i thank you for your help... chances are i would of used that alcohol and might of caused some serious damage. Will isopropyl alcohol do fine? Also, another question... sorry to ask so many questions. Where is the best place to put the processor to do my work. I keep hearing those pins under the processor are very delicate and i don't wanna mess it up. Can i put it on top of tissues? they are soft. :)

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Actually the processor pins are quite stiff. If you put it on a piece of cloth or cardboard that will be fine and will also avoid static electricity. Basic 70%, 90%, or 99% isopropyl rubbing alcohol all works fine. You sound like you're going to be more than careful enough. Take your time removing the old paste or pad - if its a pad you'll need to scrape it with a plastic edge of some sort.

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thank you so much for the big help, i really appreciate it. :o) I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. I ordered the volcano 11 just yesturday night and got a artic silver 3 with it, basic delivery. so hopefully i'll get it this week. if not monday. hopefully i don't screw things up. lol.... i'll post the results over here if i am sucessful... if i don't then that probably means i messed up my comp LOL.

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johnoh, there seems to be many different kinds of isopropyl alcohol. i can't tell which one to get. I even saw a green isoprophyl alcohol lol. which one do i get. These are the two i found online, the first one is 70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol: http://wag-n-tails.com/index.html?target=p_56.html&lang=en-us ........ and the second one is: http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/824.html ........ could you tell me which one to get or it doesn't make a difference. Thanks for your patience. :)

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both are fine

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ok, good news and bad news. good news i manage to bring my temps down, it is now at 51C idle where as before it was 70. Bad news is that i had to use my old heatsink. I removed the old paste and replaced it with artic silver 3 and that seems to be making a difference. the new heatsink however was EXTREMELY hard to install! Since the heatsink was so much bigger then the actualy socket itself it was impossible to see if the clips was around the pegs or not. not only that, the left side of the clip was stuck on the bottom base of the heatsink. since that happend, the right side would not go down because the left side clip was under the base of the heatsink. therefore it was stuck! I couldn't even move it out of the base becaue it was so tighly pressing against. I was afraid if i would of moved it then i would of damaged the base. Whether its suppose to be like this or not, i don't know. I just got really fustrated and decided to just use the old heatsink since the clips were in the right places. (outside of the sides instead of at the bottom) Everyone told me to get that SK-7 heatsink and to ignore thermaltakes. i guess i should of listened. I learned a hard lesson.

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Tommy, If you're still watching this thread I'm just curious about a couple things. 1) What are the two heatsinks? (old and new). I can't picture what you mean about the clip being stuck under the base. Do you mean stuck within the clip channel? If so, that happens sometimes. To fix it you unscrew the fan and use needlenose pliers to force the clip free. Unscrewing the fan makes everything easier. 2) So with the old sink you were over 70C but now with that same sink you are at 50C. Did it formerly have thermal paste or a pad? If it was paste it sounds like amd's point that pads are best may have some validity, as they say that paste migrates and leaves a bare metal to metal interface over time, which may be what happened to you.

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1. the first heatsink is a cooler master 4800 RPM. the new one is a Volcano 11 (link on first post). The left side of the Volcano HSF had the 3 mounting clips at the bottom of the heatsink. You know how normally most HSFs has the clips on its sides? so that way you can line them up properly with the pegs on the CPUs socket. Well mines wasn't, instead the left side was on the left side of the base of the heatsink. lol. and because of that the right side clip was all the way up, won't even move down since the left is stuck at the bottom. However i'll try your idea about removing the fan. maybe i will have better success. 2. The old sink had paste on it. Perhaps you are right about the paste disappearing. i did not see much paste on the core. i actually saw more on the base of the heatsink then on the core actually and even then there wasn't much on the heatsink either. But i didn't want to take any chances and so i went ahead and used isopropyl alcohol on the core as well as the heatsink to take off the remaining paste. :) Again, i'll try and remove the fan from the volcano 11 and fix the problem i have with the clips. thx for the help.

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I get what you're saying now. When the clip gets stuck unevenly in the channel like yours you remove the fan and then yank the whole clip right out of the sink, and then place it back into the channel more evenly so it looks like this... http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/cooling/Tt_Volcano11/1013.html and then lower one side onto its three lugs and then you have to push fairly hard down on the other side using a screwdriver stuck in the little catch above the center hole in order to get it over its lugs. Got to be careful not to slip and hurt the mobo. Notice how in the pic the fulcrum of the clip is not centered - that's to get the fulcrum of the clip right over the cpu. Once its on you reassemble the fan. It gets easier once you've done it a few times and realize how much you need to bully some of these sink clips.

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thank you for the info... i will try that. And great link to! that gives me a clear idea of what i'm expecting when i take out the fan. johnoh, i do have another question. i hope you won't mind. i just got back from installing in two more case fans. This is so puzzling to me because with 2 more case fans i actually GAIN 3C! i went from 51-54C with the 2 extra case fans i put in. However when i disconnect them from the power supply, my cpu temp goes back down to 51C idle! Is there a reason for this? Am i disrupting air flow within the case? please fill me in on this. Thank you for the info. take care.

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You have one fan in your power supply that pushes air out of the case. Then your cpu fan just pushes air around inside the case. So beyond that, you want to be adding air to the case or keeping it even. That is, if you have 2 more fans make one intake and one exhaust, but if you have three more fans make two intake and one exhaust, four more fans make it 2 and 2, etc. The only reason I can think of where unplugging fans makes it cooler is if one of the fans was pushing hot air into the cpu fan, whereas without it the cpu fan was drawing in cooler air. But if you have a balance of intake and exhaust your temps should not go up. I think one intake, one power supply exhaust, and one cpu fan is the right numebr and beyond that the noise is not worth whatever small benefit you get.

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