Tutorial by zilli0n
Made into a nice post by SmokiestGrunl from iBotModz.net
Most people have a fair knowledge of how to apply thermal paste and proper procedure, so if you do most likely you can just skim by and see the illustrations for insight. To the other folks who have no idea what this is or getting into this is for you. Initially this is what your XBOX 360 thermal paste under those fancy heatsinks appear to look like some one took some paste, put a fat glob on the GPU, yet hardly enough of the XCPU, threw the heatsinks on their and passed it on to the next warehouse employee. My guess is the heat is probably not at its peak cooling with this procedure. Although the thermal compound for this is far beyond better that the XBOX1, it goes through a manufacturing plant so most likely its a victim of quantity vs quality. I'm not hear to act like this is going to solve anyone who trying to sue m$ problems, but as a hobbiest upgrade it should help knock down a couple degrees off the 360s global warming campaign.
First thing I want to mention although this is not a absolutely difficult upgrade, the clamps of the 360 can be a royal pain to take off and put back on, so proceed with caution and patience. Once your past the first hurdle heres what you have...
For this upgrade I used the following cooling products that can be purchase easily at newegg. Here are the links below, they are quite handy to have a round for any computer cooling upgrades.
ArctiClean Thermal Surface Remover - ArctiClean 1 Thermal Material Remover quickly emulsifies and dissolves the existing thermal grease or pad from the CPU and/or heatsink so that it can easily be removed with a clean cloth or paper towel. A few drops of ArctiClean 2 Thermal Surface Purifier and some gentle wiping then removes the remaining residue and inhibits flash corrosion on copper or aluminum.
Arctic Silver 5 - A unique high-density filling of micronized silver and enhanced thermally conductive ceramic particles provides superior level of performance and stability. Arctic Silver 5 is optimized for use between modern high-power CPUs and high performance heatsinks or water-cooling solutions.
As well if you have any type of business card, putty knife, etc... you will need to keep it in hand. Initially it is to remove the excess thermal paste residue left from the previous setting. Then afterwards to apply the Arctic Silver 5 compound. So lets get started with what we have.
Step 1- Good cleaning
Before setting the ArctiClean Thermal Paste Remover, you want to get as much of the leftover thermal compound off of the heatsink prior to replacing the new compound. To do so, I used a putty knife although a credit card or stirdy business card would do the trick. Definatly make sure you get as much gunk as you can off in the first run.
Step 2- The second clean
After you get the majority of the residue off from previous thermal paste, you now put drops of ArctiClean 1 on the spots that were unable to come off from the putty knife/credit card. Let it sit for a 30 seconds to a minute. This dissolves the existing thermal grease or pad from the CPU and/or heatsink so that it can easily be removed with a clean cloth or paper towel. Once you get as much that is able to come up off, make sure you use the ArctiClean 2 Thermal Surface Purifier and some gentle wiping to remove the remaining residue and inhibits flash corrosion on copper or aluminum. Heres what mine looked like after a few repeated steps.
Step 3- The CPU and GPU
Now that your heatsinks are clean, you are prepared to go advance to cleaning the CPU and GPU, which is alot easier than the XBOX1. Your pretty much going to apply the same method to your CPU and GPU as you did with the heat sinks. First I took my putty knife and edged the previous thermal compound from the corners.
Step 4- The final clean
Once you get this accomplished you are now ready to put on your ArctiClean 1 and let it set for 30 seconds to a minute. When you are ready to clean, get your Q-tips out to gently wipe the surface getting all the left over thermal paste up. Its very easy and pretty much should be done rather fast. Once you finished that step apply ArctiClean 2 Purifier to clean up any left over spots you may have overlooked. When you are finished your CPU should look clean as a whistle.
Step 5- The application
Now you are ready to apply Arctic Silver 5 compound to the CPU and GPU. Carefully apply no more than a rice grain size of thermal compound to your CPU and BOTH GPU cores. Take you a business card/credit card/putty knife and spread them out evenly till you get the result below. A small dab goes a long way believe me, you dont want to put to much on the chips or your defeating the process. If your feeling lucky, your welcome to apply the Arctic Silver 5 onto your GDDR3 RAM Chips as well, since the GPU heatsink rests on it as well.
Step 6- The finishing touches
Now you are able to apply your heatsinks and clamps back together, once again DO NOT use to much force to remove or apply your heatsink clamps for you may damage an important part to the 360 Motherboard. As well this should be no substitute to *fix* a broken or unventalated system that has artifacts or freezes. Leave it to the M$ repair center to fix your console not yourself, you will void your warrenty with this procedure. If you have any questions feel free to send me a PM.
