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

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there are definitely situations where you can find yourself in a pinch your

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system is overheating at 2 a.m. and the local 7-Eleven doesn't stock standard CP

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cooling supplies obviously so if you're faced with an emergency and you don't

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have any spare thermal paste on hand what can you use instead to answer it

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helps to understand exactly how thermal paste works when you apply thermal paste

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to the top of your CPU and then put your heat sink on top of it the paste fills

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in microscopic cracks in both the CPU heat spreader and the bottom of the heat

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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 eliminate small air gaps that can prevent heat from

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effectively flowing out of your processor and into your cooler but

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there's more to a good thermal paste and to life than just filling in Holes the

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

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

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pockets thermal paste often contains metal oxide compounds that are good at

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conducting heat but not electricity this

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

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components if you have a spill there are

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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

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most enthusiasts sacrifice a few degrees and just use the thermal paste since

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it's safer and easier to apply but are there easy to obtain materials that have

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the same properties as thermal paste we'll tell you right after we thank

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signups at the link below to answer our original question you actually can use

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toothpaste in a pinch although you probably want to mix it in with

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petroleum jelly like Vaseline to prevent it from drying out too quickly but

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here's the thing it's kind of a crapshoot how well any given toothpaste

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will perform with your particular setup some of the ingredients in toothpaste

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can actually be decent conductors of heat but it's not going to be as

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effective as what's an actual thermal paste not to mention that toothpaste

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contains fluoride which has a corrosive effect great for cleaning teeth but

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plaque build up in ginger viice is less of a problem for heat spreaders they're

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lucky another popular option is diaper rash cream containing zinc oxide since

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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

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quickly as many other thermal paste Alternatives but even so it won't stay

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the right consistency for more than a few months and that sounds like a long

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time but thermal paste is designed to last in your system for years before it

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might dry out just think about all the pre-built computers sold to folks who

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don't even know what thermal paste is they're probably never even going to

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crack open their machines let alone experiment with slopping hygiene

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products in there plus the general public tends to hold on to their PCS for

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longer than enthusiasts and Gamers since they aren't as interested in upgrading

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to the latest tech to play the latest AAA game there's a reason that putting

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unusual substances on CPUs has largely stayed in meme territory most commonly

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suggested alternatives to thermal paste tend to dry out prematurely surprisingly

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the best alternative we tested on our sister Channel liance detectives was

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

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fairly well it dried out by the time we finished our testing so bottom line any

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thick wasy material that doesn't conduct electricity could work all right if

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

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briefly but just get yourself some spare thermal paste one good quality tube will

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have enough paste for several applications and costs less than 10 bucks just take it out of your monthly

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mustard budget thanks for watching guys if you like this video hit like hit

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subscribe and hit us up in the comments section with your suggestions for topics

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that we should cover in the future