When to apply thermal paste?

BansheeL

Honorable
Jul 11, 2013
19
0
10,510
I'm doing a bit of hardware testing, which involved popping CPUs out of one machine and into the other. I never applied thermal paste when installing the CPUs originally, as the fan/heatsink included plenty slathered on it.

However, on the older CPU I noticed that there isn't as much as on the newer one. Should I wait to use the CPU until I've ordered some paste or should what is left work fine?

I'm keeping each cooler with its CPU.

So, new guy asking a probably obvious question.
 
Solution
If you are going to be running the cpu for any length of time you should be applying fresh paste.

If you are just firing up to see if the work then they should be ok.

Just keep an eye on the temps as they can rocket if the paste isn't doing its job.
If you are going to be running the cpu for any length of time you should be applying fresh paste.

If you are just firing up to see if the work then they should be ok.

Just keep an eye on the temps as they can rocket if the paste isn't doing its job.
 
Solution