Thermal paste cools your computer by conducting heat to the fans, which expel it from the case. However, it loses its effectiveness over time. So when should you change your thermal paste? In this article, we tell you the best time to replace it.
Thermal paste replacement depends largely on your application.
When should you change your thermal paste?
That’s right! We don’t treat an office computer designed to send e-mails in the same way as a computer used every day for video rendering.
Replacing the thermal paste on a gaming computer
If you often play resource-hungry video games, we recommend changing the thermal paste every year. In fact, with a processor and graphics card running at full speed, the accumulated heat eventually deteriorates the thermal paste more quickly.
High-end computers generally use liquid cooling (watercooling) rather than thermal paste to cool components.
On the other hand, if you use your gaming PC more moderately, you might consider replacing it every 2 years. However, it’s important to keep an eye on your Gaming PC’s performance. Rising temperatures or slowdowns in gaming may be signs that it’s time to replace the thermal paste.
- Intensive use: Video games place heavy demands on components, generating more heat.
- Consistent performance: By changing the thermal paste regularly, you avoid performance drops due to overheating.
- Damage prevention: Excessively high temperatures can cause long-term damage to the processor or graphics card.
How do you know when it’s time to replace the thermal paste on a Gaming PC?
If you notice that your computer is getting hotter than usual, that the fans are spinning faster or that your games are experiencing FPS drops, it’s probably a good time to consider renewing the thermal paste. These signs often indicate that heat is being poorly expelled.
Discover the best thermal pastes in our buying guide
When to replace thermal paste for professional use?
If you use your computer daily for around 5 hours a day for professional tasks such as word processing, managing your e-mails, surfing the web, or managing files in simple software programs, you’re one of those users with moderate resource requirements.
Your processor is not subjected to heavy loads, as would be the case for users working with video editing software or video games.
For those of you who use your computer on a daily basis for light-duty tasks, replacing the thermal paste every 2 years is sufficient to maintain a stable temperature and extend component life.
- Moderate workload: low-energy software doesn’t make intensive demands on the processor, so heat generation is relatively low.
- Stable performance: by replacing the thermal paste every 2 to 3 years, you avoid the risk of overheating while keeping your system performing at its best.
Is it time to reapply thermal paste to my professional PC?
Even with moderate use, it’s important to watch out for certain signs that could indicate it’s time to change the thermal paste. If you notice that your computer is getting hotter than usual, or if the fans seem to be spinning harder, this could be an indicator. A simple temperature check via monitoring software can help you determine whether the thermal paste is starting to tire.
When to replace a new thermal paste for office use?
If you use your computer occasionally for simple tasks such as sending e-mails, writing documents, surfing the Internet or managing your files, the heat generated by the processor is much lower. In this case, replacing the thermal paste every 3 years is more than sufficient.
- Light use: office tasks require very little CPU power, which means very little heat generation.
- Longer life: With less heat generated, the thermal paste doesn’t deteriorate as quickly as on a more stressed computer.
- Component stability: By replacing the thermal paste regularly, you ensure that your system remains high-performance and that your components don’t suffer from overheating.
Discover our article: How to prevent your appliances from overheating in summer?
The thermal paste on a laptop needs to be changed more often than that on a desktop PC.
Laptops heat up more quickly because the components have less space and heat has difficulty circulating, which wears out the thermal paste more quickly.
It’s advisable to change it every 2 to 3 years, depending on how the computer is used.
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