# Surgical Spirit - Ok For Cleaning Off Thermal Paste?



## Anthony1uk (Feb 16, 2005)

Hi,

I was just wanting this confirmed by someone in the know. 

But I am going to be doing a rebuild shortly which will comprise of changing the stock cooling on a GPU, Motherboard Northbidge as well as CPU replacement and CPU heatsink replacement.

I have read that I need rubbing alcohol to clean the old paste off before reapplying fresh.

Obviously I don't want to waste money on a premium CPU cleaning alcohol solution when I could possibly MacGyver up my own .

I have a large bottle of Surgical Spirit that I bought a while back and was hoping this would be sufficient. 

*Its ingredients are:

Castor Oil - 2.5%
Methyl Salicylate 0.5%
Diethyl Phthalate 2.0%
Industrial Methylated Spirit. 95%.*

Obviously I don't want to cause any damage to any chips on the PC especially if I spill some of it.

Would this therefore be Ok?, or is there any other alcohol solution anyone can suggest I can buy from Boots Chemist to clean up all the Thermal Paste off.

Thanks
Anthony


----------



## ricosuave (Dec 16, 2007)

i dont think you need 'premium CPU cleaning alcohol solution', im sure that ordinary rubbing alchohol will work just fine.

and not too expensive either...

not sure i would use that surgical spirit though


----------



## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

Isopropyl alcohol works fine most of the time, use 100% if possible or the highest percent you can fine. 100% contains very little water if any, 70% has some water so if you use this let the parts dry for a hour or so before assembly just to be sure.

I have found that articlean is safest and works best for removing old thermal pads that can be stubborn


----------

