Thermal paste application is one of the most crucial steps of building a PC. If you forget to put thermal paste on your CPU, you are adding extra steps to the process of enjoying your build. But, what exactly happens if you forget to apply thermal paste? Let’s find that out in this article.
What if I Forget to Apply Thermal Paste?
To understand this, let us first look at what thermal paste is tasked with. We always apply thermal paste on the IHS of a chip, under the cold plate/base plate of a cooler. This helps in killing the air gaps between the points of contact and thereby helps in better thermal conduction.
Thermal paste solutions are highly thermally conductive but have zero electrical conductivity. Electrically conductive pastes can be fatal as these can conduct electricity from the processor to the cooler. Thus, an ideal thermal paste solution will have an infinitely high thermal conductivity but zero electrical conductivity. Although this solution is never achievable in real life.
At this point, you might have understood what would happen in case you do not apply thermal paste. The air gaps between the IHS and the cold plate will not get closed, hence severely impacting the heat transfer. This will lead to the processor getting overheated, which thereby will force it to underclock itself, taking away a chunk of its performance.
Although running a processor without any thermal paste will not cause any issues immediately, it can cause severe damage to the chips in the long term. This list of potential damages includes, but is not limited to:
- Damage caused due to running at high temperatures.
- Downgrading of the silicon.
- At extreme conditions, death of the processor.
Applying thermal paste is a necessary step while building a PC or performing maintenance work on graphics cards, etc. You should never forget this step, as failing it can have long-lasting consequences, involving the chips getting bricked and declared e-waste.