Generic thermal paste drying up?

[vohwink1]

I've noticed my temps slowly start to rise the past week or so to levels that are abnormal for a 900 t-bird's idle temp. I did have it O/C by just the FSB to give me a little overall performance boost.

Well, I noticed I'd get some instability.. so I lowered it a little. It worked under that setting for about a day, and then instability at that setting. So, now it is back to just 900, and my idle temps are at what my full load temps were when o/c. (around 52 C)

So, I'm assuming the cheap 25 cent packet of paste I got with my generic 8 dollar HSF is not working very effectively. My arctic silver and Alpha 6035 won't be in until wednesday or thursday :\

I don't have anymore grease, and I'm too lazy to take my motherboard out now when I know I'm going to have to do it again once my new stuff comes in. So, I'm prolly still safe for a while longer right? Or does once this paste start to dry up, does it go bad really fast?

 

[wyvrn]

If it dries up it may lose some of its cooling properties, but that is just speculation on my part. Mikewarrior2 should be in here in a little while...

 

[bacillus]

if it starts to dry up, the interface is no longer optimised for max heat transfer so your temps will go up, though it should be a gradual vs an expotential process!

 

[Mikewarrior2]

You should be okay until wednesday or thursday. Just keep your clockspeed and voltage down for the time being.


Mike