How often do you have to change thermal compound?

[Bigmac80]

Hey guys im still fairly new to this kind of stuff. I've been into computers for about 4 years now and i've learned alot since. My friend gave me his older pc that he built 2-3 years ago and i notice that while gaming the temps on the cpu was kinda hot. It was at 62C during full load on stock settings. So what i did was change the thermal compound only using Antec formula 5 and the cpu temps dropped dramatically. It dropped from 62c to 52c on full load. Also on my graphic card i did the same thing and it dropped my temps by 20c. So what im trying to get at here do you have to change your thermal compound like every 6 months or so? Kinda like a car when you change your fluids maybe lol.

 

[mpavao81]

You shouldn't have to reapply it as long as it is applied properly. Poorly applied thermal paste can result in high temps be it too little or too much. So no its not like a car you dont need to change it every 6 months. But I would keep the inside of your computer clean. I used compressed air to clean mine out every 3 to 4 months to get it nice and clean.

 

[davcon]

As long as you're monitoring the temps you should be able to determine when a fresh application is required.
If at the time of application your cpu idled at 35C and a year later idles at 40C without system/cpu alterations it usually a sign to clean/dust your case.and or re-apply thermal compound.
A simple cleaning can sometimes improve temps by 1-2C.
Experienced that first hand.

 

[rubix_1011]

^Yep. Clean stuff out with dust spray or compressed air. Case airflow is very important...even if you have the best CPU/GPU cooler installed, it still won't cool well without good airflow.

If you are seeing that much of a difference in your temps, it could be a couple things. First, if you are using the stock CPU heatsink, they come with some pretty thick thermal paste that isn't the greatest. Simply cleaning this off and using good paste makes a significant difference...which is my guess the result you are seeing. Otherwise, there may have been inconsistencies with how the CPU cooler was mounted, either due to too much TIM, or a retention component being a little loose and was corrected during reinstall.

 

[Bigmac80]

Yeah it makes sense, when i did clean out the heatsink and gpu there was alot of dust that was restricting airflow.