Old thermal paste syringe

[asiga]

Hi,

I just got an old Apple-original motherboard replacement. It comes with a (sealed) thermal paste syringe (Chinese but provided by Apple). But it was made 10 years ago. Would you use it? I asked it to the guy in my local PC shop and he said that it's sealed, so it's OK to use it no matter how old it is. But I googled and found diversity of opinions about old thermal paste. What would you do?

 

[abundantmussel]

Personally for the sake of a few € or $ or £ or whatever currency you use I'd grab a new one.

 

[MagicBoy]

It'll be fine. There's nothing in there that would degrade through age in a sealed syringe.

 

[A.Goldberg]

It'll be fine. There's nothing in there that would degrade through age in a sealed syringe.

Assuming it's still indeed 100% sealed and air has not leaked in. I am by no means a thermal paste expert, but I imagine exposure to air is bad. Silver, Zinc, Aluminum, etc are pretty stable, but I'd be concerned about the base/matrix.

As someone who works in medicine, I would never trust the contents of a 10 year pre-filled old syringe... And I have to imagine the medical industry has higher packaging standards.

I'm overly cautious and neurotic so my suggestion is spend the few bucks and buy some new thermal paste. In reality (am suggesting I'm not in reality?), you could always just test out the consistency beforehand to make sure it's okay (uniform paste, not chunky, not too wet/runny or dry, correct viscosity, etc). If it seems off, tell yourself to just bite the bullet, spend the few bucks, and do it right the first time.

 

[asiga]

For some reason I'd like to use it because it was the syringe that Apple provided officially. But, on the other hand, it looks like cheap quality (just Chinese text on the syringe, without any English).

 

[MagicBoy]

In which case it follows that the chinese made motherboard is also of cheap quality!