That $20 thermal paste from a random eBay seller actually worked

I had a customer bring in a laptop that was overheating bad, and I was out of my usual Arctic Silver. Figured I'd try this cheap tube I bought on a whim from a seller in Hong Kong for 6 months. Threw it on their CPU and it dropped temps by 15 degrees Celsius under load. Still feels weird trusting it, anyone else had a sketchy component that ended up surprising them?

2 comments

2 Comments

beth_hunt1d ago

That cheap stuff is wild, right? I actually bought a 10 pack of those tiny tubes from a random seller for like 8 bucks total a few years ago. Still working through them and they beat out some name brand pastes in my own testing by a few degrees. Kinda makes you wonder how much markup there really is on the fancy stuff.

the_nathan1d ago

Is there really any difference between the budget stuff and the premium stuff when it works just as well?