Artic Cooling 64 Freezer Pro question

[Sagekilla]

I bought a AC 64 Pro two days ago and it just arrived today (Woot!) along with my AS5 thermal interface material. The HSF came with a grayish material on it. Is that the thermal interface or not? I didn't know if I should wipe it off or not or what to use to do so. Is a paper towel safe for wiping off the material on my CPU and my HSF assembly?

Any help would be appreciated, I'll be posting a picture of it in a few minutes.

 

[Sagekilla]

Anybody? I'll give you a free virtual cookie if you can answer my question 😀

 

[Il_palazzo]

LoL, yes that gray stuff is thermal grease.
But the best way to remove it would be 90-99% Anhydrous Rubbing alcohol and use coffee filters. (70% also works but 99% alcohol is less work)

And since you seem to be new to replacing heat sinks clean off any remaining thermal grease from the top of your processor. And remember a little arctic silver goes a long way.

 

[GherkinPekul]

Yes, that is the thermal compound. It's good stuff, I used it on my build.

 

[Sagekilla]

Thanks. I'll have to tear up the bathroom to find rubbing alcohol (If we have any) I know we have coffee filters though...


By the way, does this look sufficient?

 

[Il_palazzo]

Should be clean enough.
Now time to seek out advice on Arctic silver 5.

There are two trains of though on using AS5 thermal compound The use a razor blade and spread a thin layer on the cpu method. Or using the Arctic Silver recommended method, where you put a small amount on the middle of the processor and just install the heat slink. And many vicious debates have been had on the subject of AS5 and the proper way to install :twisted:

(Actually the stuff on there before was fine but it looked like you touched it so replacing it was a good idea. Plus you had arctic silver 5 on hand anyways.)

 

[sirheck]

yes, it is mx-1 and just as good as as5

 

[Sagekilla]

Heh, pre applied or AS5... I honestly don't care anymore right now. It runs much cooler now (It used to idle at about 47, now it's idling at 37-38) I don't mind gaining an extra 1-2C if that pre-applied stuff was better, it works good.

One other thing that disturbed me a bit, after fiddling with it for about 5 minutes I loosened the screws a tad bit and the F64 mounted perfectly. Is this advisable to do or is this a bad thing to do? It's the only way I could get the fan to fit.

 

[eldoreo]

Do I get you right that you've loosened the mounting-screews a bit to make the cooler fit the heatpsreader fully?

imho there's no need that the cooler is covering the whole heatspreader coz the die is way much smaller than the IHS itself. It's just about 1.4 cm² - so don't mind about if the cooler doesn't cover the whole cpu surface. Even some stock-fans don't do that...

In point of the thermal compound I can fully agree with those who tell the preapplied mx1 is better than as5 - but - as you say - it's just about 1-2° so don't worry about this.

greets eldoreo

 

[snedger]

With my install I had to swap round the mounting clips 'cos the onboard power regulator box was in the way. Took me about an hour trying to reassemble and then fit the monster in such a tight space. My carefully applied AS5 compound got smudged all over the place. I had a big drop in temperature, but I'll always wonder what I would have got if the paste hadn't decorated half my motherboard (slight exagerration perhaps) and I am NOT going to ever, ever try and mount that thing again.

 

[Sagekilla]

Yep, with the mounting clips on fully, the cooler refused to stay on top of the heat spreader evenly. It seemed like it was on an angle, and no matter what I did it wouldn't fit. So, I ended up having to loosen the left one a bit, and the right a tad bit more then the left. It seems to be secure though, if I try tugging on it, the cooler doesn't slide or anything.


I really wish I didn't have to do it that way, I'm scared that it'll fall on top of my 7900 GT + Soundblaster and perhaps take out a few other components in the process.