Appreciation post for the guy who showed me why thermal paste matters

A customer brought in a prebuilt last Tuesday that was thermal throttling at idle, and after I pulled the cooler off I found the paste was applied like someone was frosting a cake with a butter knife - has anyone else seen factory builds with paste that looks more like a design choice than a functional application?

2 comments

2 Comments

julia_carter706d ago

Gotta love the buttercream frosting approach to thermal paste. I swear some of these factory builds are using the stuff like it's caulk on a window frame. Did they think more is better, or were they just running low and figured a thick glob in one corner would do the trick? I've seen paste applied in a perfect pentagram before, which at least made me wonder if they were trying to summon better frame rates. The worst is when it's already hardened into a dried toothpaste consistency, like it sat in the tube for a decade before someone used it.

ryan_ellis6d ago

Nah hard disagree, I've been slapping on thermal paste like it's mayo on a sandwich for years and my temps are fine. If a little is good, a lot is better right? It's not like the stuff conducts electricity so what's the harm in being generous.