Isopropyl alcohol and ear buds

[Gursimran Singh Bharaj]

i plan to reinstall my cpu cooler. that requires me to apply new thermal paste. i plan to use 70% non woven cellulose swab with 70% isopropyl alcohol and then clean the residue with ear bud. is that fine?

 

[smorizio]

all you need is a reg paper towel for the dry off. all you have to watch out for is lint or the towel falling apart. the trick with the wipe is lightly wet the towel and wipe the paste off. you dont want the liquid to fall off the cpu and land on the mb or under the cpu. all you need do is give some time for the water in the cleaner to air dry,.

 

[mcnumpty23]

quite honestly though others may do different--i just clean it off with one of those lint free cloths you get for spectacles/glasses--it leaves only a faint grey/white haze thats not thick enough to affect anything--probably microns thick

but no doubt some one will disagree with me

 

[Gursimran Singh Bharaj]

ok i will use isopropyl swab and spectacle cleaning cloth.
one last thing. do i need to remove my motherboard? or should i just take the CPU out,clean it and insert it back

 

[mcnumpty23]

no need to remove motherboard

 

[GhislainG]

no need to remove motherboard

To that we should add "no need to remove the CPU".

 

[Gursimran Singh Bharaj]

if i rub on the cpu with it in the socket, wont it damage the pins?

 

[GhislainG]

if i rub on the cpu with it in the socket, wont it damage the pins?

Much less pressure than applied by the heat sink is required to clean it.