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Finally switched to thermal paste tubes after a messy crash
I had a tube of Arctic Silver 5 go bad on me last month during a CPU swap on my own rig. It had separated so bad that the paste came out all watery and actually dripped onto my motherboard pins. After spending 2 hours cleaning that mess with isopropyl alcohol, I grabbed a syringe-style paste from a shop near me. Has anyone else dealt with old thermal paste going weird like that?
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elliot_roberts16d agoMost Upvoted
Did you try shaking the tube before using it? I thought Arctic Silver 5 was always kind of thin.
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morgan.jason17d ago
Oh man, that watery Arctic Silver is the worst. I learned the hard way to always give the tube a good squeeze and check the consistency before I even take the CPU cooler off, saved my own pins a few times since then.
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Actually Arctic Silver 5 is supposed to be a bit thin right out of the tube, its designed to spread super thin under the heatsink. If its truly watery it might be old or separated, so giving it a good shake before use helps a ton.
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