I spent $12 on a thermal paste syringe from Amazon and kinda regret it

So my old desktop started hitting 90c under load and I figured it was time to repaste after four years. I grabbed this no-name syringe for like 12 bucks because the name brand stuff was 15 and I wanted to save a couple dollars. Big mistake. The stuff was super runny, like almost watery, and it squeezed out way too fast when I applied it. I had to clean it off twice and try again because I made a mess. After all that my temps only dropped like 3 degrees, so basically nothing. I think I would've been better off just paying the extra 3 bucks for Arctic MX-4 or something. Has anyone else tried those cheap mystery thermal pastes and gotten burned?

2 comments

2 Comments

kim.sandra26d agoTop Commenter

Yeah, that sounds about right. I grabbed a tube of some generic gray stuff off Amazon once and it was like applying thinned out toothpaste. The pump was all wrong and it globbed out. I got better results just using the stuff that came preapplied on a cooler. Sucks but sometimes you really do get what you pay for with this stuff.

olivere3024d ago

You're wrong about the generic stuff though. I've had great luck with the cheap thermal paste from brands like Arctic or even no-name stuff from Micro Center. The key is knowing the right viscosity - some of that pre-applied paste on coolers is actually worse because it dries out and cracks after a year. The tube consistency thing? That's just about warming it up between your palms for 30 seconds before squeezing. A glob is actually fine because you're supposed to spread it thin yourself or let the heatsink pressure do the work. I've rebuilt three old gaming rigs with $5 paste and temps were better than stock. Maybe you just got a bad batch or didn't prep the surfaces right.