Excellent advice but I note it doesn't even have to be 30 minutes. Since a CPU can go from cold to over-heated in just a few clock cycles (and there are billions of clock cycles per second), just a few minutes is all that is needed to get it up to "normal" operating temps.
Regardless your valuable tip/point is the same - the cooler is much easier to remove when you can easily break the cured bond when the old TIM is warm. And if the motherboard will not boot or cannot be powered up for some reason, a couple minutes with a hair dryer/heat gun (on low) carefully pointed at the heatsink will sufficiently warm it up.
And NEVER pull the cooler straight up off the processor. Always use a little "twist and pull" motion.
True but the importance of this is WAY WAY overblown. What is important to understand is if your processor actually "
needs" those 5° to keep from crossing over thermal protection thresholds, you have more urgent cooling needs to deal with
first.
TIM can dry out and it will lose a few (~5° is typical) degrees of efficiency over time. But that's
no big deal.
As noted above in post #4 above, it is only in liquid form to make it easier to squeeze out of the tube and spread around. It is the solids that are left behind that are doing the heat transfer/air blocking work, not the liquid component of the TIM. Again if your processor actually "needs" those 5°, you have more urgent cooling needs to deal with
first. See
The Heatsink Guide - old but still applicable and valid).
The only time dried TIM really matters is if it dries out in the tube. Then you may end up with grainy chunks of TIM that would prevent a proper, smooth, thin layer during application.
TIM will easily last 10, 15 years or longer AS LONG AS that cured bond is not broken. Consider this, there is not a single TIM maker, motherboard or computer maker, CPU or GPU maker, or cooler maker who recommends or even suggests replacing the TIM after X number of years.
Nope. It does not matter the component - whether CPU, GPU, memory, VRM, or whatever heat sensitive component you are trying to keep adequately cooled; AS LONG AS the cured bond is not broken, there is no need to replace the TIM (and risk damage from mishandling
) just because it has dried or because X number of years have passed.
