Thermal Paste job for i9 MBP 16

[Hazmat401]

Well… it’s about that time

My i9 MBP 16 is running pretty hot… temps are not dropping below 50 degrees Celsius and I have to imagine that my paste is more like cement now. My MacBook has been flawless and shows no sign of wear. It’s been awhile since I did this but I’m gonna order an iFix it kit and some thermal paste off of Amazon.. what’s good to use? kyronaut or MX-4

Also is it good to spread the paste out or is the bean method still good to go?

 

[AppaSquatic]

I'm looking at doing the same sort of maintenance on a Desktop about the same age. I opted for Thermal Grizzly's Kryosheet, because I'm not experienced with paste, and the reviews said there no discernible difference with paste. I also don't want to do this again EVER, so I was hoping the longevity claims of Kryosheet hold up.
But I have seen on forums that a lot of people still swear by using paste, citing better thermals and cheaper costs. I also suspect that type of person is more comfortable at fixing/maintaining computers.
That's my two cents, but anyhow, best of luck with your mod 👍

 

[Frieg]

Keep in mind that the paste is like cement even on a rather new laptop, the paste is designed to not suffer from the pump out effect over the lifetime of the product, so it solidifies pretty fast. it's a tradeoff between temperatures and longevity because it's assumed that the customer never changes the thermal paste.

if you use a paste designed for desktop CPUs you will experience said pump out effect, because they are not designed for the high temperatures and thus higher difference in heat expansion between cpu die and the heatsink found in laptops.
also the pressure of the heatsink on the cpu is higher in laptops which also increases the pump out problem.

best option is to use the Honeywell PTM7950 imho. with pastes you will experience a steep increase in temperatures after a few weeks/months.

reviews of pastes in desktop environments do NOT apply to laptop usage because it's a totally different use case with different requirements for the paste.

 

[AppaSquatic]

Keep in mind that the paste is like cement even on a rather new laptop, the paste is designed to not suffer from the pump out effect over the lifetime of the product, so it solidifies pretty fast. it's a tradeoff between temperatures and longevity because it's assumed that the customer never changes the thermal paste.

if you use a paste designed for desktop CPUs you will experience said pump out effect, because they are not designed for the high temperatures and thus higher difference in heat expansion between cpu die and the heatsink found in laptops.
also the pressure of the heatsink on the cpu is higher in laptops which also increases the pump out problem.

best option is to use the Honeywell PTM7950 imho. with pastes you will experience a steep increase in temperatures after a few weeks/months.

reviews of pastes in desktop environments do NOT apply to laptop usage because it's a totally different use case with different requirements for the paste.

Just to clarify:
The review was only to demonstrate parity between effectiveness of heat transfer media, i.e. between a graphene thermal pad (KryoSheet) or various desktop pastes. I take your point that laptops and desktops have different usage profiles, thermal characteristics, requirements, etc, but I was volunteering KryoSheet as a simple possible alternative that colleagues have used successfully in Desktops, GPUs and laptops. That's all.
I'm not a KryoSheet salesman, and nor do I have shares in the company. Just thought I'd relate how my investigation, though different, is not entirely dissimilar to that of Hazmat401. I'm guessing though that the pro solution might be more suitable, especially since you both seem comfortable with thermal pastes. Good luck in any case, fortune favours the bold!