Can you mix thermal CPU paste?

[helpimcrap]

Hi all, putting stock Intel cooler onto I5-2500K and it has some 10yr old thermal paste on it.
Can I add some Arctic Silver 5 to it or do I need to clean it off and start again?
What paste would you recommend?

 

[tamzzy]

clean off and start again
if you have the AS5, just use it
if you need to buy new paste then the arctic MX4 is the best value paste
if you want something higher-end but still good value then get the arctic MX6

 

[Space Monkey]

Yeah clean it off and start fresh, 10yr old paste is way too old

 

[TrojanWhore]

Yep, at that age it's probably dry as hell. You should be able to clean it up with just kitchen roll and more or less any solvent (isopropyl alcohol would be great if you have some).

If you need to buy new paste, I bought 20g of mx4 for around £8 recently (which will last me until desktop PCs have died a death).... if using 10 year old AS5 then it may have separated, so I'd give it a bit of a mix when applying (and be careful to keep it out of stuff, as it's conductive)