I just bought a replacement fan for my video card. An online guide I found (the supplied instructions are s***house) says to remove old thermal paste with rubbing alcohol, preferably between 70-90 per cent alcohol content.

Where the hell do you buy this stuff? I have been to two supermarkets and a chemist and the best I could find was Isocol.

Can you use metho or is this too harsh?

Try dick smiths. Or http://pccasegear.com/prod1961.htm .

It sounds like a waste of good alcohol.

Nail polish remover (Acetone) is what you want, it's the best s*** for removing thermal gunk.

Bicardi 151 will also do it if you have a ready supply of that available ^_^

Nail polish remover has a bunch of other s*** in it that can eat the crap out any plastics it might get on, like capacitors yum yum. But yeh, it will work if you're careful with it.

Bunnings - known as Isopropyl Alcohol

Nail polish remover (Acetone) is what you want

No you don't and any serious hardware guy knows this.

What you really want is Isopropyl Alcohol from Bunnings or Mitre10, usually in the paint section.

Oh yeah, Bunnings has everything.

Suprised noone thought of it.

I got a bottle of 99% pure isopropyl alcohol from a pharmacy that I use for such tasks. Works a charm.

What is the purity of the stuff you get from hardware stores parabol?

I <3 Bacardi 151

What is the purity of the stuff you get from hardware stores parabol?

The bottle claims 100% Isopropanol, though I have trouble believing its purity is higher than a more expensive bottle from the chemist ...

Here's a photo:

http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~boldajis/images/isopropanol.jpg

Unless I'm reading the product MSDS incorrectly, >60% purity for the diggers-brand product?

I bought some Artic Clean from CoolPC, was ~10bux and has so far worked great for me. Used it on my 360 and PC.

A little splash of Isocol!

chemists usually have isopropyl alcohol

i have stored up bottles of freon & other cfc aeresols.. take that ozone layer, bam!

I bought some Artic Clean from CoolPC, was ~10bux and has so far worked great for me. Used it on my 360 and PC.

I also use this, it eats it away quickly, and incedently, is the same stuff as the various "Orange Cleaners" that are available.

It has 2 parts to it though the cleaner and then a "purifier"

if you go to a chemist you might have to ask about what is behind the counter

Well I ended up using alcohol wipes of some description. Worked ok.
Installing the Cool Viva VHC-L61 on the Albatron GeForce 6600GT was not particularly easy though (mind you the busted-ass instructions might have had something to do with it: one of the pages was misprinted and instead of English we got Spanish.)
After all that the fan didn't fit under the CPU heat sink but eventually I got it sorted. Thanks for the advice.

I've always been under the impression that Isocol is rubbing alcohol??? Probably has a few bonus chemicals though :/

Yeah Isocol has some other crap in it too I think, we used to get that 99% Isopropyl Alcohol in 1L glass bottles from the chemist up the road to clean PCB's down with after soldering/repairs, haven't bought the stuff for years though so not sure if they still sell it over the counter.