Reapplying Thermal Paste

[Punccino]

Do you need to reapply thermal paste? I’ve read somewhere that thermal paste needs to be reapplied every 1-2 years. As anyone ever done so? I never hear anyone doing this or talk of doing it. 

 

I’m so sorry in advice if I’m posting this in the wrong forum. But I’m thankful to anyone who responds! 

[Dedayog]

3 minutes ago, Punccino said:

Do you need to reapply thermal paste? I’ve read somewhere that thermal paste needs to be reapplied every 1-2 years. As anyone ever done so? I never hear anyone doing this or talk of doing it. 

 

I’m so sorry in advice if I’m posting this in the wrong forum. But I’m thankful to anyone who responds! 

On your CPU or GPU?  CPU = every time you change or remove your CPU Cooler.  GPU = never, but some do lower temps after years.  GPU's aren't necessarily meant as a maintenance part, they're fine for many years with the same paste.

 

Do your CPU cuz removing a cooler can move the paste around and create low or empty/high areas.

 

But no, I don't reapply otherwise.  

[Poinkachu]

11 minutes ago, Punccino said:

Do you need to reapply thermal paste? I’ve read somewhere that thermal paste needs to be reapplied every 1-2 years. As anyone ever done so? I never hear anyone doing this or talk of doing it. 

 

I’m so sorry in advice if I’m posting this in the wrong forum. But I’m thankful to anyone who responds! 

At some point you will need to. But pretty sure it's quite long. Unless you use somewhat iffy / defective thermal paste.
 

I generally don't do it until I see a significant raise on temperature. Unless I really need to clean my AIO (meaning I end up having to take off my cooler off my CPU).

 

Why the sentence above kinda contradict each other? because my old PC (i7-870) didn't get a paste rep for 6 years and it was fine. Didn't even took off the cooler when cleaning with canned air, so... yep. (Don't follow this)

[manikyath]

unless you buy absolute garbage paste, you generally dont need to replace thermal paste until the heatsink comes off, at which point it's -best- to replace it.

 

there's a lot of talk on repasting causing temperatures to go down if you do it regularly.. but every time i've tested, and seen people do before & after testing where the heatsink was cleaned of any dust beforehand, the result is 'minimal at best'.

 

IMO a lot of the myths of repasting comes from people repasting their device, and wiping some dust out the heatsink in the process.

[Punccino]

Thank you, @manikyath, @Poinkachu, & @Dedayog!

 

I have no plans of taking off the CPU Cooler! Plus, it’s pinned down to the motherboard. I don’t want to go through that hassle of removing it… I had bought thermal paste has really positive reviews (think it was Arctic something). Thank you so much for your responses!