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Toothpaste as Temporary Thermal Paste replacement?

DrDerp
By DrDerp
in Cooling
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Okay, I know the idea is bad, and I know that in general this shouldn’t be done, but I need to test out a Motherboard and have no actual thermal paste on hand. Is it possible to use this as a substitute temporarily?

Who needs fancy graphics and high resolutions when you can get a 60 FPS frame rate on iGPUs?

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oh good god LOL. I'd run it without a cooler using a piece of paper to hand fan the cpu before using tooth paste xD

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toothpaste is designed to be an abrasive.. i'd dare state on this fortress of idealists that running dry is probably better than toothpaste.

 

besides, if its at least somewhat recent, running without a cooler isnt actually as bad as some make it out to be:

 

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3 minutes ago, Revamp said:

oh good god LOL. I'd run it without a cooler using a piece of paper to hand fan the cpu before using tooth paste xD

I did that and it had to be hitting at least 100 degrees after literally ten seconds.

At least that’s what it felt like!

Who needs fancy graphics and high resolutions when you can get a 60 FPS frame rate on iGPUs?

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Just now, DrDerp said:

I did that and it had to be hitting at least 100 degrees after literally ten seconds.

At least that’s what it felt like!

Obvious answer is to put ice cubes on the CPU :S

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Just now, DrDerp said:

I did that and it had to be hitting at least 100 degrees after literally ten seconds.

At least that’s what it felt like!

and thats where a modern cpu goes into self protect mode, and keeps itself running ;)

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Actually I have another question: no paste, just the cooler?

Who needs fancy graphics and high resolutions when you can get a 60 FPS frame rate on iGPUs?

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Just now, DrDerp said:

Actually I have another question: no paste, just the cooler?

as i said, running dry is probably better than any "household pastes"

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use the heatsink without the thermal paste works you will have higher temperatures but it will be in the safe range

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Please do not substitute anything to use on your pc until you get the proper stuff. A $12-$25 usd tube of the proper thermal paste is not worth the loss of your $500 to $1500+ rig.

 

I'm being serious.

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Yes, you can use toothpaste, but I don't recommend it as real thermal paste is pretty cheap.

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www.amazon.com

 

Prime membership / trial membership

 

Add paste into cart

 

Check out

 

Have real thermal paste delivered and not use janky tooth paste

 

 

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I ran my PC and many other PCs, without a heatsink quite a few times to test if the system would boot, if everything was properly detected in the bios, etc...

If you do it for a few minutes, it's perfectly safe, it will get hot, but not deadly hot for it.

 

But if you're intending to use it for much longer than that, just go and buy a tube of thermal paste.

If you can't get any locally because you live in a tiny ass village that doesn't have a computer store, order it online with next day shipping or something.

Don't use toothpaste or any other kind of "paste" you can get in your home. You're just risking losing your expensive hardware because you couldn't be patient.

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If you just want to test, you can without any paste or anything in between the cooler and the processor. Just put the cooler on and turn it on.

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Just don't use anything, the cpu will be 5-10 degrees C hotter and the cooler fan will be noisier but otherwise nothing bad it's gonna happen.

 

Thermal paste is there (applied in a very thin layer) to fill the microscopic holes in the two metals (the top of cpu and the heatsink surface), so even without the paste, you'll still have contact between the metals and heat will be transferred, just not as efficient as with paste applied.

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mayonnaise is better imo

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2 hours ago, DrDerp said:

Okay, I know the idea is bad, and I know that in general this shouldn’t be done, but I need to test out a Motherboard and have no actual thermal paste on hand. Is it possible to use this as a substitute temporarily?

Test a motherboard? As in not stress testing, just making sure it boots? Just don't use anything. As long as you don't run any stress tests just don't use anything...

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2 hours ago, DrDerp said:

Okay, I know the idea is bad, and I know that in general this shouldn’t be done, but I need to test out a Motherboard and have no actual thermal paste on hand. Is it possible to use this as a substitute temporarily?

 

 

 

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Don't you have a local hardware store in your area to go and buy thermal paste?

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better to hit up an automotive store and see what they got then use toothpaste.

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Woah, that’s a lotta responses! I just used the cooler with some pressure on it and tested everything out, it’s all good!

Who needs fancy graphics and high resolutions when you can get a 60 FPS frame rate on iGPUs?

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