I am looking to repaste my laptop and clean the heatsink.
Originally, I noticed some dust, hair, debris etc buildup on my heatsink between the fan and sink. Once I started taking things apart, I noticed that I couldn’t clean it without removing the heatsink entirely.
Through some other forum posts, I asked and about repasting, and ordered some PTM7950 (2mm think I believe, its been a while). I plan to repaste with that when I clean the sink.
The question is:
Should I be concerned about the thermal pads being ruined during the process? Can I re-use them? If not, what big box chains sell thermal pads I can buy so I can complete this job tonight?
Thanks!
Additional Info:
7840U
~ 1.5 years old
Used mostly for school and some moderate gaming (eGPU since the new year).
Unless something has changed since I got my framework 13 amd 7040 board, there are no thermal pads. Framework used thermal paste which a general rule of thumb I’ve seen tossed around is to replace the paste every time you remove the heatsink. So you’ll probably want some high percentage rubbing alcohol (90%+) to clean the existing paste off.
The PTM7950, though coming in a “pad” shape, also is not a thermal pad. Its just paste that has been shaped into a thin rectangle.
When I put PTM7950 in my laptop, I got a few extra frames per second on some video game performance test and my peak temperature dropped by a couple of degrees in s-tui, so I’d say you’re making the right move! I’ve put PTM7950 in everything ever since.
When I recently removed the heatsink on my FW 13, I found that there weren’t any other thermal pads on other things, like there is on the FW 16. So you only have to re-paste the CPU, there aren’t any other thermal pads.
As BigT said, you only have to re-paste the CPU, I just want to clarify that PTM7950 is replacing the thermal paste so you don’t need to get other/additional thermal paste.