Finally switched thermal paste after 6 years and the temp difference was wild

I had this old gaming rig I built back in 2018, never touched the CPU cooler. Kept seeing temps hit 85-90C under load, figured it was just the case airflow. Last week I finally peeled off the cooler and that paste was basically dust, hard as a rock. Threw on some new thermal grizzly stuff for $12, did a repaste, and now it sits at 68C max after an hour of gaming. Kinda mad at myself for ignoring it so long. What's the longest you guys have gone before changing yours?

2 comments

2 Comments

jason7526d ago

Oh man, I did the exact same thing with my old FX-8350 build back in the day. Let that paste sit for like 5 years before I finally checked it and it was basically cement. I swear I dropped like 15 degrees just from a fresh application of Arctic Silver, nothing fancy. It is wild how much people sleep on thermal paste when it is probably the cheapest and easiest fix for high temps. Makes you wonder why we all wait so long to do it when the results are that obvious.

johnb956d ago

Man I gotta tell ya, my buddy Tom had this old gaming rig he built in like 2012 and he swore it was just getting slow and hot for no reason. He finally brought it over to my place and we cracked it open and the thermal paste was literally flaking off like dried mud, I'm not even joking. We cleaned it up, slapped on some cheap paste I had lying around, and his temps dropped so much he thought I'd screwed up and added a water cooler or something. He texted me later that night all excited saying his computer didn't sound like a jet engine anymore. It's crazy how long people let it go, especially when it takes like ten minutes and costs less than a bag of chips.