Can we talk about how I was cleaning thermal paste wrong for 8 years

I used to think rubbing alcohol and paper towels were fine until I fixed a PC at a shop in Austin last month. The tech there told me I was leaving micro-scratches on the IHS that hurt contact. Now I use Arctic Silver ArctiClean and a coffee filter every time. Has anyone else found out they were doing basic stuff totally wrong way later than they should have?

3 comments

3 Comments

michaeld481mo ago

So did the coffee filter actually scratch yours before you switched, or were you just lucky?

henryp401mo ago

Micro-scratches on the IHS" is a detail that really made me stop and think. Because I've been using 90% isopropyl and coffee filters for like 5 years now, and I always figured that was the gold standard. What kind of thermal paste were you using before that ended up leaving those scratches? I'm asking because I've noticed some pastes are WAY more gritty than others, like the cheap stuff that comes with stock coolers has these little particles that could be what's doing the damage. So did that tech mention if it's the paste or the wiping motion that's the bigger problem?

hill.margaret1mo ago

Coffee filters are fine in my experience, I've used them for years too. But I did switch to microfiber cloths for the final wipe after reading a similar post. The cheap thermal paste is definitely the culprit here, I had some old Arctic Silver that was almost gritty when it dried up. For me, I found that using a plastic spudger or even a clean old credit card to scrape off the bulk of the paste before hitting it with alcohol made a big difference. Then just a light wipe with the coffee filter and a final buff with a microfiber. No scratches since I started doing that, but your mileage may vary on the plastic scraper thing.