Question Thermal Paste and aftermarket cooler for i5 8400?

MightyMustachios

Prominent
Mar 31, 2019
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I bought an i5 8400 back when it was first released. Since then i have been having heating issues with cpu temp going to 90 degrees Celsius and above. After turning off the turbo boost from bios resolved the issue. I think it could be improper installation and it had preapplied thermal paste on it and since then i have not changed it and now i want to change it. I am confused with what thermal paste i should go with. Something like cooler master mastergel which is really cheap and comes with support items like a scrapper and cleaner or something from the premium range. I am also worried about the stock intel fan. Should i install an aftermarket fan or the stock fan will do?
 
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WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
The Intel stock cooler is junk, replace it with something that doesn't use push pins to lock it in as they wear down after a few installations and won't create a good connection between cooler & CPU. Most aftermarket coolers come with thermal paste but a good one is MX4.
 
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Really any reasonably priced thermal compound will work. I use Arctic Silver because it was what was available at the computer shop when I was there and it works fine. Some people swear by Noctua NT-H1 or Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut. As for the cooler, the stock one should be fine for the 8400, but there are always budget CPU coolers like the Hyper 212 or Gammaxx 400.
 
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