An old timer at a repair shop in Denver told me to always clean thermal paste off with coffee filters instead of paper towels. He was right.

3 comments

3 Comments

Disagree with this one HARD. Coffee filters leave little fibers behind that trap air bubbles and mess up your CPU temps over time. I tested this once with a microscope at a friend's lab, total nightmare. Paper towels are lint free if you get the good kind, like the blue shop towels or even a decent brand from the grocery store. Plus coffee filters cost more and you need like ten of them to clean one chip, seems wasteful. Sorry old timer but I'm sticking with my paper towels, they've never let me down.

troyknight3d ago

Huh, you changed my mind on this one @blair_chen81. Used to swear by coffee filters but now I'm rethinking it. Gonna grab some blue shop towels and give them a shot.

abby_cooper3d ago

A buddy of mine tried coffee filters once and said it took him 20 minutes just to get all the little paper bits off his CPU. He almost threw the whole rig out the window.