Thermal Paste Reapply Timing Tool

The calculator compares your Peak temperature vs your Sustained load temperature to capture whether heat is brief or persistent. It then builds a 0–100 Thermal Concern score from three drivers: temperature elevation (how far peak sits above sustained), symptom severity (none to severe), and device context (laptop vs desktop plus cooler/repaste history). Based on that score, it outputs a repaste recommendation and explains the biggest factors pushing the result up or down.

Short spikes can happen even with healthy paste, but higher sustained temperatures suggest poorer thermal transfer under continuous load. Laptops generally get more urgent treatment in the recommendation because compact cooling systems are more sensitive to paste degradation and dust/airflow issues. Also, “Removed multiple times” or “last repaste > 2 years ago” increases the likelihood the paste itself is contributing, not necessarily the only cause.

If your Peak temperature is lower than your Sustained temperature, the tool flags possible input reversal since that pattern is atypical for normal thermal logging. Temperatures outside 30–110 °C aren’t accepted because they’re likely not comparable to the tool’s model assumptions. If you select “Severe” symptoms but your temperatures are clearly normal, the tool warns that the inputs may be inconsistent and that repasting alone may not address the underlying cause.

This tool estimates how likely thermal paste is contributing, not whether paste is the exact root cause. Dust buildup, fan issues, blocked vents, insufficient airflow, ambient room temperature, overclocking, and BIOS power limits are simplified rather than fully modeled. If you see severe throttling or heat issues, consider checking fan behavior and airflow first (or alongside repasting), especially for laptops.