That $15 thermal paste I thought was snake oil actually dropped my temps by 8 degrees

Built a new rig back in March and was getting annoyed by my CPU hitting 85C under load in Cinebench. Friend kept pushing this cheap mystery paste from a Micro Center impulse bin. I laughed at him for a month. Finally caved and repasted last Tuesday. Idle temps dropped 4 degrees, load temps dropped 8. Made zero sense to me. Someone explain how that works because I still don't get it.

3 comments

3 Comments

rowan66624d ago

Wait is that the same thermal paste I grabbed from the bottom shelf at Micro Center for like eight bucks? That stuff is magic I swear. I had a similar thing happen with my old Ryzen build. I was using some name brand stuff and getting high 70s under gaming load. Swapped to that cheap grey goop and boom dropped straight to 69-71. It felt like I was being pranked or something. Still have no clue how it works but man I'm not gonna question it now.

paige87024d ago

Man, that's wild! I totally get the confusion though, sometimes the cheap stuff just works better for no good reason. Glad you got those temps down, that must feel like a win after putting up with it for months.

johnson.ryan17d ago

Wondering if the cheap paste spreads better since it's thinner so it fills the gaps more evenly.