Test a pc without thermal paste

[lka]

I got a new pc but can get thermal paste in 2 weeks,so i wonder can i boot up a game for like 5-10 minutes just to see if everything is working correctly.

I am using ryzen 3 1300X with wraith spire cooler.

[Levent]

no, its going to throttle before even you get to launch your game. Also how come you got a new pc that didnt come with thermal paste?

[mariushm]

You can use a cooler without thermal paste, but the thermals will be bad, let's say 10-15 degrees celsius more hot. So your cooler fan will be really loud and your cpu may reduce its frequencies to stay within a reasonable temperature.

 

If its really hot, you could go in bios and intentionally reduce the cpu frequency to something lower, like let's say instead of 3.5 Ghz, go in overclocking menu and reduce the frequency to 2 Ghz... this will lower the cpu's power consumption, so in turn less heat will be produced and so on...

 

Thermal paste is there to fill the empty spaces between the cpu die (the surface of the cpu) and the surface of the heatsink... it's not some magic stuff. The heatsink will still be in contact with the cpu surface without the thermal paste, but it will not be a perfect contact, so the heat transfer will be worse.

 

You should be able to find some local store that has thermal grease or thermal paste, worst case scenario just go to some local store that sells computers or builds computers for people and ask the service guys if they have a half used syringe or a tiny baggy of thermal grease, because you're too poor to buy a retail one from them. Often when they build computers, the coolers come with separate bags of thermal paste and they don't use them, they use big syringes with thermal paste because its often cheaper.