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Found out thermal paste can actually go bad after sitting in a drawer for 5 years
Pulled an old tube of Arctic Silver out of my tool kit at a shop in Nashville yesterday and it had separated into liquid and solid chunks, which I guess explains why that CPU was hitting 90C under load - has anyone else run into expired paste causing issues like this?
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sanchez.julia10d ago
Yeah but nobody talks about how humidity makes it go bad way faster than heat alone.
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thomas.river11d ago
Read somewhere that thermal paste has a shelf life of like 2 to 3 years if it's sitting in a tube, and it's even worse if it's been opened and exposed to air. The solvents start evaporating out and the fillers settle into a hard chunk, exactly what you saw. Pretty sure Linus Tech Tips did a video where they tested old paste and it performed almost as bad as using nothing at all.
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Huh, I actually gotta push back a little on that LTT video claim. I remember that one, and what they tested was more like 8+ year old paste from a tube that was half dried out, not just stuff sitting for 2-3 years. If it's unopened and stored somewhere not too hot, most pastes are fine for at least 4-5 years, maybe longer. The real trouble is if the tube has been opened and the seal is broken, then yeah, the solvents start to evaporate faster than you'd think.
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