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SOLVED Choosing a Thermal Compound

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Q-Tips? Yeah that's fine. Generally they're not the best to use; but it's fine. Personally I'm lazy and can't be bothered with a Lint-free cloth that I have to wash and just use tissues.. Tissues and Q-tips tend to leave behind little bits of dust/lint or whatever but it doesn't really matter honestly.. Lol. Just 'blow' and if it looks clean; it's probably enough.
 
Mjolnir said:
Q-Tips? Yeah that's fine. Generally they're not the best to use; but it's fine. Personally I'm lazy and can't be bothered with a Lint-free cloth that I have to wash and just use tissues.. Tissues and Q-tips tend to leave behind little bits of dust/lint or whatever but it doesn't really matter honestly.. Lol. Just 'blow' and if it looks clean; it's probably enough.
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I use my sister make up removal cloth that doest leave anything behind ;)

Should can right?
 
I'd recommend MX-2 myself. I've found it works a lot better than AS5, easier to spread and clean up and can be used on anything since it's non-conductive and non-capacitive.

Also, ArctiClean is great for cleaning up old paste for when you have to put on new.

Bigbaddie said:
How often do you need to change thermal paste? or remove and reapply.
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From what I've heard most pastes are good for 3-5 years, though there are some that claim to be good for over five years. For stock paste I'd say after 2-3 years you should probably replace it.

Though I replace mine way more often than that, but that's just because I test out other CPU's and/or heatsinks a lot for benchmarking and/or just general testing of hardware.
 
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