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Tried cheap thermal paste on a repair job and it backfired hard
I was fixing a buddy's old gaming rig last month and ran out of my usual Arctic Silver. Figured I'd grab some $3 tube from a local shop in Denver instead of ordering online. That stuff turned into basically glue after 6 months - CPU hit 95c and throttled during a simple game of Valorant. Lesson learned: never cheap out on thermal paste, even for a quick job. Anyone else get burned by off-brand paste?
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joelwells4d ago
Turned into basically glue" is real. That wasn't thermal paste, man. That was a practical joke in a syringe.
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the_anthony3d ago
I actually watched a Gamers Nexus video where they tested a tube of thermal paste that had literally turned into a solid chunk. It was some cheap unbranded stuff from Amazon, like 3 bucks for a 50 gram syringe. They had to cut the whole syringe open with a knife just to get the paste out, and it crumbled like old cheese. People don't realize how much counterfeit thermal paste is floating around on those sites. Stick with Arctic or Noctua, something from a real brand that actually cares about quality control.
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