Arctic Silver weirdness

[bmwbaxter]

It was 2020 when this got posted so you never know

I originally used as5 then went to mx4. Currently using a graphite pad with good results.

EDIT: anyone else see a flayed man from the boltons banner in that last pic from OP?

 

[chillz]

I've come across this once before ages ago while swapping out a cooler.. I thought I had a leaky heatpipe. Turned out it was the crappy thermal paste that came with the crappy cooler I was replacing (Zalman).

On another note, I have several tubes of all sorts of different thermal pastes, including an Artic Silver from circa 2007. Most of the ones in plastic injector-style tubes have separated or dried out; the AS had separated. So yes, thermal paste can go bad. And there's no point in trying to mix it up again because you will never get it back to it's original consistency. Just thought I'd share that little tidbit