That Tuesday when a misread thermal paste tube almost cost me a $2k build

I was building a PC for a client at the shop last Tuesday, and I grabbed a tube of thermal paste from my drawer without reading the label. Turned out it was some cheap silicone-based stuff meant for old CPUs, not the high-performance graphite stuff I thought. The temps hit 95°C under load before I caught it and re-did it with Arctic MX-4. Has anyone else nearly bricked a rig by grabbing the wrong compound from a cluttered bench?

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ray_sullivan2d ago

Turned out it was some cheap silicone-based stuff" - I bet that client would've flipped the table. I once used superglue instead of thermal paste.