It's been about 20 years since the last time I did it. All hail the gods of thermal conductivity!
This is an example of too much paste. It'll be fine but yeah... Just a bit less.
this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2026
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Yeah gotta agree. Got carried away with it a bit.
Thermal paste applied like they don't want to have to remember where the tube went, just a buy another whenever it's needed.
I just saw it, lol, it's like mydude is making a peanut butter sandwich
Thanks for reminding me I need to do this to both my laptops... fun.
Is there really a point to this? Similar time-frame as you. Old CPUs are pretty much trash. It works. No one would buy it though. Applying thermal-paste would do what? Make it run a bit cooler? I don't even monitor the temperature... I'm writing from a place of ignorance. I do think things should be properly maintained; I just hadn't thought of reapplying thermal-paste before.
Before: watching hd video in full screen VLC launched system towards 92C and fan spinning up to 7k.
After: same load, temp around 72, cooler at 5..6k rpm. stress-ng for 5 minutes couldn't heat it up by 90.
I also sprayed some lube on the cooler, more as an experiment.
I think it was worth it but also fun.
I've got a 10 or 12 year old laptop running as a modest home server. It's a great use of old machines. I haven't yet redone the thermal paste, but the temperature seldom exceeds 50C as is and at idle is only 40C.
Im still using my 2012 laptop. Third thermal paste change now. It is old, but it does the job.
Also, fabric paste is usually shit.
I just did this about an hour ago for my Xbox. Stuff was original and crunchy.
in the 1000s of laptops i've worked on over the last 30 years, i've never once tore one apart specifically to swap thermal compound, never needed to. only gets redone if the heatsink assembly needs to come out in order to get at the fan or some other part inside.
Well it's maybe my second? Third? And I did it specifically to replace the thermal compound.
And it helped.
I have yet to do this, what's the best way to clean the old paste or are are you simply applying it over top?
Alcohol and cotton pad or swap. Or something less fibrous if your like to have less lint to pick.
Thank you!
In my experience IPA is almost always the right answer when cleaning sensitive electronic components. Haven't used it for cleaning thermal paste specifically but it would be my go-to.
Thank you!
Quick edit: I don't think I'd seen isopropyl alcohol written like that, thought you were suggesting IPA (the beer) haha.
Yes I definitely wouldn't recommend cleaning a CPU with pale ale 😂😂
I just did my desktop this week and it's still running hot, so now I have to replace the cooler 😭
Bummer.
Does anyone else have experience with liquid metal instead of thermal paste?
I've got a Framework which apparently uses a liquid metal pad instead so you don't need to re-up the paste.
Does anyone know of any other maintenance that might be needed instead?
I've experienced that liquid metal starts seeping into the die which makes it disintegrate. I actually had a CPU that I was cooling with LM blow up after about one year with the solution on it. There was a whole piece of the die that looked like it could have been one of the cores that was just completely gone when I took off the cooler to inspect why it wasn't booting!
Newer framework machines have switched to something called PTM7958 which is a phase change material that has almost the same cooling performance as liquid metal but it is not conductive which makes it safer in terms of potential short circuits. It also keeps getting better with continued use as the thermal cycling between liquid and gel form (changes at around 55c if i remember correctly) makes it fill microscopic imperfections with use. From what I've read this material will last somewhere between 5-10 years before it starts to deteriorate.
It can be worth looking into.
Another option would be Thermal Grizzly's Kryosheet. It is a thin graphene pad (conductive!) and supposedly lasts even longer and performs only slightly less good.
I recently installed one on my PS4 Pro and it's working very well (the fan stays so quiet that I'm now noticing a frequency shifting coil whine which is driving me nuts - pretty sure it's coming from the VRAM too so simply switching out the PSU won't help... but whatever).
OMG you paste heathen. That's an atrocity being committed.
Speaking of laps and thermals, I once lapped my CPU heatsink for a 2-3 degree temperature decrease.