Want to change thermal paste...

[Ruckus]

Like an idiot, I used the stock thermal pad that came with my Volcano 5 when by building my computer last year, and the temps are a little too high. I picked up some Artic Alumina for free so I may as well use that. I've looked at the instructions on the website and they don't seem too complicated. But should I completely take the motherboard out of the case when doing this? Also, how do I get the remnants of the thermal pad off the CPU? (I guess a plastic tool and some alcohol will do the trick for the heatsink).

[JacobM5727]

you could just take the chip out
use something like the side of a credit card and alcohol, or i hear wd40 works well, just make sure you clean it well after

[asterias]

use some isopropyl achcohol, the stuff you use for cleaning cds a antistatic cloth will do the job nicely

[salandar]

do NOT use WD40. You will never get it off ~ use the 91% isopropal alcohol to clean off the thermal pad. More than likely the thermal pad is melted into the heatsink, so you will just have to clean that a few times over. Also, make sure to use a cloth that will not leave particles, filaments, dust, etc because that will reduce the effectiveness of the heat transfer.

There are many many many many many many many topics on Heatsinks, Thermal paste, etc ~ just use the search button.

[gjimene2]

artic silver's the best, and yea use alchohol, I use 96 isophryl. Yea, you can't buy that in the states only in Mexico, so I stock up on it when I go there. and visit artic silver's website, they tell you how to do this www.articsilver.com oh and beware of the imposter artic silver, it has a red cap and a clear syringe. unlike the real one which is white, label won't come off, and has a white cap on it

[BipolarBill]

The biggest risk in not removing the mainboard is that you'll make a mistake when replacing the HSF. I would remove it so that you can be sure that the HSF is flush on the die.