Brown parts on my AMD spire cooler's thermal paste.

[hughkelly7]

Hey, so i'm building my first computer and when I opened up my stock cooler from my AMD Ryzen 5 the thermal paste was kinda brown in the middle and then normal on the outside. Is this normal and or ok? or should I take it off and re-apply?

 

[profoundnoah]

You should re-apply it regardless, the thermal compound on stock coolers is of poor quality.

 

[shmoochie]

I think it is the silicone oil in the paste settling out which is normal for old paste but not new. You might have just been unlucky and got some old TIM. Definitely replace it.