Q&A for How to Clean Thermal Paste

If you're looking at some thermal paste and it looks even a little dried out or old, it's a good practice to get in the habit of cleaning it off and replacing the paste.

You can. I'm pretty fond of isopropyl alcohol and a cotton swab, though. Alcohol isn't conductive so you won't need to worry about something going wrong so long as it's dry when you reassemble the computer.

I usually put a small bit that's the size of a grain of rice right in the center of the heatsink. You really don't need a lot of it.

You need to have thermal paste between the core and the heat sink. Order some new paste or buy some from a local tech store. It is cheaper than a new CPU.