TIL the cheap thermal paste from the dollar store actually works

Honestly, I was fixing a friend's overheating laptop and all I had was a tube of 'PC Pro' paste I got for a buck. Figured it was junk, but we were stuck. Ngl, after applying it, the CPU temps dropped from 95C to 78C under load. It's held steady for three weeks now. Has anyone else tried a super cheap paste that surprised them?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_ben2mo agoMost Upvoted

Wait, is the paste quality really that big of a deal for most people? I used the generic gray stuff from a computer repair kit for years and never had a problem. Unless you're doing extreme overclocking, the difference between a $1 tube and a $10 one seems tiny. My old PC ran fine on the cheap paste for like five years before I sold it.

skylercooper19d ago

Remember that one time I used toothpaste on an old GPU because some guy on a forum swore it worked as thermal paste? Computer actually booted for about 20 minutes before the system started throwing temp warnings everywhere. Your generic gray stuff is probably fine but maybe don't let desperation guide your cooling decisions.

adams.faith2mo ago

Sometimes the cheap stuff just works... I've had good luck with those little white tubes that come with budget CPU coolers.