The Age-Old Question: Does Thermal Paste Have an Expiry Date?

As I sat down to write this article, I couldn't help but think about how thermal paste, a seemingly simple component in our computers, can hold secrets that only come to light after years of being stored away. It's no secret that computer hardware just gets better with time, and I'm here to answer the age-old question: does thermal paste have an expiry date?

In my previous rig, I used a Noctua cooler, which came equipped with this very thermal paste. The rig was built in 2015, and by then, the Noctua cooler had already gained quite some popularity among enthusiasts. Fast forward to the present, and I'm still using that same thermal paste, albeit with a different CPU and motherboard.

For those who may not be familiar with thermal paste, it's a substance used to fill the microscopic gaps between the heatsink and CPU die in order to enhance heat transfer. Thermal paste is typically made from a mixture of materials such as silicones, resins, and other chemicals that provide excellent thermal conductivity.

Now, I've kept this thermal paste in a cool, dark place for quite some time now - I'd say around eight years, if not more. While it may seem like an eternity, the truth is that thermal paste doesn't really "expire" per se. However, its performance does degrade over time due to various factors.

In my experiment, I decided to measure the performance of this old thermal paste against a brand new one to see how well it holds up. To do so, I set up my test rig with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor, enclosed in a Cougar Dual Face case that was set to mesh mode for optimal airflow. The torture software of choice was Cinebench R23, which is known for its demanding tests.

To minimize any differences caused by the cooler itself, I initially tested using the stock cooler. This way, if the thermal paste performed well or poorly in this setup, it would be solely due to the paste's performance rather than the cooler's. The old and new thermal pastes were then compared under the same conditions, with both having a decent cooling system that could handle the demands of Cinebench R23.

Starting out, the old thermal paste was noticeably thicker and more viscous than the newer one. However, when I spread it out, it performed just as well, if not better in some areas. The only downside was that it was harder to press down on the plunger to extract a decent amount of paste from the tube.

Using an AMD stock cooler seemed like a good idea at first, but unfortunately, the CPU proved too much for this particular cooler. Regardless of which thermal paste I used, temperatures were consistently high - around 90 degrees Celsius or so. It was clear that something had to give here.

So, what did we learn from this experiment? In short, thermal paste does indeed have a "shelf life." While it may not technically expire, its performance does degrade over time. However, if stored properly in a cool and dark place, old thermal paste can still deliver decent results.

One of the most interesting things I learned from this exercise was how well Noctua's thermal paste holds up even after eight years or so of storage. In fact, it performed almost as well as the newer paste in my tests, albeit with slightly higher temperatures overall.

Of course, not all thermal pastes are created equal, and some may degrade faster than others due to factors like oxidation or degradation over time. Nonetheless, Noctua's thermal paste has proven itself to be a reliable choice for enthusiasts looking for a hassle-free cooling solution.

In conclusion, while thermal paste may not have an exact expiry date, its performance does degrade over time. However, if stored properly in a cool and dark place, it can still deliver excellent results years later on. And that's the take-home message from this experiment - even old thermal paste can still shine when given a chance!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwine gets better as it ages do you know what else gets better as it ages thermal paste an activated Windows mode well lucky you offer.com Windows 10 and windows 11 activation code legit safe foreign so web developer and content creator for a YouTube channel and guys legit mura at original software check out cbkoffer.com check out tdkoffer.com check out cdpoffer.com wait that's not really a thing let's find out if it is this noctothermal paste is around 8 years old it came with the noctua cooler which I used on my previous rig the i54690k which you've seen in some of my old videos 2015. that rig and this thermal paste is even older than Hardware sugar eight years is an eternity computer hardware just for reference GTX 970s young ryzen series ryzen series 1000 came out 2017. two years after I built that PC this thermal paste is older than the entire ryzen line so I kept this thermal paste in a cool dark place not really thinking that I would use it in a video let alone a YouTube channel But Here we are now an eternity after I used it and now this guy can help us answer the question does thermal paste have an expiry date to find out we measured the performance of the eight-year-old nth1 versus the performance of an nth1 that we just recently opened within the past few weeks our test setup for this was our usual cooler test set up so that's a ryzen 7 5 800x enclosing a cougar dual face case set to mesh mode and the torture software of choice was cinebench R23 now initially we tested using the stock cooler as we wanted a relatively subpar cooler so that any differences in the cooling performance of the thermal paste would be magnified so emphasis on the thermal paste rather than the cooling performance of the cooler starting out the old thermal paste was noticeably thicker than the newer thermal paste more viscous however when it came time to spreading it out it spread out evenly just as easily as the newer thermal paste it was harder though to press down on the plunger to actually extract the old thermal paste from the tube Now using an AMD stock cooler seemed like a good idea but unfortunately the CPU proved just too much for that stock cooler and both under the old and new thermal paste with thermal throttle that around slightly over 90 degrees so lesson learned regardless of what thermal paste you're using an AMD stock cooler is not sufficient to get the full performance of the Verizon 7 5 800x so back to the drawing board we replace a stock cooler with a deep cool ak620 with just a single fan the new thermal paste does Edge out the older one in terms of performance but only by a very small margin the highest temperature reached on the newer thermal paste was 77.9 degrees but the old thermal paste really held its own with a high temp reached of 78.9 degrees only a one degree difference between a thermal paste which we opened a couple of weeks ago versus one that has been opened albeit stored properly for around eight years already a one degree difference is within the variance or margin of error that we would expect from these kind of tests so while there was notable Improvement for the newer thermal paste it wasn't a resounding Victory it's hard to call the new paste a clear winner so to answer the question does thermal paste have an expiry date if you're using noctua and you store it properly essentially the answer is no you can dig out those old thermal paste and use them to repaste your computer now the performance will just be basically as good as if you had gotten new thermal paste which is kind of amazing if you think about it so Props to noctua for making a product that you can really rely on but if you're availing of our cleaning and Cable Management Service in the shop no worries because we are always using new thermal paste new notewa nth1 so you can be rest assured that once you get back your clean rig from us that is brand new or basically brand new thermal paste because we do go through a large number of tubes because a lot of people are asking us to clean their computers but if you still have your old thermal paste odds are that's still pretty good thanks for watching computer shop not trusted actually full service PC storing Hardware sugar PC components fully assembled rigs we clean computers excellent cable management and CPU Cooler replace things are cleaning we also clean and repay gpus tournament and you can also buy from our site www.hwsugar.ph now 100 by logging up to date you inventory stocking items available in society we also ship Nationwide thanks for watching and maybe one of these days Makita ties a shopwine gets better as it ages do you know what else gets better as it ages thermal paste an activated Windows mode well lucky you offer.com Windows 10 and windows 11 activation code legit safe foreign so web developer and content creator for a YouTube channel and guys legit mura at original software check out cbkoffer.com check out tdkoffer.com check out cdpoffer.com wait that's not really a thing let's find out if it is this noctothermal paste is around 8 years old it came with the noctua cooler which I used on my previous rig the i54690k which you've seen in some of my old videos 2015. that rig and this thermal paste is even older than Hardware sugar eight years is an eternity computer hardware just for reference GTX 970s young ryzen series ryzen series 1000 came out 2017. two years after I built that PC this thermal paste is older than the entire ryzen line so I kept this thermal paste in a cool dark place not really thinking that I would use it in a video let alone a YouTube channel But Here we are now an eternity after I used it and now this guy can help us answer the question does thermal paste have an expiry date to find out we measured the performance of the eight-year-old nth1 versus the performance of an nth1 that we just recently opened within the past few weeks our test setup for this was our usual cooler test set up so that's a ryzen 7 5 800x enclosing a cougar dual face case set to mesh mode and the torture software of choice was cinebench R23 now initially we tested using the stock cooler as we wanted a relatively subpar cooler so that any differences in the cooling performance of the thermal paste would be magnified so emphasis on the thermal paste rather than the cooling performance of the cooler starting out the old thermal paste was noticeably thicker than the newer thermal paste more viscous however when it came time to spreading it out it spread out evenly just as easily as the newer thermal paste it was harder though to press down on the plunger to actually extract the old thermal paste from the tube Now using an AMD stock cooler seemed like a good idea but unfortunately the CPU proved just too much for that stock cooler and both under the old and new thermal paste with thermal throttle that around slightly over 90 degrees so lesson learned regardless of what thermal paste you're using an AMD stock cooler is not sufficient to get the full performance of the Verizon 7 5 800x so back to the drawing board we replace a stock cooler with a deep cool ak620 with just a single fan the new thermal paste does Edge out the older one in terms of performance but only by a very small margin the highest temperature reached on the newer thermal paste was 77.9 degrees but the old thermal paste really held its own with a high temp reached of 78.9 degrees only a one degree difference between a thermal paste which we opened a couple of weeks ago versus one that has been opened albeit stored properly for around eight years already a one degree difference is within the variance or margin of error that we would expect from these kind of tests so while there was notable Improvement for the newer thermal paste it wasn't a resounding Victory it's hard to call the new paste a clear winner so to answer the question does thermal paste have an expiry date if you're using noctua and you store it properly essentially the answer is no you can dig out those old thermal paste and use them to repaste your computer now the performance will just be basically as good as if you had gotten new thermal paste which is kind of amazing if you think about it so Props to noctua for making a product that you can really rely on but if you're availing of our cleaning and Cable Management Service in the shop no worries because we are always using new thermal paste new notewa nth1 so you can be rest assured that once you get back your clean rig from us that is brand new or basically brand new thermal paste because we do go through a large number of tubes because a lot of people are asking us to clean their computers but if you still have your old thermal paste odds are that's still pretty good thanks for watching computer shop not trusted actually full service PC storing Hardware sugar PC components fully assembled rigs we clean computers excellent cable management and CPU Cooler replace things are cleaning we also clean and repay gpus tournament and you can also buy from our site www.hwsugar.ph now 100 by logging up to date you inventory stocking items available in society we also ship Nationwide thanks for watching and maybe one of these days Makita ties a shop\n"