Thermal Paste Roundup - Performance, Price, Recommendations (Update: Thermal Pads!)

hey folks!

i thought id post a summary on current data concerning thermal pastes. the data presented here was derived from this great article by der8auer (on air cooling):

http://overclocking.guide/thermal-p...d-with-air-cooling-and-liquid-nitrogen-ln2/6/

since it gives a great overview on performance, but doesnt do the same for current pricing and dependence on volume per price, i did my own summary and analysis. lowest pricing for each paste was determined via price search on www.heise.de/preisvergleich including all countries selectable in europe. one candidate was selected per paste, namely the one with the best price / weight (grams) ratio, and that info was again put in relationship with the performance of the paste. prices included tax and shipping to germany.

thus, u can easily determine, which paste has the highest performance, which one is cheapest and which one gives the best price / performance ratio. I also included some notes on NBR recommendations and paste makeup (liquid metal vs. non-metal)

Spoiler

Conclusion / Personal Recommendations:

in the end, i would say that most candidates / recommendations wont come as a surprise to you. still, candidates like Prolimatech PK-2 and Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 were not on my radar before, but now ill stay on the lookout whenever i need good performance pastes for a low price

extreme performance - Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra (easiest application of all liquid metal pastes)

high-end performance - Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut or Gelid GC Extreme (easy application & best non-metal performance)

high value high-end performance - Prolimatech PK-2 (best price/performance of high-perf. pastes)

high value mainstream performance - Arctic Cooling MX-2 or MX-4

best overall value - Arctic Silver Ceramique 2

UPDATE - Thermal Pads

Based on this great review in the German hardwareluxx forum, we finally have some hard user data on the performance of thermal pads! A Pentium G3258 was used as the temp sensor, with regular thermal paste being replaced by the respective pads. As with the pastes above, I included some data collected from heise.de on current pricing and available sizes / thicknesses in order to calculate the performance / price ratio. The results not only include temperature values, but also insights of the user on the reuseability, flexibility and texture of the thermal pads. Since most of us dont plan to buy new pads every time we repaste, this extra info is definitely valuable! This roundup covers a pretty extensive range, since it all major thermal pads with listed thermal conductivities of 5 W/mK and higher are included.

Here are the results:

Overview

Spoiler

Performance with CPU @ 2Ghz, 1V, Prime95 smallFFT

Spoiler

Performance with CPU @ 4Ghz, 1.05V, Prime95 smallFFT

Spoiler

Reuseability

Spoiler

Conclusion / Personal Recommendations:

The performance numbers speak for themselves: If you want the best of the best in terms of cooling performance, get the 14 W/mK Fujipoly / Alphacool pads. Interestingly, they outperform the 17 W/mK by a small, but reproducible margin due to their advantage in "less crumbly" / more stable texture. Thus, respective gaps are filled more efficiently and dont leave any air gaps.

However, since reuseability and pricing are also very important with thermal pads, i would personally choose the Arctic Cooling thermal pads for thicknesses in the range of 0.5 to 1.5 mm. Not only do they provide a soft texture with perfect adaptability to the cooled component, but at the same time great reuseability without tearing. Couple that with a price point at only 5-30% of the Fujipoly pads, but at 80-97% of their cooling performance and you got yourself an allround winner!

Special mention goes to the Phobya Ultra thermal pads, which provide the highest thermal conductivity at thicknesses of 2mm+. Generally, its recommended to use thermal pads that fit the space to be filled, rather than stacking thinner pads. So for larger gaps, these are the pads to go for.

All in all, a combination of Acrtic Cooling and Phobya Ultra would be my recommendation from now on

if you have any additional comments, shoot! otherwise, enjoy!

 

Other thing to consider is how long it will last until it starts to degrade. That means more frequent paste change is needed to maintain same performance.
In my experience on high end laptops MX-4 will not last over 2-3 months. GC Extreme other hand lasts much much longer. I recently repasted my 6 month old GC Extreme paste job and it looked still fresh and temperatures didn't change.
So that makes high end thermal compounds cheaper that it actually looks when you just compare prices.

 

yes, definitely an important factor but difficult to determine (unless u have way too much time on your hands ^^)

thats why i also included NBR recommendations, where such factors are also considered. i would say that the longevity of a paste is also dependent on the respective usage scenario of the machine. if u stress it permanently then high temps would subsequently degrade the paste much faster than in "regular" scenarios. thus, a cheaper mainstream paste might last just as long as a high-end one under different conditions.

 

Still rocking GC Extreme on my home laptop and glad to see it rank so high here! A little surprised on how much better it did over ICD in this roundup, too.

Thanks jaybee!

 

well, the total difference here was actually just 0.5 C, so it wasnt all that much compared to ICD ^^

 

From my own experience I can say that:

- Kryonaut is the best non metal TIM, if you have a non warped heatsink.
Using it since 8 months on my Inspiron 17r SE playing Pillars of Eternity without degradation. Temps staying exactly the same on 71°C on GPU and 70°C on CPU!

- Second or equally good is IC Diamond. Even better when your heatsink is warped! Very good, sticky paste with long term performance quality!

- My favorite price/performance TIM is Arctic Cooling mx-2. Easy to use with good performance for every days use, incl. moderate gaming. But needs repasting every 6-8 months.

- Top of the Pop is CLU! Somewhat sticky metal TIM which is easy to apply with outstanding results!
OC'ed GPU's with +350Core/+480mem/+112,5mv in Heaven (loop) never scratched the 70-ies!
It's simply fire&forget! Once applied, you don't have to worry afterwards. It's running on my GPU's since 1 year now like a champ!

 

Would it be possible to add Galinstan to the price : performance list? It is CLU, except not repackaged and resold as a TIM. Cost would be $1.47/g or $1.04/g, depending on the quantity ordered.

Good thing there's finally a European-based seller, btw. Got it from the US previously, but forwarding service and import duties made it needlessly expensive (still much, much cheaper than CLU, though). Ordered an 80g bottle and will offer to send some to der8auer, perhaps he'd be willing to include it in the next round-up.

ps.
Not sure if $/gr is really the correct way to approach the p/p comparison. Liquid metal especially has a very high density at 2-3x that of high-performance, non-metal tims, so you'd get far less ml's per gram. And, after all, we're applying a certain volume of tim, not a specific weight.

 

yes, thats another difficulty in comparing prices here: since the density and viscosity of the pastes varies wildly, its difficult to determine a realistic "price per application" ratio. so its either volume or weight, both of which are insufficient to paint a complete picture. i chose weight in this case, since it was the only constant spec that was given in all cases.

 

Actually, I've found thermal Grizzly's non metallic paste to vary wildly in consistency. The first tube I got was gummy and wouldn't stick to the CPU die, while the second tube was much better and works as it should. My guess is that it may be sensitive to bad storage or transport conditions.

 

did u check the best before dates on the two tubes?

 

Yup, the bad tube supposedly expires after the good one too.

 

No, the performance gap isn't glaring (and never has been). I think Tom's did a roundup awhile back and portrayed them as equals. Seeing the gap from top to bottom of the list is what I wasn't expecting. This roundup is certainly more detailed than said Tom's review.

 

I'm running the TG cryo personally. It's very easy to work with which is nice when playing with the heatsink several times.

 

We use ICD exclusively, I've seen that last multiple years without needing a repaste on laptops (though I still recommend repasting at least yearly)

 

yes absolutely, depending on the environment and usage scenario a repaste could become necessary every 3-12 months, in combo with a thorough dusting of the innards

Sent from my Huawei Mate 8 NXT-AL10

 

Oh yeah, forgot the dusting, that happens more often, especially after opening up some other peoples' systems and pretty much finding an entire cat worth of hair inside. Even that really doesn't cause ICD to fail though, just cleaning them out got it back to normal every time.

 

I recommend dusting monthly at least for warranty purposes.

 

It really does depend on the environment you are in, a lot of places can go for years and you will hardly get a build up, others it can be weeks and you can start building a carpet.

Just keep an ear out and if it is getting noisier or hotter give it a quick clean.

 

Yah, like if you have dogs cats or smoke you will build up lots of hair and dust, but if you are like me don't smoke and don't have any pets, have a clean air filter in the furnace. i don't get much anything built up. I read that you are required to clean your laptop once a month for purposes of your warranty so I do that takes 5 min usually less, once a month.

 

Where did you read that?

 

Sagers website I believe.

 

If you do find the reference you saw then please let me know

 

i will update this thread soon with data for thermal pads, so stay tuned!

Sent from my Huawei Mate 8 NXT-AL10

 

I've used MX-4, IC Diamond and GC Extreme and ICD is the best IMO.. Always lasts the longest and doesn't pump out easily.. I'm not a fan of liquid metal, its too dangerous for me to use!

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

 

That is one thing I like about ICD over GC Extreme. ICD's viscosity makes it a little easier to work with.

 

Monthly for a full cleanout seems overkill, maybe if you're just blowing some compressed air into the vents, if you're doing the whole tear-down and cleaning out the heatsinks my recommendation is more like every 4-6 months

 

I think for most people 2 or 3 times a year might be enough. The exception would be people that use their computers in very dusty and/or smokey environments or have lots of animal hair from pets. That stuff can clog things up really fast. Those than monitor their temps religiously will notice when it is time because their idle and load temps will start creeping higher and higher as the congestion starts to build. In very severe cases cigarette smoke can make things sticky and normal cleaning techniques will not work well. In those cases removing the heat sinks and soaking them in warm soapy water may be necessary to dissolve the slime.

 

omg, thats disgusting

Sent from my Huawei Mate 8 NXT-AL10

 

Jupp, I had this exact scenario explained vividly by @Mr. Fox when I bought my X7200 second hand.
I will never forget the stink and the "consistence" of the remains I peeled off the heatsinks. I ended this by putting them under warm water and scrubbing the ass off them.... *gooseskin feeling*

 

OP is updated with data on thermal pads

Moderators (maybe @Ethrem ) - Please Update Thread Title to:

Thermal Paste Roundup - Performance, Price, Recommendations (Update: Thermal Pads!)

 

Hmm I am confused. Do we use both thermal paste and pads on the CPU or just paste as per usual?

 

ohno! haha, sorry for the confusion

to clarify: thermal paste is used on GPU and CPU chips, whereas thermal pads are applied on GPU vRAM, mosfets, etc, same on the CPU side. so basically:

thermal paste for main chips of CPU / GPU
thermal pads for supporting components of CPU / GPU

the reason why the review of thermal pads was done on a CPU was due to its thermal sensor. supporting components such as mosfets dont have their own thermal sensors, so its basically impossible to test the heat conducting performance of thermal pads on them. the CPU was thus just a convenient way to do the roundup

 

Ahahaha I see, thanks, now that clears up a lot!

Now I wonder from whom I should buy the thermal pads from... Also, I am unsure how do I replace those thicker pads; should I stack the thin pads to the desired height?

 

as mentioned in the OP, its always best to use pads with proper thickness, rather than stacking up thinner ones (although i myself have stacked pads before and it did work just fine, but stacking includes higher risk of trapped air bubbles and thus lessened thermal conductivity). thats why i included a special mention for Phobya Ultra pads, since they offer the highest thermal conductivity for thicknesses at 3 mm and above 2 mm is also available with TG Minus 8 Pads, but the others only go up to 1.5 mm.

i see youre located in singapore. i know u guys prefer to physically go into a store instead of doing online shopping, but dont u have local online ressources to help you find shops selling thermal pads?

 

I see, gotta check again and decide how

And we are somewhat in between; we prefer stores cos we can get what we need immediately but also use online stores to avoid markups or in many cases, get what physical stores here do not offer

 

Phobya XT pads are cheap and good in my experience..

 

yes, ive used those before as well, with good experience only thing to consider is that they are pretty stiff/not compressible, so its even more important to get the correct thickness.

Sent from my Huawei Mate 8 NXT-AL10

 

Hmm... Looks like I will have to hope that my paycheck comes in soon so that I can order them from Amazon.

A pity that they aren't sold in Mouser; was planning to order something from Mouser.

EDIT: And nope, Farnell/element14 does not have them either

 

@jaybee83 As you are from Germany... Can give give me web link on trustworthy online store in Germany that has the most in cooling? Here at home in Norway is the selection of computer parts rather lousy. Thanks

 

sure, lemme gather some links for you, brb

 

ok, ive only collected sites, from which ive personally ordered stuff, so i know for sure that theyre trustworthy. didnt know what kinda cooling u had in mind so i either just searched for thermal pastes or directed you to the site´s general cooling subsection

https://www.caseking.de/luftkuehlung/zubehoer-cpu-kuehler/waermeleitpaste
https://www.computeruniverse.net/en/groups/30000764/heatsink-paste.asp
http://www.mindfactory.de/Hardware/Kuehlung+Luft/Zubehoer+fuer+CPU+Kuehler.html
https://www.compuland.de/Hardware/Kuehlung+Luft/Zubehoer+fuer+CPU+Kuehler.html
http://www.aquatuning.de/waermeleitmittel/
https://www.drivecity.de/Hardware/Kuehlung+Luft/Zubehoer+fuer+CPU+Kuehler.html
https://www.vibuonline.de/Hardware/Kuehlung+Luft/Zubehoer+fuer+CPU+Kuehler/Waermeleitpasten.html
http://www.voelkner.de/search/searc...rInput=wärmeleitpaste&keywords=Wärmeleitpaste
https://www.jacob.de/q/wärmeleitpaste/
https://www.snogard.de/suche.html?suchwort=w%E4rmeleitpaste
https://www.alternate.de/html/search.html?query=wärmeleitpaste&x=0&y=0
https://www.mix-computer.de/mix/index.xhtml?t=8282
https://www.reichelt.com/Cooling-Technology/2/index.html?ACTION=2&LA=514&GROUPID=7766

a bunch of them have cyberweekend / black friday / black weekend, etc specials, so happy browsing!

 

Thanks Rep added!!
Edit. Dang!!! It will come


Edit. Done

 

Thanks for this.

I think it is about time to go full ham with my laptop, the temps are going through the roof.

 

dust off, clean out, repaste, repad!

 

Definitely a good indication to re-paste. Doesn't hurt to do it periodically, but you would want to do it before it starts getting too hot and causing issues.

 

I do it periodically.

But my MX-2 doesn't seem to transfer heat well enough once I did a higher (and I just re-pasted btw!) OV on my GPU and OC'd my CPU.

I need more metal. Liquid metal.

 

try the higher end regular pastes before u go all metal

 

Nooo. Go fully pedal @jaug1337 All metal Use double up with money on paste = wasted $£€

 

I have, I ran out.

GOING FULL METAL NOW.

CLU IT IS.

 

lol, keep us updated on your results