Stulid Tested all of OcUK Thermal Paste Range

[stulid]

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

Prolimatech PK-2 Nano Aluminium Thermal Paste - 1,5g - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-003-PL&groupid=701&catid=27&subcat=

Prolimatech PK-3 Nano Aluminium Thermal Paste - 1,5g - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-004-PL&groupid=701&catid=27&subcat=

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.

 

[Ace Modder]

Amazing!

 

[HazardO]

Arctic silver 5 is still pretty decent then.

 

[J-FRO]

Sterling effort Stulid.

That'd take a lot of patience with the constant disassembling, removing, applying, reassembling, and over and over.

 

[shadow_boxer]

Great round up. Ta.

 

[MADEinSTOKE]

Amazing dedication to test all those paste's thank you

 

[Cleeecooo]

Wow, i didn't expect the MX-2 to beat the MX-4

Great round up Stu!

 

[dfarrall]

Some more great input from Stulid.

Shame you didnt test the Coollaboratory Liquid MetalPad, would be interested to see how this would perform. Cmon OCUK do a test and add the results!

 

[Darryn]

Excellent test and reporting Stulid, id love to see more of this kinda thing on here.

How about OcUK send 1 of each GFX card to a Apple Macpro owner, who can test and report which work and which don't... that sounds like a great idea.

 

[oggiet]

Totally agree with more tests like these should be done by members, it's shows results and summary that's easy for everyone to understand. Well done Stu and ocuk

 

[Staffy50]

Some more great input from Stulid.

Shame you didnt test the Coollaboratory Liquid MetalPad, would be interested to see how this would perform. Cmon OCUK do a test and add the results!

This.

 

[Griff7520]

nice 1...thanks

 

[ShaggyRS6]

This is a great reference. Nice one!!

 

[PapaLazaru]

Arctic silver 5 is still pretty decent then.

Aye. Bit annoyed I swopped it out for MX4 now!

 

[Jokester]

Would it be possible to retest AS5 using the credit card spread method?

 

[Vegeta]

Shame about the liquid pro being so impossible to use as it's a lot better than any of the other thermal compounds for performance alone.

 

[T345]

Thanks! I'm gonna buy some more MX-2
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-012-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27

 

[PGdude]

Good thing I still have a tube of... MX-3 then?

Nice round up of the thermal interface materials, Stulid, thanks

 

[andy_mk3]

Interesting to see that the IC diamond did so badly, I find it's better than AS5 Marginally.

 

[arknor]

how long did each thermal paste have to cure ? some of them are suposed to get better after a few days of heat?