Pro tip: Don't cheap out on thermal paste like I did

I built my first PC last summer and grabbed a $3 tube of thermal paste off Amazon. My CPU temps were hitting 85C under load in a week. Turns out that stuff was basically clay with glitter in it. Spent $12 on a decent tube from Arctic and my temps dropped to 65C immediately. Has anyone else gotten burned by bad thermal paste or am I just that dumb?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_zara26d ago

Hold on, 85C under load is high but that's a lot of variables at play. Could be your case airflow or the cooler mount was loose too. A 20 degree drop from just changing paste seems like you fixed more than one problem at the same time. Most stock pastes these days are fine unless you're overclocking hard.

dakotawells26d ago

Saw a thermal test where Kryonaut only dropped temps 2-3 degrees over stock paste.