My thermal paste hasn't arrived yet and I am ready to build my pc

[Tech Geek 101]

Hi all 

My thermal paste hasn't arrived yet and all the other components have is there any easily sauceable substitute to it that I can use for a short time untill my thermal paste arrives? 

[RONOTHAN##]

Didn't your CPU cooler come with thermal paste?

[saintlouisbagels]

Your CPU cooler might come with pre-applied thermal paste or a syringe.

[JogerJ]

if you just want to see if the CPU boots you could bare metal to the cooler but it's definitely not recommended and could cause damage if CPU overheats. You can do a quick power on, check post, power off. Surely if you buy boxed CPU it comes with a thermal paste/preapplied? Please just wait for thermal paste to arrive

[BobVonBob]

Is there thermal paste already on or provided with the cooler you're using? Unless you're reusing an old cooler there almost certainly is.

 

If you don't have thermal paste, just don't. There's no good substitute for thermal paste that you'd have in your house.

[saintlouisbagels]

Actually no. I'm gonna go against the grain.

Yes, there is something else you can use.

 

Toothpaste + Petroleum Jelly

They try it in the first 5 minutes of this video.

 

[An0maly_76]

Yeah, definitely wait. I booted an upgraded i7-2600 with no cooler or paste just to verify operation, but all I did was a quick boot, play some video clips and then shut it right back down. Even with a 4-core, 8-thread processor this was risky.  Don't run it without paste, you stand a high risk of overheating and unwarrantied damage.

Edited July 7, 2022 by An0maly_76

[aisle9]

Did you get the CPU brand new? If so, there should already be thermal paste on the stock cooler.

 

Did you get an aftermarket cooler? If so, there's probably either a small syringe or pouch of paste in with it, or the paste is already applied.