How often should CPU thermal paste be re-applied?

[Max Dread]

Hi all

I've just recently had to open up my PC for the first time in ages due to a problem I'm having (which I have posted about separately).

Whilst it is open, I'm going to give it a well overdue clean out and get rid of all the dust, etc.

One thing I wondered is whether I should think about removing then adding some fresh thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink. It has been a little over 3 years since I built the PC. The CPU is a Q6600. The heatsink is a ThermalRight XP-120 (if I remember rightly). I used Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste.

Cheers

Max

[Skeintastic]

It shouldn't be necessary unless the original application was faulty which happens more often than anyone wants to admit... Doesn't hurt though, just make sure to clean the part with at least 90% rubbing alcohol. And keep it dry.

Sent from my MB860 using Gearslutz.com

[oldeanalogueguy]

Originally Posted by Max Dread

Hi all

I've just recently had to open up my PC for the first time in ages due to a problem I'm having (which I have posted about separately).

Whilst it is open, I'm going to give it a well overdue clean out and get rid of all the dust, etc.

One thing I wondered is whether I should think about removing then adding some fresh thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink. It has been a little over 3 years since I built the PC. The CPU is a Q6600. The heatsink is a ThermalRight XP-120 (if I remember rightly). I used Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste.

Cheers

Max

everytime you pull the cpu and replug it

[valis]

Some thermal pastes 'dry out', some don't--but I do believe that AS-5 does eventually degrade under heat. Be careful when reapplying silver based pastes as they're conductive so you don't want ANY on your cpu pins or surrounding motherboard components (but you probably know that). Also I recommend 'goo off' aka goo gone or etc orange solvent for the initial removal of paste(s), get the bigger version you can buy at a hardware store and you'll pay $10 for enough to use around the entire house for a long long time. Then get some 100% acetone and use that for the 'final clean'. Isoprobyl alchohol leaves a residue behind unless you get 99% pure, 70 & 90% aren't good enough imo and the 99% is hard to find. You can *easily* see the white film on the right surfaces (like glass) with the 70% form, the 90% form is harder to see the film but it is indeed *still* there.

Also fwiw I use Shin-Etsu X23-7783D paste which will never dry out and is completely nonconductive (unlike silver based pastes). I actually buy a 'knockoff' version off ebay from a supplier who gets it from the same initial chemical plant in Japan (the same supplier that supplies shin etsu chemicals) and pay about $15 for 10 3gram tubes instead of $4 per half a gram tube. It's a bit harder to work with as it's very viscous, but I preheat it (nuke in microwave for 12 seconds or so, or just keep in very hot water until ready to apply) and use the 'pea' method and find my temps on my Xeons are 5-7C cooler than when I've tried AS-5, mx-3/mx-4 or other mainstream brands. There's an older version of shin etsu called g-751 but it's more suitable for chips that don't have a heat spreader and was more common back before AMD chips came with the heat spreader (older cpu packaging), it's sold on newegg under the Mascool brand and I don't recommend it.

[Max Dread]

Thank you both for your responses. Interesting and contrasting views.

Originally Posted by valis

Some thermal pastes 'dry out', some don't--but I do believe that AS-5 does eventually degrade under heat.

I guess the key word here is "eventually". If it were your PC, would you say three years classes as a long time and makes the re-application a worthy venture?

I guess there's a big part of me which would rather not go there. Aside from the hassle, time, etc., I also have painful memories of trying to attach the heatsink to the CPU when I built the machine. I required amazing amounts of brute force to get it to clip on. Makes me shudder just thinking about having to do that again.

But then again, if I AM going ot do it it would definitely make most sense to do it whilst the PC is being pulled apart and cleaned.....

Hmmmm.....dilemma!

Cheers

Max

[steveschizoid]

I wouldn't bother unless you are having heat issues. Did your motherboard come with any utilities that measure cpu temp?

I totally hate dealing with those heat sink attachments. Some seem to be worse than others though; last year when I decided to OC, I bought a Noctua NH-D14, and it actually attached fairly easily...

Yours is a pretty old build, and you may want to upgrade fairly soon anyway.

[Jidis]

Originally Posted by steveschizoid

I totally hate dealing with those heat sink attachments. Some seem to be worse than others though

My favorite is motherboard designers who don't take this stuff into consideration and either clutter the area around the clips with fragile electronic components or run traces and stuff too close to the area, putting them at risk of being nicked by tools as you try to force the stupid clamps down. Overall though, they do seem to be getting a bit better than they were years back.

[valis]

Actually I'm not sure if AS-5 will dry out, but it was my experience in the past with previous versions of their 'silver' compound, and with their nonconductive (as-3 I think? Whichever version was older and has still proven to be better so its still marketed) both did eventually turn into a powder and it certainly was less than 3 years.

That's why I've turned to the Shin Etsu, though it's considerably more difficult to deal with in terms of having to heat it up, use it quickly (before it cools), apply only a moderate (small pea sized) amount and firmly PRESS DOWN to spread it before reapplying the heat sink (other fast spreading pastes will simply spread under the weight of your sink + thermal heat action from the cpu under load). I've got some on both of my dual Xeon machines and even applied some to my Core2 era Macbook Pro as it had WAY too much thermal paste on it from the factory. Also fwiw this is the exact same stuff that comes pre-applied in the form of thermal pads on Intel's XEON heatsinks. In fact other heatsinks use it too, but they tend to have too thick of a coating which is why people see better results removing & applying their own (the Xeon heatsinks that I first used on this box had such a thin coating that you could almost see metal through the rectilinear stippling pattern that the paste was applied in by whatever machine did the application). The reason I have new application(s) of the X-23 is because I've upgraded my cpu's and heatsinks a few times...

In any case give your cpu temps & exact cpu model (and cooler model or tell us if it's the stock/oem heatsink) so we can at least determine if your temps are showing anything unusual.

[Goit]

Originally Posted by valis

'silver' compound,....
both did eventually turn into a powder and it certainly was less than 3 years.

That is true, the AS-5 isn't used much in the overclocking community anymore.

The MX-4 from arctic cooling is supposed to last 8 years and is more popular now.

[Animus]

I thought the idea of "metal" thermal paste such as AS5 is that it is supposed to dry out and "cure" and becomes more heat conductive? If you got a good bond and things are working as they should there should be no reason to reapply it. Certainly at least outlive the lifetime and obsolescence of a cpu. I've usually put in a new cpu before 3 years.

[Max Dread]

WOW - great stuff! Thanks so much to you all for sharing your time and knowledge.

OK, first up - the specs:

Q6600 quad core. ThermalRight XP-120 heatsink, with a 140mm fan on top. I have Intel Desktop Utilities installed. Problem with that is that it gives a "Processor Thermal Margin" rather than an actual temperature. Seems the idea is that as you reach somewhere between 20 and 0 you are in the danger zone. But I'm guessing the numbers are arbitrary..... For the record, my current read out is 55, albeit with the side of the case off which may be helping. That's better than when i built the PC, when readings were in the 40s. (Could be side being off like I say).

Is there any other utility I can use to get an actual temperature? And should I be running a stress test?

Thanks a million!

[SLL]

Never heard of cpu thermal paste, that looses it's purpose to lead heat away from the heat spreader to the cooler. If you're en any doubt, just check your cpu temps, if they're all good in the "green" area :-) I've never changed cooling paste on my cpu's. But yes, the paste do get more stiff over times, but there has been no problems with cpu temps.

SLL

[rksguit]

Originally Posted by Max Dread

Is there any other utility I can use to get an actual temperature? And should I be running a stress test?

Thanks a million!

I know for modern i7's there is the deal I use,called "throttle stop",Its actually a tweaking utility,but it shows cpu temps of each core,in real time,as do many,many others.Google "cpu temp" or similar.TS wont work for the "Q" series though[I could be wrong].Intel "burn" is the only stress utility Iv'e used,as its made for intel,by intel,and it's not long,only a few minutes,UNlike WinPrime95 etc,that use long[too long,too stressful....for the CPU,IMO]and are for testing extreme overclocking etc.You should maybe update,I put together an i7 2600k rig,that was cheap,stupidly easy to overclock to 4.4GHz,i.e. crazy fast,with good low temp[av.29 to 32c with a $35 better than "stock" cpu cooler]and Iv'e only used a computer,for an embarrassingly short time.]

[PaPi61]

I have found that "Goo Gone" is the best product to remove thermal paste. Quick and efficient. I can see the only reason to do that if you swap the CPU and you need to remove the paste from the cooler. The z68 chipset's drivers are CPU independent and you can, for example, replace a 2600k with a 2700k without the need to mess with the BIOS.

[SBX-80]

Originally Posted by PaPi61

I have found that "Goo Gone" is the best product to remove thermal paste.

Arctic clean 1 + Arctic clean 2 worked good for me when I tried it recently. It's a two step process. I'm sure that some generic cleaner can also be used, but the arctic clean was pretty cheap, so I bought that.

[valis]

Those cleaners are essentially tiny tubes of what I was suggesting in my first post (and PaPi61 gives you a pic of one of the two), a citrus based cleaner identical to 'goo gone' for intitial removal and then a second '100% pure' cleaner for final clean. Again I'll suggest going to the hardware store and spending 50% more for a massive thing of goo gone, and get some 100% acetone at the same time. It only takes a very tiny amount of each to do the cpu cleaning (and heatsink) but both are useful to have around imo

[PaPi61]

Originally Posted by Max Dread

Is there any other utility I can use to get an actual temperature?

Speccy. It's free.

Speccy - System Information - Free Download

[PaPi61]

Originally Posted by valis

I'll suggest going to the hardware store and spending 50% more for a massive thing of goo gone

During one of my studio's make-overs (when I got rid of the big console and became mixer-less) I found myself with several audio patchbays that needed to be relabeled. I removed all the labels and then started to clean the adhesive residue with rubbing alcohol. It was taking me forever, and then my wife came in with a bottle of goo gone: "have you tried with this?" It completely cleaned any trace of residue in just minutes. Since then, I swear by this product and my studio often smells of oranges...