Hi
I am fitting a new motherboard to my pc. I have removed the cpu and heatsink from the old mb but the cpu is stuck to the heatsink with a double sided pad. Is there some easy way to seperate the two or is it brute force!!! and a sharp blade.

Hello Malc,

This is a thermal pad or paste, a sharp blade would do it but might I suggest you use an eye drop of white spirt between heatsink and CPU if you can, that'll do it, then clean the CPU throughly with touch of white spirit, same goes for fan, it is really important that whatever you reuse is clean and dry, then re-apply thermal tape, about £5-00 from Maplins, do not not do this and don't use paste, it's to messy use tape.
johanus

Thanks, tried the blade as I didn't have any white spirit. Came off eventually. There should be a better way of fixing these things really.

Yes it can be a sod of a job, still you have done it now,

The tape does two things, it sticks fan unit to CPU but more importantly the tape/paste helps disapate heat and protect the CPU, so don't skimp on this.
johanus