Heatsink Preparation

If your heatsink has a thermal 'pad' mounted on it, this pad must be removed before using Arctic Silver 5. After the pad is removed ONLY Arctic Silver 5 will be between the CPU core and the heatsink.

Thermal pads are made with paraffin wax that melts once it gets hot. When it melts, it fills in the microscopic valleys in the heatsink with wax. To minimize permanent contamination of the heatsink mounting surface with wax, the thermal pad should be removed before it is used and melted. Never use heat or hot water to remove the pad, as heat will melt the wax into the heatsink. Take care not to scratch the surface of the heatsink when removing the pad, a plastic tool is recommended in the removal of thermal pads or other interface material. You can then optimally remove the remnants of the wax or other thermal interface material by using ArctiClean 1 and 2. You can adequately clean the remnants with a xylene based cleaner, (Goof Off and some carburetor cleaners) or high-purity isopropyl alcohol. If you use Goof off or xylene based cleaners always follow up with a cleaning of high-purity isopropyl alcohol afterwards.

NEVER use any oil or petroleum based cleaners (WD-40, citrus oil based cleaners and many automotive degreasers) on the base of a heatsink. The oil, which is engineered to not evaporate, will fill in the microscopic valleys in the metal and significantly reduce the effectiveness of any subsequently applied thermal compound.