Does thermal paste wear out?

[dummy2001]

I read someone that benchmarked arctic silver vs thermal paste and found no difference in temps, but said arctic silver was still better because thermal paste degrades much faster (like 6 months). it seems that if this was true there'd be a lot of annoyed people with sytstems overheating changing their paste twice a year. Ok, just seeing it in print makes me think its a really stupid claim. Is there any truth to this?

 

[subflava]

I've always used the white silicone based paste from Radio Shach and it doesn't seem to "wear out". I've had the same past on a CPU as long as 2 years probably, and when I finally removed the heatsink and looked at it, it looked the same. Perhaps it was a little bit drier than when I first put it on, but it was still pasty. In terms of heat transfer, it's hard to say because I do notice that over time my processor temps increase. I periodically clean my computer by vacuuming out the dust and cleaning all the fans and heatsinks...at which point I also re-apply the paste. I can't tell if the temp. increases were from the cleaning (which I suspect) or from something happening to the paste. My guess is the former.

 

[MustangSVT]

yep it does dry out.. the white generic ones that is.

i used one on my radeon and TNT before and cpus.. about 6 months later, instead of being in "paste" form, they looked like cracked dry wall.. not completely dry but dry enough not to do the job well.

i dont know if modern pastes are better, im using silver arctic and it seems to be ok, but i've been using it only for 2 months so far.

 

[conlan]

The white paste will dry-out faster than say Arctic Silver, which will hold it's viscosity much longer.

 

[dummy2001]

Ok then well practically speaking, if I want to practice good maintenance should I clean off all the old paste every six months and apply a new coat? Personally I feel like the risk of me accidentally damaging the cpu in the process of un/seating the HSF so often would be as bad as the slow erosion of heat conductivity. And what about all the people with stock HSF's with the thermal pads who never touch them? Unless there is serious OCing going on isn't all this just factored into the tolerances the chips are designed with anyway?

 

[conlan]

If your CPU temps are ok, dont worry about it. If it bothers you that it may be dried up, clean it off, apply some AS2 and forget about it.