Appreciation post: I swapped a client's thermal paste with a graphite pad for a quiet build and the temps actually went up 5 degrees Celsius.

I thought it was a cleaner, permanent fix for a home office PC, but now I'm debating if pads are ever worth it over good paste for standard tower cooling setups.

3 comments

3 Comments

david_martin1mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, my buddy tried that graphite pad thing on his gaming rig last year... swore it was the future. Ended up with the same temp jump, maybe worse under load. He went back to paste after a month, said the pad just couldn't squish down enough to beat the good stuff. Kind of a bummer since it seemed like such a neat idea.

rowangonzalez1mo ago

Actually graphite pads work great if your surfaces are super flat.

knight.oscar23d ago

But was the contact even across the whole IHS? I always wonder if those pads leave a tiny air gap somewhere that just kills the transfer.