Spent $60 on a thermal paste kit vs using the free tube that came with my cooler

Last week I built a new rig for a client in Austin and had to decide between spending $60 on a fancy Kryonaut kit or just using the stuff that came with the Noctua cooler. I went cheap and used the stock tube, but after 3 days the temps were hitting 85C under load on an i7-13700K. Pulled it apart and half the paste had squeezed out unevenly, so I ended up buying the expensive stuff anyway and it dropped to 72C steady. Anyone else find that stock thermal paste is just not worth the hassle?

2 comments

2 Comments

jessica_ross381mo ago

Did you spread the stock paste yourself or just do the pea method? I find most pre-applied stuff is way too thick and doesn't spread right unless you manually do it. Also what case and fan setup are you running? 85C on a 13700K seems high even with bad paste unless the cooler wasn't tightened enough or the airflow is choked. The way you describe the paste squeezing out unevenly makes me wonder if the mounting pressure was off too.

lucashart1mo ago

Why would you assume the pre-applied paste was the problem when the 13700K is known to run hot even with good cooling? @jessica_ross38 I've seen a lot of builds where the pea method works fine with stock paste and the temp issues come from the cooler itself not being matched to the chip's power draw. A 240mm AIO in a case with one exhaust fan could easily hit 85C even with perfect paste and mounting.