How long does a thermal paste/grease last for Intel...

I know that Intel Pentium 4 class CPUs have built-in protection, but
I'm sure that that older Intel CPUs don't and require that any
protection be external. I've had the CPU protection kick in only
once, with a Pentium II or III Celeron whose heatsink popped up, but
no obvious damage resulted. However the BIOS of the mobo defaulted to
leaving the thermal protection inactive. I recently acquired an
Athlon mobo that seems to have no alarm or protection features
available in its BIOS, so I want to add a circuit to shut down the
power if the CPU heatsink gets hot enough (I worry that Windows would
lock up and prevent MBM5 from shutting down the system).

While not arguing the previous replies there is a minor point being missed
here:
All too often thermal grease is applied too thickly and many of them when
applied
too thickly cook, go hard and become less conductive partly inherently and
partly because the surfaces cease to make such good contact.

The key advice already given elsewhere but worth emphasising is - apply the
mearest smidgeon of grease just enough to fill those microscopic holes but
not
enough to hold the heatsink away from the chip surface and there will
almost
certainly be no problem. Many of the pads that come already on with some
heatsinks
are a good guide - they start off quite thick but remove the heatsink later
and you will see that
almost all the pad has oozed out except a blush on the chip surface which is
all that
was needed to fill those microscopic holes. Unfortunately not all the
greases
on sale are such good "oozers" with the result that applied too
enthusuastically
they actually harden without oozing out enough and act as an insulating type
of mortar!

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First understand why thermal compound works better than
thermal pad and tapes. With every transition of media (CPU to
pad to heatsink), then thermal resistance increases. The most
conductive interface is CPU directly to heatsink. That is
what thermal compound does. Most of the CPU connects directly
to heatsink if thermal compound is properly applied. Thermal
compound is applied so minimally so that even the microscopic
holes will conduct some heat.

A perfectly good thermal interface is CPU direct to heatsink
- without compound. Adding thermal compound to that
combination makes the microscopic holes also heat conductors -
and will reduce CPU temperature by less than 10 degrees. Look
at the numbers. Thermal compound is only to also make
microscopic holed thermally conductive AND to not get between
a direct CPU to heatsink connection.

Thermal compound does not go bad in your CPUs lifetime. But
too many humans want to 'fix' things. Sounds like you did
some good fixing. It is common for humans to apply too much
thermal compound - making CPU hotter than if no compound was
applied. For some reason, humans think thermal compound is
essential - and more is better.

Running a computer in an 85 degree F room is not hot. Your
computer must work fine even in a 100 degree F room - without
failure. In fact that is the preferred normal testing
temperature - a task called burn-in testing. Any computer
that does not work in 100 degree F room is defective AND will
probably be failing in near future at 70 degrees.

Your computer is not doing anything more stressful.
Computers run about as hard whether you run a little program
or a monster one. Computer runs instructions at same pace no
matter what program is running. Intel makes special programs
that execute only special instructions to stress chips. You
don't have it. These execute series of 'hotter' instructions
that regular programs don't do when executing complex tasks.
Your computer runs just as 'stressful' when doing everything
else.

Also Intel CPUs don't crash due to heat. They have internal
protection that simply slows the CPU down. Crashing would be
from different reasons.

In short, you have no idea how stressful your software is.
Compiling is a simple task as are most every other program.
But you do know that the original thermal compound was removed
uselessly. Some people foolishly want to clean everything.

Until manufacturer's diagnostics are executed in a 100
degree F room, then no reasons is known for hardware is
crashing. Too much speculation and too few facts. I don't
see any reports from system (event) logs nor voltage
measurements using a 3.5 digit multimeter. Again, even basic
information was not collected before speculating.

yes
the paste will last for years...
all you need is a very little bit

chances are you need a better cooling fan

Depends on the quantity and quality of the thermal paste. My point of view
is that a thermal paste is not really necessary. Just plain metal to metal
contact is best. I believe most thermal grease hardens with age and probably
becomes non-conducting. Grease/paste by nature is a non-conductor especially
when hardened. In thermodynamics of heat we know that even a thin layer of
non-conductor between two blocks of conductors(metal) slows the conductivity
through the blocks by a very large margin.
My two cents...

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