Heard a guy at Micro Center say thermal paste doesn't expire and had to speak up

I was standing in the checkout line last Saturday at the Micro Center in Denver and this guy behind me tells his friend that thermal paste is basically good forever, just spread it and go. I had to jump in because I literally ruined a build six months ago using a tube I found in my old parts box from 2019. It was all dried out and crumbly, and my CPU was hitting 95 degrees under load before I realized the paste was the problem. I told him that paste can separate or harden over time, especially if the seal is broken or it's been sitting in a hot garage. He looked at me like I was crazy until the cashier backed me up with a story about a customer who had the same issue. Anyone else ever grab old paste and regret it immediately?

2 comments

2 Comments

james_campbell1227d ago

Gasped out loud when you said 95 degrees man. That's a heart attack for any CPU right there. I had a similar moment with some Arctic Silver from 2017 that looked fine in the tube but went on like dried out peanut butter. The pump and spread was so uneven I had to scrape it all off with a plastic spudger.

patriciah5127d ago

See I gotta push back a little on that. 95 degrees is definitely hot but it depends on the chip and what you're doing. Some of these newer CPUs are designed to run hot and boost until they hit their thermal limit. It's not ideal but it's not instant death either. And that Arctic Silver story, man I've been there too but I actually had the opposite experience with some old paste. Sometimes it just looks bad but still works okay if you spread it thin enough. You really only need a tiny amount anyway, like a grain of rice or even less for some chips. Scraping it all off sounds tedious but better safe than sorry I guess. I just think people panic a little too fast about temps and paste these days.