anything I need to do, like cleaning the old compound off my CPU before applying new compound? I'm not sure how to do that, if I need to at all.

Remove the old compound using 90% (or stronger) isopropyl alcohol on a lint free cloth or paper towel (many people us coffee filters). Avoid scratching the surface. In other words, don't try to scrape the compound off; just be patient.

Lady Fitzgerald said:

kbronski said:

...So, is there anything I need to do, like cleaning the old compound off my CPU before applying new compound? I'm not sure how to do that, if I need to at all.

Remove the old compound using 90% (or stronger) isopropyl alcohol on a lint free cloth or paper towel (many people us coffee filters). Avoid scratching the surface. In other words, don't try to scrape the compound off; just be patient.

Should I do this with the CPU on the motherboard? And, being a laptop board with a built-in separate AMD GPU, should I clean up the GPU as well?

kbronski said:

Lady Fitzgerald said:

kbronski said:

...So, is there anything I need to do, like cleaning the old compound off my CPU before applying new compound? I'm not sure how to do that, if I need to at all.

Remove the old compound using 90% (or stronger) isopropyl alcohol on a lint free cloth or paper towel (many people us coffee filters). Avoid scratching the surface. In other words, don't try to scrape the compound off; just be patient.

Should I do this with the CPU on the motherboard? And, being a laptop board with a built-in separate AMD GPU, should I clean up the GPU as well?

The less you disturb the CPU, the better. You can do it with the CPU on the board. Just don't pour the alcohol onto the CPU. Put some on the rag, coffee filter, whatever (you just want to moisten it, not drench it), and just keep at it with fresh sections of whatever you use until it comes clean.

I'm a strong proponent of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" so, if the GPU is behaving itself, I would just leave it alone.

Lady Fitzgerald said:

I'm a strong proponent of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" so, if the GPU is behaving itself, I would just leave it alone.

Yeah, after my dumb motherboard issue, I'm starting to become a proponent of the same thing... jeeze.

kbronski said:

Lady Fitzgerald said:

I'm a strong proponent of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" so, if the GPU is behaving itself, I would just leave it alone.

Yeah, after my dumb motherboard issue, I'm starting to become a proponent of the same thing... jeeze.

How do you think I became one?

Lady Fitzgerald said:

kbronski said:

Lady Fitzgerald said:

I'm a strong proponent of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" so, if the GPU is behaving itself, I would just leave it alone.

Yeah, after my dumb motherboard issue, I'm starting to become a proponent of the same thing... jeeze.

How do you think I became one?

Haha, duly noted. We all make our mistakes. Better we make them with our own equipment than with somebody else's, though! :)