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Does thermal paste go bad?

mgrinspan
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Maybe a stupid question but I've had a tube of thermal paste hanging out in a drawer for over a year, is it still ok to use?

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It hasn't cured due to heat and air exposure has it?

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I need? ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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Just now, fasauceome said:

It hasn't cured due to heat and air exposure has it?

Not sure, I'm not home at the moment. I'll check when I am.

 

Is that how I can tell if it's still usable? If it hasn't turned to stone?

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2 minutes ago, mgrinspan said:

Not sure, I'm not home at the moment. I'll check when I am.

 

Is that how I can tell if it's still usable? If it hasn't turned to stone?

If it's still liquid you're good. If it's not a fluid when you try to squeeze it it, it's no good

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I need? ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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If it's still a paste, not a solid then you're godd

CPU: Core i9 12900K || CPU COOLER : Corsair H100i Pro XT || MOBO : ASUS Prime Z690 PLUS D4 || GPU: PowerColor RX 6800XT Red Dragon || RAM: 4x8GB Corsair Vengeance (3200) || SSDs: Samsung 970 Evo 250GB (Boot), Crucial P2 1TB, Crucial MX500 1TB (x2), Samsung 850 EVO 1TB || PSU: Corsair RM850 || CASE: Fractal Design Meshify C Mini || MONITOR: Acer Predator X34A (1440p 100hz), HP 27yh (1080p 60hz) || KEYBOARD: GameSir GK300 || MOUSE: Logitech G502 Hero || AUDIO: Bose QC35 II || CASE FANS : 2x Corsair ML140, 1x BeQuiet SilentWings 3 120 ||

 

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4 minutes ago, mgrinspan said:

@fasauceome @OrbitalBuzzsaw Ok, thanks guys :)

If you buy thermal paste again in the future...get non curing/non conductive thermal paste

CPU: Ryzen 7 2700x cooled by Pure Rock Slim // RAM: Gskill Flare X 3200mhz CL14 2x16 32GB// GPU: Powercolor Red Devil RX 6650 XT 8GB// Motherboard: ASRock B450m Pro 4 // PSU: Seasonic G550 Gold 80+ // Storage: 4TB pcie nvme game drive, 512 GB m.2 sata3 OS Drive, 4 TB WD Red HDD // Monitor: Samsung S22D300 21.5" 1080p 60Hz, MSI 27" 1080p 144hz Freesync 1ms display // Peripherals:  Logitech fancy shmancy keyboard and moise with rgb and gaminess stuff, very fancy | Kingston HyperX Cloud Core headset 

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9 minutes ago, Spudbilly said:

If you buy thermal paste again in the future...get non curing/non conductive thermal paste

Any recommendations for better/best paste?

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22 minutes ago, mgrinspan said:

Any recommendations for better/best paste?

A cheap one is mx4 it can be used on gpus as well

CPU: Ryzen 7 2700x cooled by Pure Rock Slim // RAM: Gskill Flare X 3200mhz CL14 2x16 32GB// GPU: Powercolor Red Devil RX 6650 XT 8GB// Motherboard: ASRock B450m Pro 4 // PSU: Seasonic G550 Gold 80+ // Storage: 4TB pcie nvme game drive, 512 GB m.2 sata3 OS Drive, 4 TB WD Red HDD // Monitor: Samsung S22D300 21.5" 1080p 60Hz, MSI 27" 1080p 144hz Freesync 1ms display // Peripherals:  Logitech fancy shmancy keyboard and moise with rgb and gaminess stuff, very fancy | Kingston HyperX Cloud Core headset 

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10 minutes ago, Spudbilly said:

A cheap one is mx4 it can be used on gpus as well

If price wasn't a concern, what would be the best of the best?

 

(How expensive can thermal paste get? $30? Maybe I'll regret asking.)

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arctic silver 5 performs well.

 

Most of the Thermal Grizzly line are expensive and perform among the best.

 

as for actual best thats all a matter of opinion and operating temps

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