TIL that $15 thermal paste tube was a total scam for my laptop

I bought that pricey Arctic MX-6 stuff everyone raves about, but my old laptop temps dropped maybe 2 degrees at best. Wish I'd just used the free tube that came with my cooler. Anyone else find cheap thermal paste works just as good?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_john1mo ago

Yeah but you're kinda missing the point with that MX-6. That stuff is meant for desktop CPUs where you've got a big heatsink and good mounting pressure. Laptop cooling systems are totally different - they have direct die contact with way less pressure, so you need a thicker paste that fills those gaps better. Something like Gelid GC-Extreme or even the cheap stuff that comes with coolers actually performs better in laptops because it doesn't pump out as fast. Also 2 degrees is actually decent for a laptop repaste unless your old paste was completely dried out.

rosep871mo ago

Oh yeah @the_john I get what you're saying about paste thickness. Reminds me of when I tried to use Arctic Silver 5 on an old Dell XPS laptop back in 2017. That stuff was like thick toothpaste and I remember thinking it was way too much. It actually worked fine for about two weeks then my temps started climbing again. Turned out the paste pumped out from the constant thermal cycling on a laptop. So I totally agree that the cheap included paste sometimes works better for that kind of direct die contact.