How long has it been since you checked/changed the TIM on your cpu?

oldmanbal

oldmanbal

2[H]4U
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Aug 27, 2010
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Most people never touch it after their initial install but you would be very surprised at the temp reductions you can get from just reseating your hs with a fresh coating.
 
About 6 years. Still @ 43 degrees C. at idle. Maybe 2 degrees higher than when I put the goo on all those years ago.
 
Yeah my Q6600 went 6 years on the same MX-2 and I never saw any change.
Same result on my 4670K at the 4 year mark.

I had two rigs go 8 years on Arctic Silver 5, but they weren't high-usage PCs. There was definitely some temp increase there.
 
A little over a year ago when I applied it.

I have backed my clock off from 4.5ghz to 4.375ghz because it really didn't matter to what I do.
 

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i went 7 years with my last system without changing it or removing the heatsink.. TIM looked exactly as it did when i put it on. most times where i see problems with long term use of the same TIM is when systems don't get used for long periods of time and it eventually hardens.
 
I use Ceramic Thermal paste which has less issues drying out or separating. It obviously isn't the top performer, but I am willing to give up a couple degrees so I don't have to re-apply it and not worry about shorting something out if I accidentally smear it on something I'm not supposed to. I'm still using a tube of Arctic Ceramique I bought 10+ years ago. My current build is on year 6 without reseating the HSF, and its been running OC at a conservative 4.3ghz since day one.
 
Never changed it after the first application, never had problems.
 
I just swapped to a new case and air cooler. Case is a lot quieter and not a huge difference in heat. I guess that was the difference.
 
Have not touched mine since 2013.
3770K @ 4,5. Evo 212 and Akasa 455 paste. 99,8% uptime since the build date.
Temps are unchanged.
 
A few months. Just replaced the X31 with an X62. I will say the last time I used AS5 it dried out after just 3 years. Been using MX-4 ever since and it has always still been viscous whenever I removed the cooler.
 
Not since initial install way back in.... Nov '09 lol

Idle temp: 40c.
Load: 55-58c
 
Went 6 years with the TIM that came with my Zalman cooler on my 2600k. Temps today are the same as back in 2011.
 
I would imagine if you used the dodgy white stuff that Fry's used to sell or that used to come included with cheap knock-offs of Golden Orbs, etc. it might be a good idea to redo that every so often. But in all the years I have used retail (boxed) heatsinks from AMD/Intel I have never had to redo the thermal paste.
 
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