CPU/Mobo Motherboard heatsink has come off. Need help with a non-conducting thermal paste

D

dpandey

Adept
Today when I was trying to change the CPU cooler, the heatsink on the Radeon chip on the motherboard got dislodged. I took it out but need thermal paste to put it back.

I have a tube of Arctic Silver 5. But I noticed that there are exposed contacts around the Radeon chip and am afraid to use this one. I was wondering what would be a good non-conducting thermal paste that I can buy quickly in India (hopefull priced < 500).

I am in Bangalore and can make a trip to SP road.
 

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Any non-conducting polymer based paste will do (Coolermaster V1, or Deepcool Z5 both are pretty decent and cheap enough for your purpose), see that the spring loaders located at the two diagonally opposite ends are tight enough and hold the heat-sink in place.
 
Thanks Aman. Got a Cooler Master E1.

On a related note. There is another heat sink on the MOBO. Considering that the motherboard is more than five years old, should I reapply the paste to that heat sink too? Not sure what chip it is.
 
I removed the other heat sink. It was the south bridge. Since the motherboard is anyway dismantled, I am thinking of replacing the plastic pushpins with nut/bolts. Will check the H/W shop tomorrow.
 
Also keep in mind that you would need plastic washers wherever the metal of the nut bolts touch the motherboard.

On the existing setup, is it all thermal paste, or are there thermal pads as well. If there are thermal pads, then paste may not make a good contact with the heatsinks.
 
mav2000 said:
Also keep in mind that you would need plastic washers wherever the metal of the nut bolts touch the motherboard.

On the existing setup, is it all thermal paste, or are there thermal pads as well. If there are thermal pads, then paste may not make a good contact with the heatsinks.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mav. It doesn't look like there was a thermal pad. On the Radeon, the paste was dry and hard and on the south bridge it was like thick gum. I have cleaned both of them up.

I do see some foam like padding on the periphery. I thought it is to insulate the contacts around the metal cap of the IC. I was planning to put a layer of surgical tape over the padding.

I managed to get nut, bolts and plastic washers from a neighbothood store. The bolt has to be cut to size though.
 

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nRiTeCh said:
Post your mobo temps once you apply tim.
Click to expand...



The CPU temp (under 100% load) came down by about 6 C (from 58-59 to 52-53). The idle temp by 3-4. The CPU cooler before was a Nexus LOW-7000 R2 with nexus thermal paste. I have replaced it with a Zalman CNSP 9700 and Arctic Silver 5.

I am not sure if I have gained anything by reapplying the thermal paste on the Radeon and the southbridge. I do not know how to check the temperature on these chips. I am just hoping I haven't screwed up.


Photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/dinesh.pandey/PhemomPC
 
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