is it safe to use same thermal paste after CPU cooler was adjusted multiple times?

[graberweg]

So admittedly I copied a little bit of what Stephen Burke (from Gamer's Nexus) did and bought the same Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 for my AMD Ryzen 3950x. The problem I encountered though is the hoses going from the radiator / fans assembly to the AIO contact plate was like trying to mount a CPU cooler attached to high tension springs because I had a hell of a time trying to properly orient the screw holes on the contact plate to the motherboard and somehow screw everything into place with no help in one shot (ideally) which I failed miserably at. What ended up happening after I put a nice pea size amount of thermal paste over the CPU was I tried to sit the AIO contact plate on top of the CPU but it moved out of place 5 to 10 times on its own due to the tension and stiffness of the hoses but I moved it back into place and fought with it for close 30+ minutes before I was able to fasten it into place successfully. Is it bad that the AIO contact plate made contact with CPU cooler and paste, then got detached several times? I always thought once you put on the thermal paste onto the CPU, you sit the cooler on top immediately and you don't mess with it after that but in my case the f#@$king contact plate kept moving out of place before I could screw it in .

 

Each time the AIO contact plate moved however I could see the thermal paste did make good coverage on the CPU (not too much, not too little) but it just got sloppier each time the contact plate detached. Should I be worried and clean off all thermal paste and start over?

[graberweg]

Just for further clarification, none of the thermal paste got onto the motherboard or anywhere else except onto the AIO contact plate and the CPU only so I'm assuming none of the paste was "lost" or smudged out of place onto somewhere it doesn't belong during my hour long struggle.

[Falkentyne]

4 minutes ago, graberweg said:

Just for further clarification, none of the thermal paste got onto the motherboard or anywhere else except onto the AIO contact plate and the CPU only so I'm assuming none of the paste was "lost" or smudged out of place onto somewhere it doesn't belong during my hour long struggle.

It's best to apply new paste always and apply it in the X pattern edge to edge to each corner of the IHS (but small lines, not thick), not re-use old paste, but if you are absolutely short on paste in an emergency, you can spread it very thin on both surfaces then remount, but that won't give the best temps.

 

The diagonal X pattern gives the best coverage and is better than the single middle dot method.

Of course, on ANY direct die mounts, the paste MUST be spread manually.

[Ralphred]

When you use the paste it is quite a fluid substance, so constant adjusting of the faces it is supposed to be "bonding" (which is what it's doing, thermal bonding) isn't ideal.

After a while the solvent that gives the compound it's fluidity dries out and any movement of the two faces breaks down the bond irrevocably. This isn't going to happen during a prolonged install though.

 

From what you have described you are in the 50:50 area of maybe not getting proper thermal contact. If it was me, I'd be looking for poor cooling performance and replacing ASAP when I saw this, maybe straight away, maybe in about half the expected life of the bond.

If you are confident you have a technique down that could guarantee a better bond next time round, do it now while you remember how, if not, just keep an eye on temps.

 

[graberweg]

I haven't switched on my computer at all... yet. Sounds like I will have to clean everything off and try again with an extra set of hands plus I don't have any more thermal paste. I used up the one that came with the cooler argh. I don't want to ruin my CPU either. This is a brand new build.

[Mick Naughty]

It’s completely safe and more often than not, you won’t be able to notice the difference. 

 

Its just not ideal. 

[graberweg]

I went ahead and put in an order for more of the same thermal paste that came with my AIO cooler (Arctic MX-4) to arrive by tomorrow since Thermal Grizzly won't arrive to my home until New Years Eve or as late as February. I'm gonna clean off the sloppy mess off the CPU and have a friend come over to as an extra set of hands to do this correctly and in one shot. The suspense is killing me to fire this beast up

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 3.5 GHz 16-Core Processor	$749.00 @ Best Buy
CPU Cooler	ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 280 72.8 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard	MSI MEG X570 UNIFY ATX AM4 Motherboard	$299.99 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$169.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$501.53 @ Amazon
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card	$399.00 @ Amazon
Case	Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C ATX Mid Tower Case	$141.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	SeaSonic PRIME Ultra Titanium 650 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$140.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$2422.48
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$2402.48
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-23 15:39 EST-0500