Serious question: is thermal paste really necessary or are we all wasting our time?

I was swapping out a CPU cooler on my old i5-4690k last weekend and I see half the forums saying you absolutely need to reapply thermal paste every time you touch the cooler. But then I talked to a guy at Micro Center who said he's been running the same paste for 4 years with no temp issues. I tested it myself with a spare motherboard and saw only a 3 degree difference between fresh paste and the old dried stuff under load. Has anyone else actually measured temps before and after to see if this whole ritual really matters?

3 comments

3 Comments

evan_jenkins24d ago

Play devil's advocate here, but 3 degrees under load is practically nothing for 99% of users. You'd never notice that difference in day to day use unless you're running prime95 for hours. All that panic about dried out paste causing thermal shutdowns is way overblown. Most stock coolers ship with pre applied paste that lasts years without issues, so clearly the manufacturers aren't treating it like some critical consumable. Plus the risk of screwing up an application and mounting a cooler wrong is way higher than letting old paste sit another year or two.

jamiekim1mo ago

Micro Center guy is living on borrowed time. 3 degrees isn't worth the hassle though.

mason_foster681mo ago

Jamie, actually 3 degrees is a bigger deal than most people think for CPU longevity.

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