Serious question, I saw a tech in Phoenix skip the thermal paste on a CPU replacement

This was at a repair shop last month, and he just used the pre-applied stuff on the stock cooler. Everyone there acted like it was fine, but I've always cleaned and reapplied fresh paste on every job. He argued it saves time and the factory application is good enough for most builds. I still think it's a corner cut that risks overheating later. How many of you actually skip the fresh paste on a simple cooler swap?

2 comments

2 Comments

leebrown1mo ago

Man, that makes me cringe just reading it. I tried that shortcut once on my own rig, just slapping the old cooler back on, and my temps were all over the place within a week. Air bubbles and dried paste are a real problem. Now I always take the extra minute to clean it off with some isopropyl and put a fresh pea-sized dot in the middle. It's such a small step for way better peace of mind.

briannguyen1mo ago

Yeah, learned that lesson the hard way too. Had to redo the whole thing after my temps spiked. Now I keep a little bottle of alcohol and a microfiber cloth right in my PC toolkit.