[SOLVED] Could applying more thermal paste reduce core temps and improve performance?

[dan_jenkinson]

Never replaced thermal paste as such, and currently have high core temps and performance issues - could this possibly be the problem?

 

[viperdg]

I take it what you mean is should you change your thermal paste. That is never a bad idea if you are having cooling issues. IF your asking if you should use more thermal paste than being used now however More paste than required is a bad thing. To much paste will actually give you worse temps than the correct amount. There is no better conductor of heat than metal to metal contact. The paste is just to fill in the spaces where there is air as air is a terrible thermal conductor. If you have to little thermal paste then yes it would help but chances are that's not an issue as it only takes a small rice grain to pea sized blob of thermal paste to have the proper amount between the cooler and CPU.

 

[clutchc]

Depends on how old the TIM is, if it was applied properly, and how hot the CPU ran for how long. But replacing it is a good start. Don't overdo it, tho. It doesn't take very much.

If you list your system specs and the temps you get, maybe we can spot something else causing the issue. Like a loose cooler, dead or dying cooler fan, dirty case/board, etc.

 

[dan_jenkinson]

I take it what you mean is should you change your thermal paste. That is never a bad idea if you are having cooling issues. IF your asking if you should use more thermal paste than being used now however More paste than required is a bad thing. There is no better conductor of heat than metal to metal contact. The paste is just to fill in the spaces where there is air as air is a terrible thermal conductor. If you have to little thermal paste then yes it would help but chances are that's not an issue as it only takes a small rice grain to pea sized blob of thermal paste to have the proper amount between the cooler and CPU.

Depends on how old the TIM is, if it was applied properly, and how hot the CPU ran for how long. But replacing it is a good start. Don't overdo it, tho. It doesn't take very much.

If you list your system specs and the temps you get, maybe we can spot something else causing the issue. Like a loose cooler, dead or dying cooler fan, dirty case/board, etc.

Thanks for the reply, i'm deffo gonna give it a go. Pretty concerned that i shouldn't be using my PC atm as these temps seem to all of a sudden climbed up and probs causing more harm.
Operating System

Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i5 6600K @ 3.50GHz 88 °C (this climbs to 95 °C)
Skylake 14nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel Unknown @ 1066MHz (15-15-15-35)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Z170I PRO GAMING (LGA1151) 96 °C (this climbs to 99 °C)
Graphics
PLE2483H (1920x1080@60Hz)
PL2377H (1920x1080@60Hz)
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (MSI) 44 °C
Storage
1863GB Seagate ST2000DM001-1CH164 (SATA ) 40 °C
Optical Drives
PIONEER BD-ROM BDC-207D
Audio
Corsair VOID PRO Wireless Gaming Headset

 

[viperdg]

95C -99C. Did it just jump up form normal temps to these very high temps in a short period of time. Did you make sure your CPU coolers fan is still working.

 

[clutchc]

If that's the factory TIM and the factory cooler has only been installed the one time, I doubt the TIM is the problem. I'd be looking at the possibilty that one of the push-pin feet on the Intel cooler came loose. Or dead/dying cooler fan.

Nevermind. Didn't know you had an aftermarket cooler.

 

[dan_jenkinson]

95C -99C. Did it just jump up form normal temps to these very high temps in a short period of time. Did you make sure your CPU coolers fan is still working.

I remember using Speccy a little while ago (like 2 -3 months) and seeing temps were reasonable high like 70 ish . Wasn't too concerned as its a reasonably older build. The fan is spinning, and with the water cooling, one pipe is noticeably hotter than the other which i seem to think it how its meant to be.

 

[dan_jenkinson]

I remember using Speccy a little while ago (like 2 -3 months) and seeing temps were reasonable high like 70 ish . Wasn't too concerned as its a reasonably older build. The fan is spinning, and with the water cooling, one pipe is noticeably hotter than the other which i seem to think it how its meant to be.

PC pics

 

[viperdg]

Well you can try the thermal paste change. But those are something is wrong type temps. like the mounting plate for your water cooling pump is loose like mentioned before. For it to be a fault of the TIM it would have to be almost gone. Although I suppose its possible that's the issue. Good place to start I guess however.

 

[dan_jenkinson]

Well you can try the thermal paste change. But those are something is wrong type temps. like the mounting plate for your water cooling pump is loose like mentioned before. For it to be a fault of the TIM it would have to be almost gone. Although I suppose its possible that's the issue.

I'm gonna go out in the morning and get some paste and see if i can sort it out. Thanks for your time , i need to go to bed now haha.

I'll update tomorrow with results.

 

[Zally33]

Never replaced thermal paste as such, and currently have high core temps and performance issues - could this possibly be the problem?

Putting too much paste on a socket generally won't hurt thermal performance, because the act of tightening down the cooler squeezes out the excess. Too littlepaste is bad, but anything above the minimum threshold will have the same effect once the cooler is tightened down.

 

[Zally33]

Never replaced thermal paste as such, and currently have high core temps and performance issues - could this possibly be the problem?

Also you could try alternatives like graphite thermal pads you can reuse them and last pretty long.Also silicon pads, copper heat sinks.

 

[Azzyasi]

As anyone said, old TIM should be replaced properly with fresh TIM and should improve the thermals
To much will drip on motherboard, too litlle is very bad. So a bit above the required is optimal. If you apply the dot method you should have sqeeke-out on all corners and sides to be sure the coverage is full.

.......There is no better conductor of heat than metal to metal contact. .......

Spoiler: Lenghty food for thought about cooling

That is not true. If you admit only conduction as method of transporting heat maybe.
Conduction is limited by thermodynamics laws and can't get past them.
But with convection systems you can cool as much as you want withing reasonable limits. Convection systems implies a fluid in motion over the surface that is cooled. The catch is that the fluid in motion is transporting the heat within itself and is not an adibatic process (it's not isolated, you actually trasport that fluid out of the system). So the limitations in such convection systems are mechanical.. at what pressure does the die hold? If it's 20 Bar, than you can transort more fluid such that the total flow restriction in vecinity of the die rise to 20 bar and that is the limitation of the convection. Investigate direct die watercooling. That is an excellent path to follow for the ultimate cooling.

Another powerful mechanism at transporting heat is phase change of a substance. To change the state of a substance you need heat from solid to liquid and fron liquid to gas, and need to remove heat to change the phase in the other way. Phase change cooling is a well known thing used in fridges with condenser and vaporizator and compressor.. the compressor makes the liquid and it expands and becomes gas in the vaporizator near the object to be cooled. Phase change has some limitations as well but mostly in the temperature range.. because you must operate at a set temperature near the boiling point of that substance. anything else will be all liquid or all gas and is a no go for phase change cooling.
Yet heatpipes are some sort of phase change cooling but only for transporting the heat to a massive radiator.. and the agent is water with some vacuum to make it boil at 30-40 degrees so it's the sweetspot.

I'd say direct die phase change cooling is among the ultimate methods of cooling. If the operating fluid is helium, you can reach -250-270 degrees celsius, but i doubt a cryogeninc cooling would do any good for a PC unless you design it to work better at such temeratures - and here i'm talking about superconductors. If a cryogenic helium or hydrogen cooling system is in order, with a proper insulation to not get heated by the environment, some interesting things happen in a superconductor.. it passes current with no Joule effect.. so it does not heat up in the first place. Unfortunatly no CPU or motherboard or electronics are made to use the superconductor state, but i bet some experiments in the outer space have been done where most materials can reach the superconduction state with minimal cooling as it's already cold most of the time.

I trully believ superconductions CPUs and other electronic components will be a giant leab in performance in the future such as the jump from tube lamps and integrated semiconductor transistors.
We'll see.

Sorry for the lenthy offtopic, might be interesting to some.

 

[hang-the-9]

Putting too much paste on a socket generally won't hurt thermal performance, because the act of tightening down the cooler squeezes out the excess. Too littlepaste is bad, but anything above the minimum threshold will have the same effect once the cooler is tightened down.

Putting on too much that it comes out the sides is bad. Using too much will affect cooling. People that posted about using too much had good improvements in temps when they used the right amount. I never put the paste only in the middle with a dot, put a small mount then spread it in an even layer over the top of the CPU, just barely enough to cover it. Put on the heatsink and before you tighten it give it a tiny twist or few to even out the layer. I usually just put it on with my finger, it won't hurt anything and you have good control of how the layer is.

 

[dan_jenkinson]

Update: took pc apart as much as I could and blasted the shit out of it with compressed air. Managed to remove old thermal paste and apply more going off all the replies in here. And it's still fucked. Anyone have anymore suggestions? I can hear the fans start spinning super fast, as if it's struggling all the time, even just on windows.

 

[hang-the-9]

Update: took pc apart as much as I could and blasted the shit out of it with compressed air. Managed to remove old thermal paste and apply more going off all the replies in here. And it's still fucked. Anyone have anymore suggestions? I can hear the fans start spinning super fast, as if it's struggling all the time, even just on windows.

Heatsink may not be on properly, you have a normal thin amount of thermal paste on there now correct? Check for newer BIOS and see if maybe the fans are set to full speeds in the BIOS or any fan controller software you may have.