Thermal paste curiosity

[mao91]

Okay, so, I KNOW that MX-4 is better than Silver 5 in both performance, safety, and cure time. I know. 

However, I still have some Silver 5 in my desk drawer from a build I did a few years ago. Am I safe to go ahead and use it, or is there a compelling enough reason here for me to fork out an extra ten bucks to order some MX-4? 

[GoldenLag]

Providing it hasnt dried out. I see no reason why you couldnt use the old paste. 

[Windows7ge]

Unless you're doing something extreme pretty much all well known well branded aftermarket compound will perform well-in near enough the same as one another. I use to use Arctic Silver 5 and it works fine even for 4.5GHz overclocks on 8 core cpus but I stopped using thermal paste all together so I guess the choice is yours.

[mao91]

15 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

Providing it hasnt dried out. 

That's the question here. I'll check it tonight.

 

12 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Unless you're doing something extreme pretty much all well known well branded aftermarket compound will perform well-in near enough the same as one another. I use to use Arctic Silver 5 and it works fine even for 4.5GHz overclocks on 8 core cpus but I stopped using thermal paste all together so I guess the choice is yours.

The question here is mostly a matter of shelf life. I'm hoping the old paste is still good. If it is, by all means I'll use it.

[Windows7ge]

4 minutes ago, B.Toast said:

That's the question here. I'll check it tonight.

 

The question here is mostly a matter of shelf life. I'm hoping the old paste is still good. If it is, by all means I'll use it.

So long as you kept the cap on the end I'd expect it to be. Just check the viscosity. If it's all clumpy and clotty I'd throw it out but if it comes out like toothpaste you're good.

[mao91]

On 6/18/2019 at 11:17 AM, Windows7ge said:

So long as you kept the cap on the end I'd expect it to be. Just check the viscosity. If it's all clumpy and clotty I'd throw it out but if it comes out like toothpaste you're good.

It was perfectly fine. Thanks!