How Often Should You Reapply Thermal Paste?

edo101

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
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Hi, I have an X58 mobo with CPU and Silver Arrow SB-E cooler. I never reapplied the paste since 2013 when I first assemlbed the cooler. So it's been 8 years. I am giving the computer to my dad for his small video and audio editing. I did stress it and the temps reached 72 C in this winter in Texas. I do have an unopened kryonaut here with me. Wondering if it's worth going through the process of reapplying it?

It is overclocked to 4.0Ghz with HT and it runs at that speed 24/7
 
mx-4/5 is rated for up to 8 years, iirc, and thats about the highest i know of. so, id redo it.
 
what's mx?
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paste
 
Hi, I have an X58 mobo with CPU and Silver Arrow SB-E cooler. I never reapplied the paste since 2013 when I first assemlbed the cooler. So it's been 8 years. I am giving the computer to my dad for his small video and audio editing. I did stress it and the temps reached 72 C in this winter in Texas. I do have an unopened kryonaut here with me. Wondering if it's worth going through the process of reapplying it?

It is overclocked to 4.0Ghz with HT and it runs at that speed 24/7
For you, every eight years.
 
I usually never change mine. If I get temperature problems, or I replace the cooler. Only the latter has ever happened.
 
Only on a couple of items have I had to repaste. One of the graphics card I had, had some pcb flex. The flex would cause pump out. The gpu would progressively get hotter till I needed to repaste.

I also had this problem with a delidded cpu. I should have just used lm on that....
 
Hmm so it sounds like unless I notice the temps are hot, there's no need to reapply. Yeah I think I'm probably gonna just return the Kryonaut then and leave the computer as is. I believe I used Artic Silver 5 or something back in 2013. My dad isn't playing video games on the CPU. just video conversion and edits every now and then. And using Realbench stress test its just at 71C with ambient temp of 75F
 
I have athlon XPs that I pasted with Arctic Silver back 20 some years ago, still work fine now. Heck I have a BP6 I pasted both 300As in it back in the 90s still running fine.
 
Cheap ass white thermal paste is good for more than a decade.
 
Hmm so it sounds like unless I notice the temps are hot, there's no need to reapply. Yeah I think I'm probably gonna just return the Kryonaut then and leave the computer as is. I believe I used Artic Silver 5 or something back in 2013. My dad isn't playing video games on the CPU. just video conversion and edits every now and then. And using Realbench stress test its just at 71C with ambient temp of 75F
Reset it back to default clocks to help keep it reliable for him for years to come. *ducks*
 
Hmm so it sounds like unless I notice the temps are hot, there's no need to reapply. Yeah I think I'm probably gonna just return the Kryonaut then and leave the computer as is. I believe I used Artic Silver 5 or something back in 2013. My dad isn't playing video games on the CPU. just video conversion and edits every now and then. And using Realbench stress test its just at 71C with ambient temp of 75F
If it was me I would remove cooler and clean it. If there is any kind of film on fins I would wash it in hot soapy water (kitchen sink & dish soap), rinse well, and if you have hard water that leaves spots when dry rinse with distilled water. Then set in warm oven (heat oven, turn off, set cooler on rack and leave door cracked open. Convection ovens work even better with their fan circulating air. Also make sure all fans, filters, GPU cooler fins and fan, etc are clean as new. Then use system yourself for a couple days to be sure everything is working as it should.

If you don't want to do all of that, removing cooler, cleaning and replacing TIM is a 15 minute job. That is cheap insurance / use of time versus how long it would take to go over to Dad,s and redo it sometime in the future. That's also assuming Dad doesn't start having problems and not tell you until system won't even boot and run .. at which time it might not be saveable.

I don't know about going back to stock clocks. I've got a couple of these old systems in use (not al the time but often). One is 920 @ 4.2GHz, other is 980 .. think it's stock. Got 920 shortly after they came out and overclocked it. It has never given me a bit of trouble (reason I never change to faster x58 or Xeon CPU.
 
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When temps start rising and there are no other reasons left.
Only other reason is if system is being sold / given away and it's been years sense last changed (if ever). Then is cheap insurance. ;)
 
I generally clean my systems out every 2-3 years. Everything but the mobo comes out, gets washed if needed, case and filters vacuumed (staying the hell away from the mobo), and the HSF comes off, gets washed, and new paste.
 
I'd definitely do it. If you want a really tough job take the heatsinks off that X58 and repaste the northbridge. I've done quite a few X58 boards and that stuff is hard as a rock at this point.
 
When new paste brands/models come out. When I was using Arctic Silver for example years ago, Thermal Grizzly didn't exist, now my build has Grizzly's Kryonaut paste which is sublime and unless they release something that's even better in years to come, can't see myself redoing the paste again until the system is chopped up for an upgrade.
 
Most of us upgrade long before paste is even close to EOL. I'm using newish Thermalright TF8 and really like it. It's heat tranfer rating is 13.8 W/mk which is one of the best below gallium/liquid metal
varients and specs say it's good for 8 years of use which is long time. I suspect that 8 year spec is with maximum heat range, and with less than maximum heat it will last even longer. Started using it in 2018 when it came out, and have heard / seen no complaints. That says a lot in my book.
 
Honestly my systems don't stay together long enough for any paste to pump out.
Same. I haven't run the same processor for more than a year since my Core i7 5960X was new. I ran that setup for about 4 1/2 years.
 
My 2 cents is go ahead and tear it down. do a real good clean up before handing it over. That way you know it's ready to go. Been a Artic silver 5 fan from a long time ago. Run across Thermal Grizzly. Used it since. About to buy some KPE to give a try.
 
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