New
#1
Is it time for new cpu thermal paste? And More RAM?
Hello all,
About a year or two ago, I have replaced the CPU thermal paste on my grandmas computer. Her computer is a 7 year old dell inspiron 580. Came with windows 7 home premium back in 2011. I have replaced her hard drive once and it now has an SSD I've installed for her.
Her temps as I sit here and type this range from 45 to mid 50's being idle. Under load with google chrome open, It says it goes to 62 degrees Celsius according to speccy. I ran a stress test using CPU-z and it almost hits 70 degrees Celsius for the 1-2 minutes I ran the test.
The temps when I first replaced her thermal paste were 30-40's when idle, and never got to 60 degrees Celsius with google chrome. Is it now time to redo the paste?
I will say, however, looking back on how it did it before, that I indeed didn't apply it properly; I should have applied the pea dot method, but instead I rather wiped it all on the surface of the cpu back then... maybe this is why it's not working even though it's only been a year or two? It should've lasted longer than this...
Her cpu is a core i3 550 3.20 GHz and I still have windows 7 on her ssd. any more info i will share.
ALSO:
I notice her ram usage is close to max with a few google chrome windows open.. she has 4 gigs ddr3. I figured upgrading won't matter due to windows 7, but chrome is now making me think otherwise... what should i do?
Thank you!
She and I really want to keep this computer as long as possible!