When Should I Replace the Thermal Paste ?

1) Whenever to remove the cpu cooler / heat sink from.  Whenever the cpu cooler or heat sink being removed, it might be dried ir some air bubbles goes into the thermal paste.

2) If you happened to remove the cpu fan, some fan is sticked with the heat sink or cpu cooler, in this case, if you happened to remove the cpu fan, you might need to replace the thermal paste.

3) When you realized the CPU temperatures are getting hot. You might need to monitor the change when you are using the same application. For example, when you're using only Chrome for web browsing , your CPU temperatures is about 40 to 50 degress when you newly bought the computer, but now it change to 50 to 60 degrees or maybe higher.

There're some factors that might affect your thermal paste life span, for example, by comparing using it only in a clean bed room which the room doens't have much dust to a situation that you're always using it at outdoor roadside food stall. The computer is sucking air into the computers which carries the dust, the more your computer exposed to the dusty environment, the shorter your thermal paste lifespan is.

Another situation is you're consistently running the computer in some  heavy duty work, example, doing some video editing or playing games. The consistently high cpu temperature can dry up the thermal paste faster than usual.

Compare to the car engine oil, the longer distance that you drive, the sooner you need change the engine oil. However, there's a measurement on the car's dashboard showing how much you've been  using your engine oil for. However, there're no meter measurement or indicator showing how much you've been using your thermal paste for. The only indicator is the temperature change within the computer. Just monitor your computer's temperature from time to time and you will know when you need to change it.

As a general practice, we suggest change every one to two years or maybe 6 months if you're using your computer for the heavy duty.

Conclusion, the cpu high temperature will shorten the lifespan of your cpu, main board, and will reduce the overall performance if the computer temperature is over heating.

Want to know how's the thermal paste being replaced, check out the video here.


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