I recently bought a used custom desktop. The fan on the processor was old and making quite a bit of noise so i bought a new one that already had thermal paste on it. I didn't remove the thermal paste that was already on the processor. Will this cause any problems?
Thermal Paste removal question?
- Thread starter kurite
- Start date
- Nov 11, 2013
- 17,389
- 4
- 66,960
best to remove old and what comes on sink and use fresh quality paste like artic silver that way you know its good stuff and less worries
SlayZombi
Honorable
- Jan 3, 2014
- 950
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Don't listen to Syntax, he has NO idea about that man... It is crucial! Because the other paste is different brand, quality, and particle mixture. "Serious overclocking" doesn't require the paste to be removed. You should ALWAYS remove it any time you take off the heatsink. Putting a new layer of fresh paste on an old crusty l;layer will reduce efficiency and maybe even overheat you CPU.
The general wisdom says to remove it, but the reality is that it still works even if you don't remove the old thermal paste. The only time I would be worried is if the old thermal paste is dried out and no longer semi-fluid. I understand you don't want to risk it with your system, but if the OP's thermal paste is still fluid, most of the excess will squeeze out the sides.
Obviously you don't want so much to squeeze out of the sides that it can get into the CPU socket. However, if you don't have any coming out of the sides, you probably didn't put enough on to cover the entire CPU. This would be a worse situation than putting too much thermal paste on.
With most heat sinks, you won't be able to see if you did it right. The only way to tell is to take the heat sink off after applying thermal paste and affixing the heat sink to verify the paste spread to cover the entire CPU. With practice, one can eventually learn how much is too much or too little.
I challenge the conventional wisdom here out of professional experience. I used to remove the thermal paste every time I removed a heat sink because that was the conventional wisdom. However, when you have to remove CPUs from their sockets several times for troubleshooting issues with a server, it becomes a waste of time and materials. When the repair is finished, I usually put on fresh thermal paste unless the paste on there looks new and has an appropriate amount.
If it is dried out, it isn't safe to re-use it. If it is still fluid like new thermal paste, it will work just as well as putting a fresh coat on. Show me definitive testing which proves otherwise.
If you've covered the entire CPU, you probably put on a little too much. It will squeeze out of the sides, like I said. Go ahead and try it. Remove the heatsink and see how much squeezed out of the sides. I bet it looked like this:
http://www.lckdanny.com/images/tp43e_xe/63.jpg
Notice the ring from where the heatsink was removed? That's because the person who applied that thermal paste put on just a little more than was needed, which ensures the entire contact area of the heatsink gets thermal paste.
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