Thread: Thermal Compound question

Will the thermal compound get dried out or anything if its on my CPU and theres nothing touching it on the other side? (im not turning it on or anything like that)

It depends on the brand of paste you used. The stick on pads will dry out quickly.
Arctic Silver won't dry out, for quite a while, say... 6 months? (@ room temp)
BUT... it will attract dust and lint in air, which is not a good idea, since surfaces need to be very clean when installing parts, either CPU or heatsink cooler.
The paste is reasonably cheap to replace ($5-6 - 3.5 oz. tube), so I would recommend just removing it and applying again when ready to assemble components.
I bought my tube of Arctic Silver 5 in 2005, and changed CPU coolers at least 10 times since, and still have half a tube left over.