How long does Shin-Etsu Premium Thermal Compound last?

[Ken90630]

For those of you who've used it (as I'm considering doing), how long does it typically last before you have to remove the heatsink, wipe the old stuff off, then reapply a fresh application? A year? Two years? Five years?

I'm thinking of getting a Thermalright SLK-947U heatsink to pair with an Athlon XP2600 and have been told this Shin-Etsu compound is great. I just don't wanna have to be taking things apart and reapplying fresh compound every year or something, which I could avoid just by using the stock AMD heatsink & fan (with the thermal pad). Oh, and I won't be doing any overclocking (ever).

Any advice from you experienced guys would be much appreciated.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I've yet to have a application of any of the Shin-etsu products dry out or otherwise fail me. There is a reason AMD includes G751 as the T.I.M. on the retail A64 cooler

 

[Ken90630]

Cool. So can I assume then that you have rigs out there going on two, three, five years or more with this stuff (without reapplication)? If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been using it?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I've been using their products approx. 2 1/2yrs and the longest running application would be a 1600+ boxen I built for my sis-in-law, which is around 2yrs up-time with the only reason to open the case being to blow out dust AMD warranties the retail CPUs for 3yrs so you can safely bet that it'll last that long and not "pump" out or dry up on you.

 

[Ken90630]

Great. Thanks very much. I really appreciate it.