Mac Pro 3.1 Thermal compound maintenance

[bax2003]

I would like to share my todays experience on changing thermal paste on my 2008 Mac Pro.

To cut story short, this the state of paste on CPUs and Heatsinks before cleaning:

CPUs and Heatsinks:

Chipset and Heatsink:

I would say overall, very good condition after full 4 years of life.


After cleaning:

I used fresh Arctic Silver Matrix thermal paste after cleaning. Temperatures are now 1-2 degrees celsius lower, noting major. It just says how good original thermal paste was, so if you do not have doubts and cooling problems, you do not need to do this. I just had to

 

[pprior]

Cool - thanks for taking time to post these images and data. I had some worries about my 2008, but 1-2c is not a reason to even think about tearing it all apart. Cool how that stuff holds up over time.