Thermal Compound Roundup – November 2011

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

Following up on our Thermal Compound Roundup – October 2011 review, we are adding five more thermal compounds to our roundup, for a total of 50 different models from Akasa, Antec, Arctic Cooling, Arctic Silver, Biostar, Coollaboratory, Cooler Master, Coolink, Deepcool, Dow Corning, Enermax, Evercool, EVGA, Gelid, Glacialstars, Innovation Cooling, Masscool, Nexus, Noctua, Phobya, Prolimatech, Scythe, Shin-Etsu, Spire, StarTech, Rosewill, Thermalright, Thermaltake, TIM Consultants, Titan, Tuniq, Xigmatek, Zalman, and ZEROtherm. In this review, we will determine if certain products are superior to others. We will also try another thermal compound “from the kitchen” to see if it works.

For a better understanding of how thermal compound (a.k.a. thermal grease or thermal paste) works and how to correctly apply it, please read our How to Correctly Apply Thermal Grease tutorial and our article What is the Best Way to Apply Thermal Grease? The most important concept that you must understand is that it is a mistake to think that the more thermal grease you apply, the better. The thermal compound is a worse heat conductor than copper and aluminum (the metals usually found on cooler bases). So, if you apply more thermal compound than necessary, it will actually lower the cooling performance instead of improving it.

Figure 1 shows the five new thermal compounds that we are adding to our roundup.

Figure 1: The new thermal compounds included in this roundup

Let’s get a closer look at the new contenders in the next pages.

[nextpage title=”The Thermal Compounds”]

We will now examine the five new thermal compounds that we are including in our roundup.

Figures 2 and 3 illustrate the Coollaboratory LIQUID Ultra compound. According to the manufacturer, this compound is made of pure liquid metal, without solid particles. It comes with a cleaning sponge, two brushes and an isopropyl alcohol wet tissue, which must be used to clean the CPU and cooler surfaces before applying it.

Figure 2: Coollaboratory LIQUID Ultra

Figure 3: Items that come with the Coollaboratory LIQUID Ultra

Figures 4 and 5 present the EVGA Frostbyte thermal compound, which has a gray color.

Figure 4: EVGA Frostbyte

Figure 5: EVGA Frostbyte

We also tested the Innovation Cooling (IC) Diamond 7 Carat gray thermal compound, shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: IC Diamond 7 Carat

[nextpage title=”The Thermal Compounds (Cont’d)”]

In Figures 7 and 8, you can see the Phobya HeGrease Extreme gray thermal compound.

Figure 7: Phobya HeGrease Extreme

Figure 8: Phobya HeGrease Extreme

Figures 9 and 10 reveal the last “true” thermal compound of today: the StarTech Heatgrease10 white compound.

Figure 9: StarTech Heatgrease10

Figure 10: StarTech Heatgrease10

After the successful performance mayonnaise achieved last month, we decided to try using another “bread topping,” so we applied some butter, as you can see in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Butter

For a detailed look at the other thermal compounds included in this roundup, please read our “Thermal Compound Roundup – October 2011” review.

[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]

We tested the thermal compounds using the same testbed system that we currently use to test CPU coolers, which is fully described below. Our Core i7-860 (quad-core, 2.8 GHz) CPU, which is a socket LGA1156 processor with a 95 W TDP (Thermal Design Power), was overclocked to 3.3 GHz (150 MHz base clock and 22x multiplier), and we kept the standard core voltage (Vcore). We used a Zalman CNPS9900 MAX CPU cooler. The only different part in each test was the thermal compound itself.

We measured temperature with the CPU under full load. In order to get 100% CPU usage in all threads, we ran Prime 95 25.11 (in this version, the software uses all available threads) with the “In-place Large FFTs” option. For each test, we applyied the same quantity of thermal compound (abo
ut the size of a grain of rice) at the center of the CPU, as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: Applying thermal compound

After each test, we checked the base of the cooler, making sure the quantity of thermal compound was optimal. The thermal compound must be spread evenly on the metallic part of the CPU, without exceeding it, creating a thin layer. The “fingerprint” shown in Figure 13 illustrates that the compound was properly applied.

Figure 13: CPU “fingerprint,” showing the thermal compound was correctly applied

Room temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer. The core temperature was read with the SpeedFan program (available from the CPU thermal sensors), using an arithmetic average of the core temperature readings. During the tests, the left panel of the case was open.

We also tested the system with no thermal compound on the CPU.

Hardware Configuration

• Processor: Core i7-860
• CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9900 MAX
• Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD6
• Memory: 2 GB Markvision (DDR3-1333/PC3-10700 with 9-9-9-22 timings), configured at 1,200 MHz
• Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB
• Video card: Point of View GeForce GTX 460
• Power supply: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case: 3RSystem L-1100 T.REX Cool

Operating System Configuration

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Software Used

• Prime95
• SpeedFan

Error Margin

Since both room temperature and core temperature readings have 1 °C resolution, we adopted a 2 °C error margin, meaning temperature differences below 2 °C are considered irrelevant.

[nextpage title=”Our Tests”]

The table below presents the results of our measurements.

Thermal Compound	Room Temp.	Core Temp.	Difference
No Thermal Compound	26 °C	88 °C	62 °C
Zalman ZM-STG2	24 °C	59 °C	35 °C
Prolimatech Thermal Compound	24 °C	56 °C	32 °C
Cooler Master Thermal Compound Kit	23 °C	58 °C	35 °C
Evercool EC420-TU15	22 °C	57 °C	35 °C
Spire Bluefrost	22 °C	58 °C	36 °C
Gelid GC Extreme	26 °C	61 °C	35 °C
Coolink Chillaramic	26 °C	61 °C	35 °C
Deepcool Z9	26 °C	61 °C	35 °C
Noctua NT-H1	26 °C	61 °C	35 °C
Thermalright The Chill Factor	26 °C	63 °C	37 °C
Antec Thermal Grease	24 °C	58 °C	34 °C
Arctic Silver 5	24 °C	57 °C	33 °C
Arctic Silver Céramique	24 °C	57 °C	33 °C
Biostar Nano Diamond	22 °C	57 °C	35 °C
Xigmatek PTI-G3606	22 °C	55 °C	33 °C
Antec Formula 7	21 °C	55 °C	34 °C
Arctic Cooling MX-4	21 °C	56 °C	35 °C
Cooler Master High Performance	22 °C	56 °C	34 °C
Thermaltake Thermal Compound	21 °C	54 °C	33 °C
Tuniq TX-3	22 °C	54 °C	32 °C
Shin-Etsu MicroSi	14 °C	49 °C	35 °C
Scythe Thermal Elixer Scyte-1000	14 °C	49 °C	35 °C
Titan Connoisseur Platinum Grease	14 °C	49 °C	35 °C
Evercool Cruise Missile STC-03	14 °C	49 °C	35 °C
Rosewill RCX-TC001	14 °C	53 °C	39 °C
Pink Lipstick	14 °C	54 °C	40 °C
Arctic Silver Matrix	12 °C	50 °C	38 °C
Evercool T-grease 800	13 °C	49 °C	36 °C
Gelid GC-2	13 °C	50 °C	37 °C
Prolimatech PK-1	13 °C	47 °C	34 °C
Tuniq TX-4	12 °C	48 °C	36 °C
Toothpaste	13 °C	53 °C	40 °C
Toothpaste (12 h after)	13 °C	56 °C	43 °C
Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400	13 °C	47 °C	34 °C
Evercool Deep Bomb	13 °C	47 °C	34 °C
TIM Consultants Thermal Grease	13 °C	48 °C	35 °C
Dow Corning TC-1996	13 °C	49 °C	36 °C
Nexus TMP-1000	13 °C	50 °C	37 °C
Spray oil	13 °C	53 °C	40 °C
Akasa 450	14 °C	50 °C	36 °C
Enermax (Dow Corning TC-5121)	14 °C	47 °C	33 °C
GlacialStars IceTherm II	14 °C	49 °C	35 °C
Rosewill RCX-TC060PRO	14 °C	56 °C	42 °C
Titan Royal Grease	14 °C	52 °C	38 °C
Chocolate	14 °C	89 °C	75 °C
Arctic Silver Céramique 2	13 °C	48 °C	35 °C
Akasa 455	13 °C	49 °C	36 °C
Masscool G751	13 °C	49 °C	36 °C
Thermaltake TG-1	13 °C	47 °C	34 °C
ZEROtherm ZT-100	13 °C	51 °C	38 °C
Mayonnaise	13 °C	48 °C	35 °C
Coollaboratory LIQUID Ultra	18 °C	52 °C	34 °C
EVGA Frostbyte	18 °C	56 °C	38 °C
IC Diamond 7 Carat	18 °C	53 °C	35 °C
Phobya HeGrease Extreme	18 °C	52 °C	34 °C
StarTech Heatgrease10	18 °C	54 °C	36 °C
Butter	18 °C	58 °C	40 °C
Butter (12 h later)	19 °C	61 °C	42 °C

In the following graph, at full load you can see how many degrees Celsius hotter the CPU core is than the air outside the case. The lower this difference, the better is the performance of the thermal compound. The red bars refer to the compounds included in this batch.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

From the new group of thermal compounds we tested, most of them showed regular performance except for the Coollaboratory LIQUID Ultra and the Phobya HeGrease Extreme compounds, which presented good cooling performance.

This month, our non-standard thermal compound was butter. Compared to other alternative compounds we have used, it was not bad at all, even considering that its cooling performance degraded quickly. Unfortunately, it didn’t compare to mayonnaise, but we will continue to search for the ultimate “accidental thermal compound.”