Without thermal paste, your investment in the best CPU cooler and processor can be jeopardized. In my case, I am using a Ryzen 5 3600 Gaming Rig where I was planning to install the best possible cooling solution to be able to play uninterrupted and record gameplay. So I spent some money and added Corsair H45 Liquid Cooler. Unfortunately, you don’t get a good quality thermal paste in the package. But there is already some applied on the heatsink, which is not enough at all. A thin layer is good to start with and the temperature is controlled in the beginning because it is a liquid cooler, more reliable than an air cooler.

With the stock thermal paste my CPU temperature was a bit more than expected, around 50 degrees, and peaked to 80 degrees with HD gaming. This is because AMD Ryzen 3600 has a bug with temperature spikes, sometimes the temperature jumps from 30 to 60 or 80 degrees directly. And so it drops down, but this is a bit strange and there is already a lot of discussion going on on the web. Users with stock air coolers have a bit more problems with the high temperature of AMD Ryzen, so I recommend switching to a liquid cooler for long-term performance.

Spending on a budget liquid cooler will reduce the risk of CPU overheating, but only if a good thermal paste is used. With the stock paste on the Corsair H45, my CPU temperature was above 40 degrees during normal use and during gaming it kept going above 60 degrees, an instant jump of 10 to 20 degrees in a second was a concern. While playing a game like Fortnite or Borderlands 3 on max settings on a widescreen monitor, you won’t be checking the temperature all the time, instead you’ll be relying on your cooler to take care of the heating.

Considering the issue I thought of trying Corsair TM30, it offers a premium zinc oxide thermal compound and it promises to last for years. To some extent Corsair TM30 delivers what it offers, I am impressed with its performance here. When I was looking for a decent thermal compound I was hesitating between Cooler Master Thermal Grease MasterGel Pro and Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound. Both are nice products, Cooler Master is cheaper compared to Corsair while Noctua is expensive, almost double. But finally I chose Corsair TM30 based on its specifications and I was not wrong with the choice. After applying the compound my temperature is better under control than before.