Changing my heatsink / fan

[diyfiesta]

Hello,

I've got a AMD heatsink fan on my Athlon 2800+ and it seems to run at about 50C, I dont think its too hot but thought I'd try a different heatsink and fan, so my question is...

When I remove the orginal heatsink etc, should I clean the chip? with what? Also, what kind of compond should I use when putting a new heatsink on, can't you get pads, gel and all sorts? Just want some newbie advice really.

Thanks in advance,
:)

[Soyoman]

Yes, clean the chip, you can do it with an ordinary pocket knife and scrape it off, if you're careful. Use some rubbing alchol to prep the surface afterwards and let it dry. You should use something like Arctic Silver 5 for your compound, you don't want to get pads, they just plain suck.

Incidentaly, is that 50C during a full load?

[diyfiesta]

Thanks,

50C seems to be the generall running temp, havn't really bashed it yet so CPU activity is on-and-off.

By the way, can you just talk me through compond use, do I just put a little ontop of the chip (where the pad would go) between the chip and heatsink?

Thanks again,

[Soyoman]

Sure, here's a direct link to Arctic Silver for you, they'll explain it better than I can.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

Hope that helps :D .

PS: The reason I asked about the temperature is cause if that's the temp you get under a full load, it's not bad but it's not good. You wanna try and get it down into the mid 40's range to be safe.

[maximus7001]

Use a credit card to scrape, never use metal instruments. Lighter fluid like ronsonol or zippo(not butane)used with kleenex and qtips disolves gunk well. Finish up with pure rubbing alcohol.

[diyfiesta]

Cheers guys,

I used a credit card and some thermal grease I got with the new fan, it worked a treat and at first glance it looks like the temp's dropped by around 4 degrees!

Nice one.

:)