Artic Silver on Arctic Silver?

[Richard Dower]

So you apply AS5 to a CPU, you then clean it with the Arctic Clean kit...but isin't it true that microscopic particles always stay behind no matter what?

Thus is it wiser to use or reapply the same type of product on top of a previous application?

[DAK1640]

Just use rubbing alcohol, you'll be fine.

[Serra]

So you apply AS5 to a CPU, you then clean it with the Arctic Clean kit...but isin't it true that microscopic particles always stay behind no matter what?

Thus is it wiser to use or reapply the same type of product on top of a previous application?

I second the rubbing alcohol remark, it's not worth buying a cleaning kit.

And yes, I suppose that on some microscopic level there likely are some particles of AS5 that will stay behind once you're done giving it a good wipe, but it will not matter in the least if you've done a half-decent job of wiping your block. Even assuming you were able to find another thermal grease that was so incompatable in every way with being near AS that using a very microscopic amount of AS and a proper amount of your new TIM would raise your temps (and good luck), the difference would be somewhere in the area of 0.00001 degrees celcius or less.

I think you may be over-thinking your applique of TIM here. Just relax, take some alcohol and a lint-free wiping cloth and wipe off your CPU / heat sink, then put a small dab of AS5 onto the cpu and close it up. It's that easy.

[destaccado]

So you apply AS5 to a CPU, you then clean it with the Arctic Clean kit...but isin't it true that microscopic particles always stay behind no matter what?

Thus is it wiser to use or reapply the same type of product on top of a previous application?

I've actually done some testing on this and found that every seperate application of rubbing alcohol redues the nano particles of AS by a factor of 2. For better results- apply to a Q-Tip and use some elbow grease which changes the factor to 5...YMMV