David said:
It would be extremely rare if you had one that could be removed as an
assembly without first removing the heatsink.
Typically one cleans off the old pad and installs either a new pad or
uses thermal compound.
Further, instructions for cleaning the old thermal pad and putting on
new thermal grease have been done to death in this newsgroup and a brief
google search will give you a variety of slightly varying opinions and
techniques. My favourite thermal grease is Arctic Alumina (not
potentially conductive like Arctic Silver and related silver containing
pastes).
Remove the board from the case before removing the heatsink, and instae
CPU and heatsink before placing the new board in your case. You'll kill
a lot fewer motherboards this way. I have an antistatic mat for this
purpose, though it has a variety of uses.
You can beging the thermal pad removal before or after you install the
CPU in the new motherboard. I don't have a preference as long as it's
locked in a board to keep the pins safe. You scrape the old pad off the
heatsink and CPU die very very carefully. Some people use the edge of a
credit card, I sometimes use a shaving razor refill blade broken in half
so there is only one sharp edge (and do not saw with it for any reason).
I buff the remaining gunk off with a fresh clean cloth soaked in a bit
of acetone. I then use an alcohol swab to put a final polish on the CPU
die and heatsink.
I then install the CPU in the new board if it ins't already and squeeze
a very very tiny amount of thermal grease onto the CPU die. I then put a
plastic sandwich bag over my index finger so as not to introduce oils
from my skin to the thermal grease and gently smooth the grease out so
that it covers the entire CPU die in a very thin film. You should have
just enough grease to do this and no more. Extra grease can sometimes
act as more of an insulator than a conductor of heat. you want the CPU
die and the heatsink to be flat against each other in direct contact,
with the thermal grease filling in any tiny gaps in the materials to
assist in heat transfer. Then you carefully put the heatsink in place
(make sure the notched side goes over the lever hinge...I have seen so
called 'professionals' install heatsinks the wrong way around), clip it
down (again, carefully), and plug the fan into the motherboard header.
If your board has jumpers for proper FSB settings, set them now before
installing the board in the case, as it's so much easier.
Cheers,
Ari
--
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transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
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