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?

3 comments

3 Comments

green.iris8d ago

Oh come on, a little heat never killed anyone. 95C is basically a warm summer afternoon for that CPU. @keith274 is acting like you used the superglue from a broken mug repair kit. You caught it before anything melted, so honestly it's just a cautionary tale for your own bench organization. Thermal paste mistakes are overblown, it's not like you forgot the CPU fan entirely.

ray_sullivan22d 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.

keith2748d ago

Did you at least use the superglue meant for electronics or just the regular stuff from the junk drawer? I feel like that's the kind of mistake that teaches you to always double-check what you're grabbing.