How long does a thermalpaste last in a package?

[PopsicleHustler]

After many different builds with different coolers, I've accumulated large amount of different thermal paste. Cryorig, be quite, thermal grizzly, Corsair etc.

 

Question is - is it still good after 3-5 years of sitting in my drawer, sealed in it's tube?

 

I will be doing a build upgrade for a friend next week, and not sure if I can use some of my stuff. Thermal Grizzly Cryonaut I've had for less than 2 years, so that should be good still. 

[Jumballi]

Depends on the stuff, but as it's just a compound, it should be inert until placed in a situation that causes it to go through a physical/chemical transformation. I.E. heat and pressure from being used between the cpu and heatsink.

I've used stuff that's 10 years old and if it looks the same coming out of the tube as it did then, then it's good to be used now.

[Spotty]

Depends on the paste, but a few years is normally fine. Just check the paste when you go to use it that it still has a consistent texture. If it looks like it has separated or dried in to a thick paste then don't use it.

[CompletelyNormalHumanGuy]

8 minutes ago, Jumballi said:

Depends on the stuff, but as it's just a compound, it should be inert until placed in a situation that causes it to go through a physical/chemical transformation. I.E. heat and pressure from being used between the cpu and heatsink.

I've used stuff that's 10 years old and if it looks the same coming out of the tube as it did then, then it's good to be used now.

That's given it's a good quality compound. Have you ever opened an old cheap paste that came with Aliexpress stuff 10 years ago? That stuff can be funky

[Jumballi]

1 minute ago, CompletelyNormalHumanGuy said:

That's given it's a good quality compound. Have you ever opened an old cheap paste that came with Aliexpress stuff 10 years ago? That stuff can be funky

If I pour the paste and some chunky powder comes out, yeah not staying on the CPU.

But I've been surprised by the shelf life of even the cheap stuff, never hurts to pull out the tube and give it a shot.

[CompletelyNormalHumanGuy]

Just now, Jumballi said:

If I pour the paste and some chunky powder comes out, yeah not staying on the CPU.

But I've been surprised by the shelf life of even the cheap stuff, never hurts to pull out the tube and give it a shot.

Very true, Some stuff last's an eternity, in that case it becomes a guessing game of whether or not it was adequate paste to begin with lol

 

I've opened a few 10 year old, satchel-packaged, aliexpress included pastes recently. They were so bad that it was half chunky powder, half liquid. Wild to think that someone thought it would be appropriate to use it on electronics lol

[CompletelyNormalHumanGuy]

3 minutes ago, Jumballi said:

If I pour the paste and some chunky powder comes out, yeah not staying on the CPU.

But I've been surprised by the shelf life of even the cheap stuff, never hurts to pull out the tube and give it a shot.

But also, I will always just use NT-H2 on everything. Even if a cooler has pre-applied paste I take it off and use NT-H2. But I am more anal than most

[Jumballi]

14 minutes ago, CompletelyNormalHumanGuy said:

But also, I will always just use NT-H2 on everything. Even if a cooler has pre-applied paste I take it off and use NT-H2. But I am more anal than most

With my now years of experience, I've learned one thing, casual people don't care, and if you're not overclocking, you also shouldn't care.

[CompletelyNormalHumanGuy]

1 hour ago, Jumballi said:

With my now years of experience, I've learned one thing, casual people don't care, and if you're not overclocking, you also shouldn't care.

That's a shit opinion then.

[freeagent]

I’ve got some Gelid stuff that came with my Z77 OCFormula.. was sealed and never been used and is as hard as a rock.

[CompletelyNormalHumanGuy]

2 hours ago, freeagent said:

I’ve got some Gelid stuff that came with my Z77 OCFormula.. was sealed and never been used and is as hard as a rock.

Now you have a self defense rock at your desk, so that's probably worth it

[Jumballi]

14 hours ago, CompletelyNormalHumanGuy said:

That's a shit opinion then.

Bad opinion maybe, but factually correct when taking account that games are, unless you have a 4090, gpu limited and having a degree or two difference from preapplied to custom applied applications makes zero difference in even CPU bound applications.

 

The only time the thermal paste application should be brought into question is when you’re over heating the part, because only then does it downclock and provide less performance in a desktop based scenario.

[Whatisthis]

23 hours ago, Jumballi said:

Bad opinion maybe, but factually correct when taking account that games are, unless you have a 4090, gpu limited and having a degree or two difference from preapplied to custom applied applications makes zero difference in even CPU bound applications.

 

The only time the thermal paste application should be brought into question is when you’re over heating the part, because only then does it downclock and provide less performance in a desktop based scenario.

Until the crap paste dries out and then you start having weird problems…

[CDR_Xavier]

3 year paste?

Ooh. I have a tube of NH-4 2016 edition I used a few month ago on some CPUs and GPUs. It seem to be even better than some of the (newer) stuff that's on there, although none of the machines are younger than the paste anyway (lol).

You will be fine. Usually the paste "goes bad" when it dries out. Or if it's total junk, then you will have separation. And those aren't really worth to be used in the first place.