How often should you change the Thermal paste on a laptop?

Most laptop heat sinks are not attached with thermal paste per se... they use a pad or thermal tape. The material itself is similar, but is more like foam. The assembly process is made quicker with the addition of these pads.

The lifespan of thermal paste is indeed affected by the amount of heat the processor generates, so there is no real set amount of time between re-applications. Yes, the pads used will break down quicker than a paste like Arctic Silver. However, different pastes will last longer.. for example,the default paste that Dell used in their Optiplex towers from 2005 is still usable after 5 to 6 years... simply smoothing the existing paste and reapplying the heat sink to the processor works just as well as cleaning off the default paste and applying new paste. That's just an example though.

The best Thermal paste I've used... well... It would be a toss up.

Zalman Thermal Compound... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

and Arctic Silver 5... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

The Zalman comes in a small bottle that has a brush in the cap. Application is almost TOO simple, as you just need to brush it on. Heat transfer is excellent.

Arctic Silver is almost an industry standard in excellence for heat transfer, and is applied just like any other standard paste. Until you get your application technique down pat though, you will most likely see more waste with a standard tube paste, over the Zalman brush-on application.

The quickest and least messy option is that Thermal Tape you have heard of. Unfortunately, you are already seeing the results of it's use. It is cheaper than a compound or paste, and it dries out quicker as it is a foam based application. So I'd have to say that No... it is not better. You are already looking for a better replacement option to thermal tape. You just didn't know it.

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RE:

How often should you change the Thermal paste on a laptop?

I getting more & more laptops coming to me, where the person claims the PC is going slow for no reason, on each case when I check the heat-sink, the thermal paste has dry up.

1. Does thermal paste have a life span ?

2. Does thermal paste have a shorter life span on laptops ?

3. What is the...

Thermal paste does have life span, when thermal paste dries out, it can not transfer heat from computer chip to heat sink properly, therefore resulting in higher temperatures, which in most cases will harm, or destroy, and or effect performance of computer chip. Cheaper thermal paste will need to be checked and replaced more often, while better thermal paste may last longer, and may transfer the heat away from chip/cpu/gpu etc. to heatsink or heatsink fan combo better. I would imagine that for normal chips, not over clocked normal thermal paste is fine, if over clocking, very high heat, it is best to use the best thermal compound, heat sink compound you can find, higher price. Never used thermal tape or even heard of it, if it had thermal paste use thermal paste... Thermal paste on most applications will last for a good 2 to 4 years plus, however if there is more heat, over clocking, performance cpus, gpus, more heat will dry out paste faster, check it more often every year. With gpu video cards you can tell, the game may start to stutter, show artifacts, show distorted image, and freeze on games you have easily played before, shut down computer and check heatsink paste, and fan.

I've never heard of this and have serious doubts that the thermal paste is at fault.

It should last as long as the laptop.