thermal paste

Get some toilet paper and Isopropyl Alcohol/Methylated Spirits (or any alcohol based cleaning fluid really). Wet some paper with it, clean the paste off, keep doing that till its gone. Rub it with a cloth that wont leave fibers behind (the edge of your shirt is usually ok) to remove any alcohol and remnants of toilet paper.

Buy some paste, I use Artic Cooling MX-4 but it kind of doesn't matter which one* unless you care about 2 degree differences. Put a blob of it in the centre about the size of a pea, put whatever heatsink you had back on. The pressure of the heatsink will cause the paste to spread and get an even coverage.

Of course you need to remove old paste before putting another cooler on your CPU. Remove your CPU from the socket and clean it with paper towel and ethanol. Then put it back to the socket and apply just as much as rice grain volume (maybe a little bit more but the point is it should end up as a thin layer on your CPU). Use something like old unneeded credit card to spread it evenly.

>>143281
ok thank you for that info. should i also remove the paste from the heatsink?

>>143284
i don't feel comfortable removing the cpu, i don't think it needs to be removed

can i can wash the heatsink under running water, then let it dry for about a day? i ran out of canned air trying to clean out the case.. lots of dustbunnies

>>143288
> should i also remove the paste from the heatsink?

Yeah, forgot to mention. Do the same cleaning method to the heatsink as well.

>>143296
ok

>>143308
use qtips instead of toilet paper

>>143397
good idea :]