How often should I replace thermal paste on my 8700K

[GamerBlake]

Hey guys,

 

I've noticed that the idle temps of my PC are about 10 degrees (celsius) over what they were when I first built my PC.

 

Normally it's 38-40C at idle and then up to 85-90C under a full load while benchmarking.

 

Note: My CPU is overclocked @ 4.7 GHz all cores.

 

The thing is I don't know if it's because I need to replace my thermal paste (Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut) or if my PC is just warmer because it's summertime now and I live in California where the temperature is regularly over 100 degrees outside. I'm sure that with the fans circulating warm air and the ambient temperatures already in the 80s it would affect cooling right?

 

I have an EVGA 280mm AIO and 2x 120mm case fans for cooling. I took the glass panel off the front of my NZXT H510 Elite case to help with airflow.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[SavageNeo]

like every 2-3 years probably.

[GamerBlake]

1 minute ago, Dean0919 said:

Hi, on load 85-90 isn't a good temperature and if I were you I wouldn't overclock the CPU if I had this result. First advice I would give you is to downclock back to factory and see the result on load. If it's still so bad, I would suggest you to replace thermal paste and use the good one. Personally I used Arctic (brand) thermal greases and they seem good. If this still doesn't help, than I would advice you to get a better cooler, especially if you want to overclock your PC. Your main goal should be to have good temps both on idle and load, preferably less than 80 on load.

 

As for replacing thermal paste... I would say you should replace it as soon as you notice higher temps. No need to replace it if temps are good.

I actually did downclock from 5 Ghz to 4.7 and it stays around 80C under full load.

 

It used to do 78C Max @ 5 Ghz.

 

The thing is I still have 3/4 of a tube of Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and I would hate to have to buy another tube when I have some already.

 

Linus did a video where he showed most of the big name thermal pastes are similar in performance with a 1-2 degrees variance.

 

They even tried toothpaste and peanut butter for fun.
 

I built my PC about 2 years ago and that’s the last time I put the original thermal paste on.

 

[GamerBlake]

6 minutes ago, SavageNeo said:

like every 2-3 years probably.

Thanks!  Looks like I have a weekend project.

 

I know some people can do it in like 10 minutes but I’m not one of them  

[Stahlmann]

I wouldn't put a fixed period of time into it. Just do a stress test when you first build the PC (or after you change the paste if you plan to to it). Then write down your numbers. Then do a stress test every few months to see if there is any significant deviation.

[GamerBlake]

1 minute ago, Stahlmann said:

I wouldn't put a fixed period of time into it. Just do a stress test when you first build the PC (or after you change the paste if you plan to to it). Then write down your numbers. Then do a stress test every few months to see if there is any significant deviation.

I used 3D Mark to do the best stress test I could when I built my PC.

 

The results were 78-79C max for all cores @ 5 GHz.

 

Yesterday I was playing Resident Evil 7 for the first time (I’ve had it for years but it always scared the heck out of me) and  I loaded up HW Monitor and it was at like 84-85C max all cores.

 

I turned the fans on my EVGA 2080 Ti XC2 Ultra to 100% to help with air flow. It did increase noise but I have a noise cancelling headset so I couldn’t hear it while playing.

 

 

The thing is I don’t know if it’s my CPU thermal paste or because it’s summertime and in California it gets hot so my room is warm (85 degrees on average) whereas it’s like 65 degrees in the winter so I don’t know if that 20 degrees change in ambient temperature is causing the increased temps or if I need to replace my thermal paste.

 

 

Unplugging my PC and opening it up is a big hassle and I’d prefer not to do it unless necessary.

[For Science!]

idle temps scale fairly well with ambient temperatures, so if the ambient temperature is 10 degrees higher than when you built it, then I don't think its worth repasting.

[Mister Woof]

I'd look into some custom front panel covers for your H510, they're out there. 

 

Additionally, you want to do a thorough cleaning of all the dust out of all components. It can make a big difference.

 

Is the 280 set as intake up front or exhaust on top? It's difficult to tell. If it's up top as exhaust, it will have worse temperatures as your GPU heat waste is being used to cool the AIO. You can improve cpu temperatures somewhat if you change it to front intake at a slight cost to GPU and VRM temperatures.

 

You'll also want to make sure your pump and fans are running properly, as 80-85c just playing RE which isn't really very CPU intensive is somewhat troubling.

 

I'd also consider delidding at some point, if you're comfortable with it. Not only has the paste that you applied started to age, which of course you can easily change, but so has the toothpaste that Intel used between the die and the ihs.

 

What is your cpu VCORE while gaming? Non delidded I wouldn't go over 1.30-35v really, no matter what cooling you have. Also, how high is your LLC set?