Honestly, I just swapped out a $20 thermal pad for a $5 tube of paste on a GPU and the temps dropped 15 degrees

3 comments

3 Comments

That's wild about the thermal pad swap! I did something similar last year with an old laptop, but I went the other way. The paste was dried out and cracking, so I put a pad on the CPU instead. It actually made things worse for a week until I realized I'd bought one that was way too thick. Had to take the whole thing apart again.

wrenwilson1mo ago

Did you measure the pad thickness before you put it in, or just go with what the package said? I've found the listed specs can be way off sometimes, so now I always check with calipers. What thickness did you end up needing to fix it?

matthew_wilson222mo ago

Ever think about how the pressure from the heatsink changes things? @pipera50, a pad that's too thick doesn't just leave a gap, it can actually push the heatsink up and mess with how it sits on other chips. That uneven pressure might explain why temps got worse across the board, not just on the CPU. It's a whole system fit problem, not just one part not touching.