How often do you replace thermal compound?

MangoSeed said:
Never. Replacing thermal paste used to be big back in the day but it was mostly hype (as usual).
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You should see the piss poor job OEMs do on GPU TIM application.

I've seen improvements of nearly 10 degrees by using new TIM. Most of the time the GPU TIM looks like clay, very dry. Which does a poor job of transferring heat.
 
I've always seemed to pick pretty stable compounds to use like Ceramique and MX-4, so I normally only change the paste for upgrades or disassembly.

I still have bad dreams of how many friend's pcs I got asked to fix back when the OEMs liked to use those thick pink TIM pads that felt like plastic mixed with bubble gum. After a year or two they'd start having overheating problems and fixing it was a PITA because that plastic like TIM pad had to be cut off and scraped with a razor sometimes lol
 
Gman1979 said:
I've always seemed to pick pretty stable compounds to use like Ceramique and MX-4, so I normally only change the paste for upgrades or disassembly.

I still have bad dreams of how many friend's pcs I got asked to fix back when the OEMs liked to use those thick pink TIM pads that felt like plastic mixed with bubble gum. After a year or two they'd start having overheating problems and fixing it was a PITA because that plastic like TIM pad had to be cut off and scraped with a razor sometimes lol
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Goo-gone followed by high proof iso-alc worked miracles on that stuff.
 
well op for starters when you decide to go custom or slap an aio with a bracket. You will replace the tim with your choice e.g coolans, shin etsu etc, and when you are an enthusiast who upgrades everyear then you will do it yearly when cleaning +upgrading parts,
 
Gman1979 said:
I've always seemed to pick pretty stable compounds to use like Ceramique and MX-4, so I normally only change the paste for upgrades or disassembly.

I still have bad dreams of how many friend's pcs I got asked to fix back when the OEMs liked to use those thick pink TIM pads that felt like plastic mixed with bubble gum. After a year or two they'd start having overheating problems and fixing it was a PITA because that plastic like TIM pad had to be cut off and scraped with a razor sometimes lol
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I'm with Gman1979 - only change it out if I have to pull the heatsink for something, and I use similar compounds that he does. I've got some that are on 5+ years with old Arctic Silver (whatever version it was 5+ years ago) and still going well.

Granted, I don't do bleeding edge overclocks, that may make a difference.

Those pink pads are the worst.
 
had the same arctic silver on my old 2500k which ran 24/7 at 4.5 under a h100 since the release of the h100. Thermal compound was fine when i moved the h100 to my new system (until i go with a custom loop). So unless you notice some larger temp changes, or you use that shitty white crap, you dont need to. Thermal compounds have come a long way
 
About every two to three years. Not needed most the time but I enjoy working on the machine.
 
Unless temps are becoming an issue, I leave it alone. I will usually redo the paste on a GPU if I buy it used though.
 
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