Thermal paste round-up.


http://www.overclockers.co.uk was kind enough to send me a range of thermal pastes to test and report back on, what follows is my own thoughts and testing. The following pictures are of the outside packaging as you would receive it, the contents and finally the "spread-ability" + "coverage" of each paste using my own method of testing.




Akasa AK-455 Thermal Compound - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-002-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Akasa AK-460 High Performance Thermal Compund (3.5g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-004-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Akasa TIM Kit Thermal Compound + Cleaner & Spreader - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-003-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27





Alpenföhn "Snow Cannon" Thermalpaste (1.5g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-000-AL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound (4g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-004-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Arctic Cooling MX-4 Thermal Compound (4g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-003-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=AC-000-AC&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27





Arctic Silver Alumina Thermal Paste (1.75g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-006-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27





Arctic Silver Céramique 2 Thermal Paste (2.7g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-002-AC&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27





Cooler Master IC-Essential E1 Thermal Paste - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-016-CL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Cooler Master IC-Essential E2 Thermal Paste - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-017-CL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Cooler Master IC-Value V1 Thermal Paste - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-000-CM&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Coollaboratory Liquid MetalPad - 1 x CPU Thermal Pad - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-007-CL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27

I decided not to try test this product.





Coollaboratory Liquid Pro Liquid Metal Thermal Paste - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-005-CL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Dimastech HTX-EE Thermal Grease - Enthusiast Edition (3.5g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-000-DT&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme Cutting Edge Thermal Compound (3.5g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-000-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






IC Diamond 24-Carat Thermal Compound (4.8g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-001-ID&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27





IC Diamond 7-Carat Thermal Compound (1.5g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-000-ID&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27





Prolimatech PK-1 Nano Thermal Compound (5g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-000-PL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Xigmatek PTI-G3606 Thermal Grease - (3g) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-000-XG&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27






Test Setup.

i5 3570K @4.5GHz (45X multi and using 1.4Vcore)
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
Antec Kuhler920 (set to silent mode)
Realtemp
Prime95


Each paste was applied using a rice grain sized blob in the center of the CPU's heatspreader and the clamping force of the Kuhler920 allowed to spread the paste, except for the Coolaboratory Liquid Pro which I followed the instructions within the packaging to apply.

I don't have a thermometer to measure the ambient temperature of my room, but the testing was done on similar days.


Spread-ability.

This is my own thoughts on how easy it was to spread a pea sized blob of each paste across a mirrored surface, I used one of the plastic spatula supplied in one of the kits and then tried to use the same amount of force to spread.



The Coolaboratory Liquid Pro doesn't work at all well when trying to use the CPU cooler to spread it using pressure, instead the instructions say to spread a small blob around the surface using a cotton bud or similar until the surface is like a mirror, it behaves like Mercury metal at all times and I didn't like it at all, the fact I got it to spread at all means it doesn't receive a 0


Idle temperatures.

Idle temps were recorded after leaving the PC alone for 15 mins and then the minimum temperature of all four cores added up and divided by the number of cores to give the average.




Load temperatures.

Load temps were recorded in a similar method after running Prime95 for 15 minutes, the maximum temps were again just added up and divided by the number of cores.




Conclusion.


Firstly lets talk about the Liquid Pro, its temperatures were good at both idle and load, but the mess it made of both the CPU's surface and Kuhler's surface was a nightmare to clean, the instructions also say that the writing on the heatspreader can be unreadable after use, luckily mine is still readable but the heatspreader surface certainly looks more dark and used after trying to clean this stuff off, even using the supplied cleaning kit isn't enough, as for the scouring pad supplied, I wouldn't dare touch either surface with it.

The Coolermaster IC-Value V1 is cheap at £2.99, but it shows with maximum temperatures way above the others.

I can not recommend the use of these thermal compounds at all.


Then we come to the £4-5 thermal pastes, the Cooler Master IC-Essential E2 being both easy to spread, a nice coverage and good temperatures.

In the £5-10 range the Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme was lovely to use and great temperatures, the Prolimatech PK-1 Nano and Alpenföhn "Snow Cannon" was nice to use also, but the temps were a tiny bit worse, an honorable mention must go to the Arctic Cooling MX-2, at £6.98 its a bargain.


If I was buying thermal paste tomorrow with my own money, the Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme or MX-2 would be first on my shopping list with the Prolimatech PK-1 Nano and Alpenföhn "Snow Cannon" following close behind.

Amazing!

Awesome, thanks for doing this.
One thing though; could you put the temperature results in order of temperature please, would be much easier to read then.

gj.

Good to see the amount of effort being put into this review. I bought my MX4 quite a long while ago when my MX3 was running low, but the funny thing is I only just finished using the last bit of MX3 back in Jan when installing the CPU cooler onto my i5 2500K, and not got a chance to use anymore paste since then so I still have a sealed MX-4 to today

Nice review
Thanks

Really good work,welldone Stulid and OCUK

Very nicely done review and extremely helpful!

Thanks Stulid.

Great job stulid

they should bring in a thanks button for these forums. thanks!

I have gone from Arctic silver 5 in recent builds (my all time favorite) to arctic cooling MX4 this build. Both are easy to use and apply to the CPU heatspreader. I use the old fashioned credit card method to apply a thin even layer. The MX4 is possibly not quite as effective as the silver 5 was but both show good ability to cool my hex core AMD.

Thanks, that's very useful

i had always though AS5 was among the best if not the best... for that reason i have always stuck with it.

Looks like i will be changing my TIM is the future, but i'm not touching that Liquid Metal.

I will be going (GC-Extreme) or (AC MX-2)

Nice work cheers ^.^

Well done on such a methodical and well documented testing, excellent work

I just hope that no one quotes the first post.!

I have used the liquid pro when I flipped the lid on my 3570k. It is potentially a problem to apply and you do have to be really careful with it. I did find that applying it to the core and then placing the IHS on that I first applied another TIM between the IHS and cooler. The temps were fine but curiosity got the better of me and I have now applied it between the IHS and cooler. This lowered my temps another 3 or 4 degrees and I'm happy with that but I'm not sure how it would react with either of those surfaces over time.
I understand why you recommended the GC Extreme over the liquid pro.

I do not see a problem if you wish to flip the lid on a 3570k to use the liquid pro between the CPU core and IHS but then use a more "std" TIM between the IHS and cooler.

I have just bought some GC Extreme from OC.

Nice one stulid, reading your conclusion, I've always used the AC MX-2, it's damn good thermal paste!

Very nice review Stulid, changes my view on what paste is best. And here was me recommending the MX-4 to my friends.... *changes it*.

Great work, thanks Stulid. I have always used MX4 but now it's time for a change.

I had used up the last of my paste, so i'll be ordering a tube
of the Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme very soon.

Looks like arctic silver 5 and MX-4 still strong contendors (always been my favorites).

Always been a die hard Artic Silver5 fanboi, but now with the other four (Gelid GC, Snow Cannon, PK-1, MX-2) being a similar price or cheaper, its time to move on.

Nice review. I did something similar elsewhere recently, cooling with chilled water. With the water at 10C MX2 was among the best, so good to see it's the same with ambient cooling.

stulid said:

Always been a die hard Artic Silver5 fanboi, but now with the other four (Gelid GC, Snow Cannon, PK-1, MX-2) being a similar price or cheaper, its time to move on.

Click to expand...

Ive used AS5 for years, recently started using MX-4 and im happy with that. Might try out the Gelid and MX-2 though.