Noob Thermal Paste question

[Jason Rayes]

Ok, so I have a water cooler for my CPU (No, not the kind you stand around gossiping at the office) and coming up to summer here in Australia I noticed that when I was putting in through a Prime 95 test that it wasn't as cool as it was a couple of years ago. So I decided to take the cooler off and have a look.

Here is what the cooler looks like:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/75895983@N04/22753766874/in/dateposted-public/

And this is the CPU:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/75895983@N04/23086373990/in/dateposted-public/

Now, as stated in the title, I'm a thermal paste noob but that looks pretty shitty to me. I'm not sure what its supposed to look like but whatever Id imagined it wasn't that.

Anyone who actually knows what they are doing have an opinion?

Edit: Guess I should provide system specs
ASUS P8Z77-V LK Motherboard
Intel Core I5 3570k 3.4ghz
Windows 7 64 bit Home premium
16 Gig DD3 memory
GTX 680
The Cooler was a Corsair H60 SE

After I took it off have a look and saw the state of the thermal paste I put it back together and tried prime 95 again and the temps were even hotter. (Before I was getting mid 70's, now it goes over 90). Note, I earthed myself on the power supply first so I doubt any of this is static damage. My problem being that Im not sure WHAT thermal paste should look like, I just didnt expect it to look so patchy.

 

[Albino Boo]

Thermal paste can degrade over time but that looked pretty normal to me. Now that you have taken it apart and exposed the surface to dust and air you will get a deterioration due to improper contact as well. You have replace the paste. What I suspect was the initial problem was the radiator was blocked with dust. Blow it out with compressed air before replacing the block on the cpu.

 

[Jason Rayes]

Thermal paste can degrade over time but that looked pretty normal to me. Now that you have taken it apart and exposed the surface to dust and air you will get a deterioration due to improper contact as well. You have replace the paste. What I suspect was the initial problem was the radiator was blocked with dust. Blow it out with compressed air before replacing the block on the cpu.

Ok, thanks for the advice. A friend recommended Arctic Silver 5 as his paste of choice so ordered that and some stuff to clean the old stuff off so Ill give it a shot and let you know how I go.

 

[Pelox2002]

Be sure to use 100% rubbing alcohol and a paper towel to clean the surface. You only need to use a little bit of paste after.

 

[Jason Rayes]

Be sure to use 100% rubbing alcohol and a paper towel to clean the surface. You only need to use a little bit of paste after.

Yeah, there seems to be a lot of contention on what is the best method but I think I will go with the pea method simply because it looks the easiest for a first timer. The pressure of the watercooler will effectively do all the work of the dispersion. I've also read that its better to use too little than too much so Im going for a size between a grain of rice and an actual pea

 

[Pelox2002]

You will be fine and if it's too much just clean and try again. Just keep a close eye on the temps the first days and stress the cpu a bit

 

[antidonkey]

Just a quick warning about Arctic Silver 5. While it's not really conductive, it is capacitive. It can cause issues if you get it in places it shouldn't be. Specifically, on the motherboard traces.

 

[Jason Rayes]

I was very careful. I went for the better too little than too much approach and with a blob a little smaller than a pea I firmly applied the cooler evenly, gave it a slight twist to the left, a slight twist to the right then screwed it into place while keeping the pressure on so the cooler didn't lift at all. Before reapplying the paste (I.e After I broke the seal between cooler and CPU that began all this in the first place) I was getting a peak of 78 degrees celcius in Prime 95 with an ambient room temperature of 17 degrees. I let it settle, just running things normally, giving the paste a chance to spread a bit (Besides, I had to go to the dentist, it really has been one of those weeks) then I tried the Prime 95 test again . The ambient temp was up to 23 degrees by the time I got to try the torture test again. This time the core peaked at 62 degrees. So the new paste has made a fairly significant difference really. Ive read the Arctic Silver 5 takes a while to fully settle in (200 hours according to their site). So Ill try it again in a few weeks and see how it goes then. All up though Im pleased with the results.

Edit: By try it again in a few weeks, I mean try the Prime 95 torture test again, not doing the whole thermal paste thing again. I was silly enough to break that thermal seal once, I'm not about to repeat the experience out of some....masochistic hardware failure fetish.

 

[Pelox2002]

Seems to be working perfect! Job well done!

 

[Jason Rayes]

Once again, thanks to everyone who gave advice. If only all my hardware misadventures had happy endings

 

[Smooth Operator]

Yeah generic thermal paste that comes with most components solidifies over the years and the moment you jolt the cooler it will break away leaving air gaps which give a nice insulating layer.
Same thing actually happened to a whole batch of i7 processors and they were cooking themselves under that fancy shell Intel puts on everything.

It's not that critical what type of paste you use to freshen things up, only that you keep it thin and spread across the whole processor, between top and bottom end products you might see 1-2% difference because the paste only serves to fill in air gaps and no more.

With these sealed all in one water cooling options you might also consider cleaning them out once every 5+ years, because companies do put in all sorts of additives with the water and those have a tendency to gum up the really fine fins that are usually found in water blocks. So they slowly loose their ability to transfer heat.