Reusing the Dreamcast's thermal pads?

I'm about to disassemble my Dreamcast, and I've read there's thermal pads attaching the CPU to the metal shield/heatsink. In PC hardware, it's not normally a good idea to re-use thermal compounds, is the Dreamcast a different story? It doesn't appear like the pad is melting to mold itself to the CPU and headsink, so I figured it was different.

 

I ALWAYS reuse them unless they are damaged. Same goes for the ones in the PS2 and Gamecube. Just wipe down the chips with alcohol and lightly rinse the pad with water. For future reference, most are reusable, just watch out on v3 and earlier ps2 units since they dry out and split, Gamecube ones sometimes disintegrate so leave them on the heat sink. Of course if overclocking it would be better to improve the cooling so consider that if doing so.

 

thermal pads and thermal paste are different.

 

Thanks for the tip! I'll be sure to try that!

Good call, but I still had a feeling that thermal pads are one-shot since they mold to the CPU when heated for the first time *shrug*

 

It would better to use ac mx2 instead of reusing the pad unless the pad is what keeps the heatsink attached to the CPU.

 

you would get better cooling/performance if you used thermal paste arctic silver is my suggestion
rather then thermal pads plus the pads are ALL going on 12 or 13 years might be time to change them out

 

Got the Dreamcast all put back together and it works fine! Thanks for the help guys!