Does artic silver 5 decrease performance over time

[Guest]

i have been using the same tube of AS5 for the last 6-7 years and have built around 5 or 6 machines.
does this stuff break down over time? the cap has remained on the tube.

thanks

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

They say that it should be reapplied every 8 months to a year, this comes directly from Arctic Silver. This is one of the reasons I do not recommend AS5, thermal pastes like Arctic Cooling MX-2 Tuniq TX-2 or OCZ Freeze are supposed to be replaced every 8 years.

 

[Nik_I]

well really, as long as you don't notice any temperature increases over time, then you should be ok. arctic silver is way better than the stuff intel or amd puts on their stock heatsinks, and that stuff lasts forever.