IMHO the cheap plastic covering your CPU doesn't need expensive, exotic compounds to be cleaned.
True, but you do want something that can remove oils/nonpolar substances. Anhydrous isopropyl alcohol does this, doesn't leave water behind when it dries, and is cheap ($1-2/bottle at supermarkets & pharmacies).
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I used a tiny drop of clear cooking wine to clean the gunk off my CPU. It was only 20% alchohol I think. I'm guessing that 79% was water.
At least in the US, alcohol products labeled as "cooking" products (e.g. "cooking wine", "cooking sherry", etc) include a substantial amount of salt (so people don't buy them for drinking). Salt isn't a good thing for hs/CPU cleaning.
Then I used the white thermal compound that came with my Thermaltake Big Typhoon. Worked fine and my overclocked CPU temps are very low.
Yes, in the short run, many things will work similarly well. The main reason to use premium products is to get a high-quality carrier oil that won't dry out over time and lead to cooling failure. Of course, it doesn't hurt to get a few extra degrees of cooling as well.
"Vegemite test man" acknowledges this in another article:
http://www.dansdata.com/ascer_ttv11.htm