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I'm replacing the heatsink on my CPU, and want to clear the current thermal paste.

What should I do?

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are you sure it's thermal paste? you might just need a toothbrush. – quack quixote Apr 17 '10 at 14:38
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Use rubbing alchohol. It cuts the grease and dries quickly/safely for electronics.

The preferred way to remove typical silicone oil-based thermal grease from a component or heat sink is by using isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol). If none is available, pure acetone is also a valid method of removal.

From Wikipedia

Also the suggestion to use a credit card/business card to scrape off the paste first is a good idea.

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-1 just because you're too lazy to insert a proper link. – Josh K Apr 17 '10 at 14:36
Well now you had to go and put in fancy quotes. – Josh K Apr 17 '10 at 14:37
@Josh K: I just threw the link up while I was writing a more complete answer... When the raw link updated, at first I thought it was a snazzy SO feature to automatically beautify raw links! – Leftium Apr 17 '10 at 14:47
Yep, I'm fancy. :) – Josh K Apr 17 '10 at 15:19
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up vote 3 down vote

I have always scraped it off with a credit card, then used alcohol applied with paper towels and a q-tip to clean the residue.

EDIT: Wikipedia seems to agree.

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just be careful not to leave fibers from the paper towel or q-tip. – quack quixote Apr 17 '10 at 14:36
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