Thought thermal paste was snake oil until last month

I always figured a $5 tube of goop couldn't make a real difference in temps. Then I built a Ryzen 5 system for a friend and ran it with the stock cooler and the included paste. After a week of gaming it was hitting 92C under load. Cleaned it off, put a pea-sized drop of Arctic MX-6 on there, and now it sits at 75C max. Anyone else have a cheap part that ended up being way more important than you thought?

2 comments

2 Comments

elizabethn561mo ago

I mean, that's a solid 17 degrees for like six bucks, that's crazy.

norathomas1mo ago

Used to think nothing could hold a candle to my expensive down jacket, but this totally changed my mind. I got one of those cheaper ones last year and it's been holding up ridiculously well through all the cold snaps. For that price, you can grab a few of them and just rotate through the week. The warmth to cost ratio is just insane, I don't know why I spent so much on brand name stuff before. Now I tell everyone to just go with the inexpensive option and save the money for something else.