Question: Using Methanol on a heat sink

bringitdown · 13-09-2004 11:26am #1

I need to remove the remnants of a thermal pad from my heat sink

Now I know you should use isopropyl alcohol but the local chemist said the closest they had was methanol (methylated spirits)

Dangerous to drink but how would a heat sink cope, one or two googles suggest it is safe - but that is by no means definitive...

Anyone else vouch for it

bid

Khannie · 13-09-2004 11:40am

I used rum on mine. A mere 40% alcohol. Cleaned it off with some cotton buds dipped in it, then used dry cotton buds to soak up the excess. Then stuck some arctic silver between it and my GPU chip. Everything's fine

I must say though, that my mate laughed at me. I only used it because I was too impatient for the trip to the chemist to pick up some meths (which I would have used without question).

My understanding (after reading the arctic silver instructions at their website) was that it's imperative that the heatsink is really really clean if you're going to use a thermal paste. I would expect meths to perform just dandy at that job, evaporating without trace.

bringitdown · 13-09-2004 12:34pm

"On closer inspection..."

Meths is seemingly exactly the same as denatured alcohol which is highly recommend all over google for removing thermal gunk from CPU....

Correct me if I'm wrong - "It's in Revelations people!!!"

davmigil · 13-09-2004 1:19pm

Near enough. If I was pedantic I would write:

Methylated spirits is predominantly denatured alcohol (ie the ethyl alcohol we all know and love) adulterated with a small amount of wood naptha (mostly methanol - nasty toxic stuff which makes you go blind) along with hint of methyl violet (for the nice purple colour). All this effort is to stop people diluting it with their favourite mixer and downing it.

But I'm not of course.

Good for cleaning mice and printers too.

JackKelly · 13-09-2004 4:32pm

lol, i just rubbed off the left overs from the thermal pad with a cotton bud.Turned out nice and clean. Getting nice temperatures also, 38C on a full load with prime. (its only a 2500+ OC to a 3200+ though)

Matt Simis · 13-09-2004 5:53pm

I use Acetone (nail polish remover) on mine, have done for years. Great at cleaning.

Matt

unkel · 13-09-2004 9:51pm

Matt Simis wrote:

I use Acetone (nail polish remover) on mine, have done for years. Great at cleaning.

isopropyl alcohol is best, but nail polish remover is always around in the house - makes me lazy

It's not pure and if you want to get another quarter of a degree off your cpu temperature, you probably shouldn't use it. It's aways worked fine for me

NeoSlicerZ · 13-09-2004 10:54pm

What do you use to remove Arctic Silver ? 0_o

Matt Simis · 14-09-2004 9:37am

NeoSlicerZ wrote:

What do you use to remove Arctic Silver ? 0_o

Nail polish remover cuts through it easily.

Matt

Question: Using Methanol on a heat sink

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