I swore by thermal paste reapplication every 6 months until I tested it myself

Been building and repairing PCs for about 7 years now. Always heard you gotta swap thermal paste twice a year or your CPU will cook itself. Last month I finally decided to test it on a rig I built for my buddy in 2021. Left the original paste on, ran Cinebench and recorded temps. Then I cleaned it off and applied fresh Arctic MX-4, ran the same test again. Temps were identical within 1 degree. I know paste dries out over years but 6 months seems like a total myth for anyone not running some extreme overclock. Has anyone else run their own test on this or am I missing something?

3 comments

3 Comments

anna_fox715d ago

read some test where 5 year old paste only lost like 2 degrees

ben_nguyen15d ago

Used to think fresh paste mattered way more, but that's pretty convincing honestly.

caleb_thomas9315d ago

What kind of paste was on it originally though? I feel like the cheap stock stuff might degrade way faster than something like Kryonaut.