Thermal coumpound in my socket

[lokishadow]

Computer Specs:

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 motherboard
Intel Core i5-2500K CPU
4x2GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 (PC-10600) RAM
320 GB Seagate 7200 RPM HDD
EVGA GTX 570 Superclocked GPU
HP DVD +/- RW optical drive
OCZ ZX-1000 1000 watt PSU
EVGA Superclock CPU cooler
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

Recently, my motherboard suffered a failure that caused one of the capacitors to blow out. I RMA'd the board and received it back. I reassembled my PC and hit power. It came on for 2 seconds then the breaker in the PSU audibly tripped and it shut down. It attempted to re-start itself 5 seconds later, only to shut down after being on for about 2 seconds. It did this three times before it stopped trying to start itself.

I opened the case and started disconnecting things. I had previously had a SATA cable burn on the HDD, so I disconnected it first, both power and SATA cable. The same issue occurred.

I then disconnected the optical drive, as it is older and was cannibalized from a previous system. Same result.

Next up was the GPU, which I removed from power and from the motherboard. Again, same result.

I removed the RAM, one stick at a time, trying to power on each time. Again, same result.

I then started disconnecting fans, starting with Molex-powered cased fans, then moving on to SYS_2, then SYS_1, then PWR_FAN, then CPU_FAN (just for kicks). Same result.

At this point I was down to my 24-pin board power and 8-pin CPU power. I removed power, and removed the board from the case and inspected it. I was unable to find anything that appeared burned. I removed the CPU cooler and found that thermal compound had squeezed out from between the CPU and the cooler and was touching the perimeter of the socket load plate. I cleaned off what compound I could see VERY carefully using a very soft (lint-free) cloth and 90% isopropyl alcohol. I then removed the CPU from the board and found a hair-thin strand of thermal compound on the socket pins and the underside of the CPU.

A friend recommended that I either attempt to remove the thermal compound using a fine paintbrush (such as used for model painting) and a 97% solution of isopropyl alcohol, or just flat replace board and CPU. He also suggested I take my CPU to the local shop and see if they could drop it in an LGA 1155 board and tell me if it's good or not.

What would the community here recommend? I'm pretty tapped out on money at this point, I blew most of my budget building this beast in the first place. I could afford to replace the motherboard with a lower-end version, or possibly the CPU, but not both.

And, frankly, if both the motherboard and the CPU are toast, I'll probably just wait for taxes and upgrade. Again, what would you recommend?

Thanks in advance.
-Loki

[MaDef]

I think I'd RMA the board and clean the cpu off, then see if it still works on the the replacement board.

[vahne2k]

When you cleaned the Thermal Compound or Thermal gel, did you re apply a new thermal compound or gel?