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03-02-2005, 01:21 PM

Hi,

Been there and done that while building and upgrading computers. They can be tricky, but no big deal on most of them. Just be sure that you are grounded while working in these areas or you can harm your processor and many other things. I know some that don't pay any attention to that, but I always do, so just do that rather than be sorry. Just never enter a computer case without grounding yourself to the case. I (this will sound funny) usually when i don't need two hands, just hold on to the side of the case. When I first started building used one of those grounding straps, but that became too much of a pain in the uh...neck.

What I do (the thermal paste tends to stick to both surfaces) is to unclamp the fan and heatsink and carefully remove the fan from the top of the heatsink. Be careful that you don't harm anything else although there is quite a bit of space around them.

Next, I gently slide or wiggle the heatsink back and forth to break the (seal, for the lack of a better word) adhesion of the paste to the CPU. When you can (again gently) move it and lift slightly being careful not to put too much up pressure on the CPU. It should come off of there pretty easily. Just lift it out.

Next, you need to clean both the CPU chip on top and the heatsink with alcohol (or they have a commercial cleaner that I don't bother with) or some other cleaner. Make sure you don't get any paste anyplace else on the CPU and if you decide to take the CPU out (by lifting clamps up and lifting) to clean, just be careful with it.

If you get the thermal paste in the CPU holes in the motherboard or on the pins on the cpu, then you definitely are in trouble and will probably end up replacing some things like the motherboard or cpu. When you put the cpu back in, make sure the little pin one matches pin one on the motherboard recepticle slot for the CPU. If you just watch which way you took it out it is easy, or even look at the pin alignment of the CPU to the board. To the best of my knowlege, I have never damaged one taking it out or putting it in (tongue in cheek).

I won't even tell you about the paste because their website explains it better than I could. If you get too much on, it is as bad as not getting enought on, so be careful on that. Please just read this since I just do them without reading anymore:

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm

When it is done and you have the Artic Silver applied, just reverse taking off the heatsink and fan. An important thing to watch is to make sure the CPU is seated firmly before you latch it down and make sure the heatsink and heatsink fan are seated clear down before closing the clamps.

I know this process sounds very hard, but it is just quite easy if you follow directions. If I get a link someplace you can read will post it later in the day.

Anyway, hope this helps.

03-02-2005, 01:21 PM	#26 (permalink)
mark3567 Guest Posts: n/a OS:	Hi, Been there and done that while building and upgrading computers. They can be tricky, but no big deal on most of them. Just be sure that you are grounded while working in these areas or you can harm your processor and many other things. I know some that don't pay any attention to that, but I always do, so just do that rather than be sorry. Just never enter a computer case without grounding yourself to the case. I (this will sound funny) usually when i don't need two hands, just hold on to the side of the case. When I first started building used one of those grounding straps, but that became too much of a pain in the uh...neck. What I do (the thermal paste tends to stick to both surfaces) is to unclamp the fan and heatsink and carefully remove the fan from the top of the heatsink. Be careful that you don't harm anything else although there is quite a bit of space around them. Next, I gently slide or wiggle the heatsink back and forth to break the (seal, for the lack of a better word) adhesion of the paste to the CPU. When you can (again gently) move it and lift slightly being careful not to put too much up pressure on the CPU. It should come off of there pretty easily. Just lift it out. Next, you need to clean both the CPU chip on top and the heatsink with alcohol (or they have a commercial cleaner that I don't bother with) or some other cleaner. Make sure you don't get any paste anyplace else on the CPU and if you decide to take the CPU out (by lifting clamps up and lifting) to clean, just be careful with it. If you get the thermal paste in the CPU holes in the motherboard or on the pins on the cpu, then you definitely are in trouble and will probably end up replacing some things like the motherboard or cpu. When you put the cpu back in, make sure the little pin one matches pin one on the motherboard recepticle slot for the CPU. If you just watch which way you took it out it is easy, or even look at the pin alignment of the CPU to the board. To the best of my knowlege, I have never damaged one taking it out or putting it in (tongue in cheek). I won't even tell you about the paste because their website explains it better than I could. If you get too much on, it is as bad as not getting enought on, so be careful on that. Please just read this since I just do them without reading anymore: http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm When it is done and you have the Artic Silver applied, just reverse taking off the heatsink and fan. An important thing to watch is to make sure the CPU is seated firmly before you latch it down and make sure the heatsink and heatsink fan are seated clear down before closing the clamps. I know this process sounds very hard, but it is just quite easy if you follow directions. If I get a link someplace you can read will post it later in the day. Anyway, hope this helps.