$22 thermal paste was the worst money I ever spent on a repair job

So a customer brings in a gaming PC last month, says it shuts off during games, and I'm thinking easy, probably dust or a dying fan. I pull the cooler off and the old paste is basically chalk, so I run to the store and grab a $22 tube of the fancy stuff with the good reviews. Put it on, fire up a stress test, and the temps are somehow worse than before, like 12 degrees hotter. Turns out I used way too much and it squeezed out over the socket edge like frosting on a cupcake. Had to pull everything apart, clean it with alcohol for 20 minutes, and redo it with a $6 basic tube, which worked fine. Anyone else ever get burned by fancy paste or is it just me being careless with the pea sized amount rule?

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leep331mo ago

Honestly the cheap stuff works just fine for most builds, and a whole tube lasts forever. The pea sized rule is real but even a little too much usually won't wreck your temps that bad. Sounds like that fancy paste just wasn't worth the markup in your case.

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