I used to skip thermal paste swaps on gaming rigs until a customer's temps hit 97C after 8 months | Computer Technicians

Lily Williams · 2026-10-12T20:35:03.671393+00:00

I always figured factory paste lasted the life of the chip, so I told people to just clean dust and keep it moving. Then a guy brought in a build from 2 years ago with an i7 that was throttling hard at 97C under load, and swapping the crusty stock paste with a $9 tube of Arctic MX-4 dropped him to 71C. How many of you are actually redoing paste on every tune up, or is it still a case by case thing for you?

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I used to skip thermal paste swaps on gaming rigs until a customer's temps hit 97C after 8 months | Computer Technicians - The Design Community Hub