How often to change thermal paste?

cthulhuiscool

cthulhuiscool

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 15, 2006
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Just a basic questions I've been mulling around a while, how often would you guys recommend I change thermal paste? I live in a fairly moderate climate so it never gets TOO hot, and it isn't particularly dusty so I don't really need to clean inside my case much. My general rule of thumb has been to change the stuff about every year or so on a system with arctic silver paste, and it hasn't solidified by that time. What do you think, is a year okay, should I change it more often or am I doing it too much and wasting paste?
 
I don't know that I've ever heard of anyone changing paste like changing oil or something. Once it is set in there, just leave it alone.
 
Only change it if you remove the cpu heatsink for any reason, other than that leave it.
 
I change the thermal paste less than the # of times I remove the heat sink or on average I apply thermal paste 1 or 2 times total over the 3 to 5 year useful life of a processor that I own. At work I almost never change the thermal paste. Even on systems that are 10+ years old. Yes we still have a few athlon xp systems going strong since 1999 that have never had their thermal compound replaced.
 
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hm so looks like I'm going overboard then, guess I can save some money in the future haha
 
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