Old IT guy told me never to use thermal paste on CPUs, argued it was a scam

I followed his advice for 2 years until a PC I built in July hit 95C under load and I finally caved, added paste, and now it idles at 35C - so was he totally wrong or did thermal paste just get better recently, has anyone else had an old timer swear by this?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice_kim25d ago

Completely changed my mind too. Used to think it was hype, not anymore.

the_hugo25d ago

Dude I had almost the exact same thing happen. My first build I listened to some old forum post saying paste was a gimmick and the CPU would be fine. After a year my AMD chip was hitting 90C while gaming, fans sounded like a jet engine. Finally caved and used some Arctic stuff, dropped to 40C at idle and never went above 70C under load. Totally changed my mind, I don't know what that guy was thinking but it's not like paste was invented recently.