Coming up on two years since I built my desktop PC and I decided to go with a thermal PTM pad this time instead of paste. Thermal pads have become pretty popular. I went with a Thermal Grizzly PTM here  

I stuck it in the fridge for about 30 minutes and then trimmed it to fit. Had to cut off about 5 mm off each side for a LGA 1700 12700k.

These thermal pads do need to be heat cycled to get full performance although they do fine out of the box. Thermal Grizzly recommends 10 heat/cool cycles to get full thermal phase change.

I've been running Prime 95 off and on. I didn't get numbers before but after replacing 2 year old paste my idle is running at 28C with an EVGA 280mm AIO. The old paste I cleaned off the cold plate and CPU was definitely on the dry side but cleaned up nicely with an alcohol pad.

For other maintenance dusting out the system out is pretty simple. On most wet/dry vacs you can hook the hose up on the exhaust side and get pretty good airflow out with a skinny attachment. Just clean out the tub before using it as exhaust, and be sure if blasting fans with air to keep the fan from spinning wildly with the air flow. With the computer powered off a free spinning fan can act as a little miniature power generator and send power back the wrong way. So anytime you use pressurized air to clean a PC either tape or use a free hand to keep any fans from spinning.

Paste does have a limit and depending on use can dry out while impacting system performance as can dust build up. A lot of older equipment gets tossed or labeled as bad when it just needs re-pasting and dust cleaning.

I have been using the original paste used when I assembled mine in 2018.  Are there any symptoms that show the paste is failing?

You'd have to monitor CPU temps occasionally to know if it's running hotter than normal at idle or while doing tasks that stress the CPU.

Other signs include increased fan noise which means they're coming on faster than normal. That can also be caused by dust in the system.

System performance degradation can cause thermal throttling, system crashes, and reduced performance.

I just view it as regular maintenance to keep my system running properly before any possible issues pop up.

Thanks!  I'll take a look at that.

I recently got a mini PC for some Plex duty. The folks on the ServeTheHome forums suggested removing the factory thermal paste, which was often poor quality and dried out.

I replaced it with Thermal Grizzly Hydronaut liquid metal. It dramatically dropped the temperatures. Even when transcoding, it barely bumps the CPU temp.

This is good 'every other year' maintenance IMO.

I'll do this to the GPU as well if I have one long enough.

Just had a family member's laptop quit working last week, wouldn't even power up.  Charging light would go from amber to white, but no fan and no display when the power button was pressed.  Replaced the battery, and then the fan would spin briefly and then stop, so there was some progress made.  Suspected overheating as a second issue, so cleaned up and replaced the thermal paste.  Hit the power button one more time, and a big Homer Simpson "Woo-hoo!" moment when the HP icon appeared on the screen.

Now I get to see if I can pull the data from a 24 year old failing hard drive for his arcade machine.  Instead of "the click of death", it has "the clunk of death".  Should be a fun attempt.

Some lasts longer than others.   I've been using Arctic Cooling MX-4, which typically tests pretty well against others, but isn't the absolute best.  However, it's known for maintaining its effectiveness for a long time.  I ran it for over 2 years on my 5600X with no noticeable changes in temps running Prime95. I used it again when I recently upgraded to a 7800X3D.

There are a couple that test very well initially but have to be replaced frequently, such as Thermal Grizzly (I can't remember which particular one).

I have had a different experience, I used to use the thermal pads that came with the Intel processors, and had them all dry out and were replaced under warranty, switched to Arctic silver thermal paste, just a small pea sized drop and let the cooler press it down flat, never had an issue.

Oof! Iomega Zip drive has entered the chat.

Good luck.

Pre applied paste is a lot different than thermal PTM pads JFYI