Pro tip: Old thermal paste vs the new stuff is no contest

I remember back in 2010 when I first built my own PC, I just used whatever white goop came with the CPU cooler. It worked ok, temps were fine for gaming. Fast forward to last month, I grabbed a $7 tube of Arctic MX-4 off Amazon cause my old laptop was hitting 95 degrees. Slapped that on after cleaning off the crusty old paste, and bam, dropped 15 degrees right away. The consistency is way better too, spreads easy without making a mess. Made me realize I was honestly wasting money on pre-applied pads that come with cheap coolers. Anyone else notice a huge jump from that old white stuff to the new grey thermal compounds?

2 comments

2 Comments

johnson.lee8d ago

Just let the paste dry and the temps will level out again.

ivan_perez8d ago

lol the whole "just let it dry and temps will level out" thing reminds me of when my buddy built his first PC and used way too much paste thinking more = better. He had it oozing out the sides like a bad toothpaste commercial. @johnson.lee that advice might work if you used something super thick but modern pastes are designed to work right away. Actually my favorite paste story is from like 2017 when I helped a coworker clean his gaming rig and we found the paste had basically turned into literal dust stuck to the IHS. Took us an hour of careful scraping with a plastic spudger to get it off without scratching anything.