Thermal paste is the peanut butter of the PC world. It fills the tiny gaps between your CPU and heatsink, helping transfer heat and keeping things cool. Without it, your CPU could overheat.
So, slapping on some thermal paste is a must to keep your PC running smoothly.
Heat Conduction Mechanism
Even though CPUs/GPUs and heatsinks are made with precision, they aren’t perfectly smooth. When they touch, tiny air gaps form because of these imperfections.
The problem is air in these gaps is terrible at conducting heat. It creates a thermal barrier that messes with heat transfer efficiency from your CPU/GPU to the heatsink.
That’s where thermal paste comes in.
The purpose of thermal paste is to fill these tiny gaps and replace the air with a material that conducts heat much better. This creates a smooth path for heat to travel from the hot CPU/GPU to the cooler heatsink.
Impact on Performance
A good thermal paste can seriously boost your system’s cooling power, letting your components run at full throttle. This is especially important for gamers and folks doing heavy computational work.
Plus, it’s not just about performance. Using thermal paste can extend the life of your parts. Excessive heat is a slow killer, wearing out your components over time.
If you doubt the specific role of thermal paste and how important it is, just chat with someone who skipped it—bet they’ll have a horror story or two. It’s all about keeping your hardware cool, fast, and in top shape.
Quick Note
Keeping your CPU and PC setup cool is essential to get the best performance from your system. Learn more about keeping your CPU cool here.
When to Apply a Thermal Compound?
Applying CPU thermal paste in a computer-specific setup is important as it ensures heat management and optimal performance. These could be the reasons for the same:
- While building a PC
- While upgrading components
- After dismantling the existing setup for cleaning
- While replacing the heat sink
- If you keep encountering overheating-related performance issues
Common Mistakes to Avoid
There are the thermal-paste-related mistakes you need to take care of to maintain efficient heat transfer standards:
- Overapplication
- Uneven distribution
- Uses the wrong type of thermal grease
- Reusing the old thermal paste
- Not applying enough paste
- Incorrect application method
Choosing the Right Thermal Paste
Here are the factors you need to consider while choosing the right thermal paste:
- Check the thermal conductivity ratings across forums
- Choose a paste with decent viscosity, not high, not low.
- Pick non-conductive thermal pastes as they lower the risks of short-circuit.
Here are my personal fav:
Gaming: Arctic Silver 5
General use: Noctua NT-H1
Overclocking: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
When to Replace Thermal Paste
If you want to replace thermal paste in a computer, here are the standard guidelines:
- Do it anyway as a part of the 2-3 year routine maintenance cycle.
- If you see the system temperature levels increasing gradually.
- After dismantling the components for cleaning.
- When you start experiencing performance issues due to overheating.
- Once the visual inspection alone shows signs of cracking and drying.