Cracking Open an IBM PowerPC 603e - 100MHz MCM

[Chriscosmo12]

Opened this up last week when opening up my first IBM 4381. All of the pins on the backside fell off into a pile in the process, and some capacitors are missing. Luckily I have two of these, and chose to open the one with mashed pins anyways. Unsure if I should attempt to open the second one to see if it has a different die layout? Curious as to how some people have 603e models with two blue dies in place of the four rectangular tan ones on mine. Gotta find a way to clean it up better, already scratched off most of the thermal residue with a plastic tool but, still quite a bit left. Really beautiful for a small chip!

[rjluna2]

You can clean it up with goo cleaner

https://googone.com/

Then you can clean up the goo cleaner with the Isopropyl alcohol.

That is how I clean up with CPU with thermal paste residue.

[Chriscosmo12]

Dang, googone will get rid of this stuff? Wasn't expecting that!

[rjluna2]

It does wonders for that

[Chriscosmo12]

Went to the store today and picked up some googone. Left it on for 30 seconds, it got rid of a decent amount of thermal goop. Tried for 20 minutes again, didn't get much more off, whatever they used is suuuper tough and the chip is looking pretty rough already. In the process of taking pictures, I got a couple really beautiful shots. Crazy how some colors change based on your viewing angle.

EDIT: Apparently one of the dies fell off and had googone underneath it... dunno if it chewed through the bonding apoxy. Cleaned it off and put a dab of superglue to get it back on. Oh well.

[rjluna2]

My suggestion to use the cotton swab with the goo gone to remove the surface area of the die and its surrounding area.

[pixelmanca]

Goo Gone isn't a very good solvent for thermal paste.

Brake cleaner is a much better solvent and it will get it all off with hardly any effort.

Use isopropyl alcohol and Q-Tips dipped in isopropyl alcohol to clean all of the brake cleaner off afterwards.

[Chriscosmo12]

Ah yeah, I used lots of cotton swabs. I did see CPUGalaxy use brake cleaner, I could certainly give that a try sometime. This poor chip has gone through a lot lol

[CPUShack]

Preferably brake cleaner that has Xylene in it (works alot better)

[DM8800er]

I, too, have used brake cleaner.
But, if you have the time, it's less of an assault on the environment to just use wood toothpicks to scrape off the majority of the thermal paste -- and then use Q-tips or even just Kleenex to get the last bits off.

[Chriscosmo12]

Oh toothpicks are a good idea, I'll have to pick some up. I primarily use qtips to clean things and they're too soft, xacto knives sort of scratch at ceramic. I'll probably be getting another 603e from John, will have to decide if I crack open the second one I have or the one I may get.

[Chriscosmo12]

Also to add, I may try using force to break off the heatsink from one of these, since I'd like a pristine one with all the caps and whatnot. Unsure if it's possible, but if people can drill a screw into the heatsink and pry it off surely some other force can do the same.

[pixelmanca]

I caution you against that 'Chriscosmo12', there really is no other way to get it to come off, due to the amount of silicon glue that they used to attach the heat spreader lid to it on the sides and on the top under the lid.

The safest way is to use the screw method, just be careful not to hit anything inside with the drill bit for a pilot hole and then the screw when its put into the hole.

[pixelmanca]

[CPUShack]