thermal paste Reusing day old thermal paste

[LanerJ]

I did a thermal paste replacement on my PS3 slim yesterday. This morning when I was getting ready for work I noticed a thermal pad on my desk that must have fallen off during disassembly, so I'll need to replace the paste. The processors in the PS3 use so much paste, is there anything I can do to use the existing paste so I don't have to apply brand new paste? My current ideas are

• Scrape the paste off using a plastic tool and stir it up on a glass plate then reapply (to re-integrate oils)
• Scrape the paste off and mix with new paste
• Spread the flattened paste around using a plastic tool and reinstall
• Put a very small bead of paste onto the center of the heat spreaders to hopefully fill air gaps

If I need to re-paste I will, and I can, but I just don't want to if I don't absolutely have to. Thanks for you help.

 

* For reference, attached is an image I made showing the PS3 RSX and CELL/BE processors in next to a Ryzen AM4 processor (some small inaccuracies likely, I am not a scientist)

[manikyath]

i do this a lot more than i'd like to admit, my usual thing is to just leave stuff where it is, and place a small extra dot in the center to squeeze out, in case any spots ended up clear.. but that's probably more to put myself at ease than it is actually making a difference.

 

honestly, as long as you're not dealing with direct die stuff, keeping "relatively fresh" paste on your cooler is fine enough. you might see a degree of difference, but nothing worth worrying about.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, 8tg said:

consider the thermal paste application from the factory was basically a squirt gun vaguely aimed in the center of the ihs

it was probably a purpose made applicator making a thin spread job similar to what's pre-applied to some cpu coolers... but same difference.