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I know the idea of putting toothpaste on your expensive CPU seems like a meme, but there

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are definitely situations where you can find yourself in a pinch.

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Your system is overheating at 2am and the local 7-11 doesn't stock standard CPU cooling

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supplies obviously, so if you're faced with an emergency and you don't have any sparrow

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thermal paste on hand, what can you use instead?

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To answer, it helps to understand exactly how thermal paste works.

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When you apply thermal paste to the top of your CPU and then put your heat sink on top

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of it, the paste fills in microscopic cracks in both the CPU heat spreader and the bottom

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of the heat sink as you apply pressure, like some kind of weird cyber Oreo that would be

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really hard to eat and would also kill you, but damn that would taste good.

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Filling in these cracks eliminates small air gaps that can prevent heat from effectively

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flowing out of your processor and into your cooler, but there's more to a good thermal

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paste and to life than just filling in holes.

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The materials that make up the thermal paste need to be thermally conductive or heat will

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have a hard time flowing through it regardless of how well it eliminates air pockets.

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Thermal paste often contains metal oxide compounds that are good at conducting heat but not electricity.

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This way, they'll cool off your CPU without posing a risk of shorting out your components

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if you have a spill. There are liquid metal thermal solutions that conduct heat more effectively than metal

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oxide thermal paste, but unfortunately they're also electrically conductive, so most enthusiasts

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sacrifice a few degrees and just use the thermal paste since it's safer and easier to apply.

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But are there easy to obtain materials that have the same properties as thermal paste?

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To answer our original question, you actually can use toothpaste in a pinch, although you

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probably want to mix it in with petroleum jelly like Vaseline to prevent it from drying

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out too quickly. But here's the thing, it's kind of a crapshoot how well any given toothpaste will perform

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with your particular setup. Some of the ingredients in toothpaste can actually be decent conductors of heat, but

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it's not going to be as effective as what's an actual thermal paste, not to mention that

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toothpaste contains fluoride, which has a corrosive effect.

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Great for cleaning teeth, but plaque buildup in the device is less of a problem for heat

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spreaders. They're lucky. Another popular option is diaper rash cream containing zinc oxide.

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Even zinc oxide is a common thermal conductor found in actual thermal paste, it's not

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the worst option if you happen to have it on hand and it won't dry out as quickly as

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many other thermal paste alternatives. But even so, it won't stay the right consistency for more than a few months.

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And that sounds like a long time, but thermal paste is designed to last in your system for

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years before it might dry out. Just think about all the pre-built computers sold to folks who don't even know what thermal

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paste is. They're probably never even going to crack open their machines, let alone experiment

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with sloping hygiene products in there. Plus, the general public tends to hold onto their PCs for longer than enthusiasts and

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gamers since they aren't as interested in upgrading to the latest tech to play the latest

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AAA game. There's a reason that putting unusual substances on CPUs has largely stayed in meme territory.

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Most commonly suggested alternatives to thermal paste tend to dry out prematurely.

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Surprisingly, the best alternative we tested on our sister channel line of tech tips was

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plain yellow mustard of all things, but despite the fact it cooled our CPU off fairly well,

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it dried out by the time we finished our testing. So bottom line, any thick pasty material that doesn't conduct electricity could work alright

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if you're having some kind of overheating emergency and need to use your PC briefly.

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But just get yourself some spare thermal paste.

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One good quality tube will have enough paste for several applications and costs less than

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$10. Just take it out of your monthly mustard budget.

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Thanks for watching guys, if you liked this video hit like, hit subscribe and hit us up

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in the comments section with your suggestions for topics that we should cover in the future.