2011 Thermal Compound Roundup – Results Compilation
Intro
This is the full collection of the results in the 2011 Thermal Compound Roundup and when new results go up, this post will be updated. Ultimately, we’re looking to keep the charts in the future installments clean, readable, and compact and we can only do that if we limit the number of TIMs per chart. Here in the compilation post, every TIM will be on every chart and we might end up increasing the size of each chart to compensate for the clutter.
In each installment, we’ll only include the TIMs that are being reviewed, the best TIM, the best paste, the worst non-failing paste, and a paste we’ll consider “the standard.” Currently that entails, respectively, Indigo Xtreme, Prolimatech PK-1, Spire SilverGrease SP-457, and Arctic Cooling MX-2.
We’ll also maintain links to each installment of the 2011 Roundup in this post. Additionally, we’ll also provide a preview of which TIMs are next in the queue.
To read the how/what/why of our testing, please read any of the installments. To get our impressions of any specific TIM, please read the installment where we review that specific TIM.
This post was last updated September 27, 2011.
Installments
Arctic Cooling MX-2, Spire SilverGrease SP-457, and Indigo Xtreme
Arctic Silver Matrix, Cooler Master IceFusion, and Prolimatech PK-1
Coolink Chillaramic, Nanoxia Heat Buster, and Nexus TMP-1000
Arctic Silver 5, Ceramique, and Ceramique 2
Thermalright Chill Factor, Chill Factor 2 and Chill Factor 3
IC Perihelion, Noctua NT-H1, and OCZ Freeze
Shin-Etsu G751, X23-7762, and X23-7783D
EVGA Frostbite, Phobya HeGrease, and TIM Consultants Quantum
Alphacool Silver Grease, Dimastech HTX-EE, and XSPC K2 (in progress)
Zalman STG-1 and STG-2 (upcoming)
Feser H-Bridge, Scythe Thermal Elixer, and ZeroTherm ZT-100 (upcoming)
Antec Formula 5, Formula 6, and Formula 7 (upcoming)
Gelid GC-1, GC-2, and GC-Extreme (upcoming)
Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 and TIMTronics Grey Ice 4200 (upcoming)
Rosewill Varieties (upcoming)
SIIG Varieties (upcoming)
Thermaltake Varieties (upcoming)
Xigmatek Varieties (upcoming)
Newer Shin-Etsu Varieties (hopefully)
IC Diamond, Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra, Liquid Pro, and Liquid Metal Pad (finale)
Comments
Posted On
Jan 10, 2012Posted By
BreeHopefully more coming soon.. this is a excellent article. Recommended to anyone who wants to learn about cost/performance of compounds.
Posted On
Aug 23, 2011Posted By
DIOGHi,
Impressive work, mate. Most interesting part in your reviews ist the contakt-temperature correlation. Looking forward to the Gelid tests and how the Coollab TIMs will end up on your test bed, especially if contact behaviour will be similar to the Indigo Xtreme – the latter is not available in Germany, only the Liquid Metal TIMs of Coollab, the Nanoxia Nano TF and the Phobya LM.
Liquid Metal TIMs came into play in a discussion about what will be “the best” TIM to buy. One big point for LM is durability. Coollab i.e. stated that LM performance is constant over years, whereas for the the well performing conventional compounds both Prolimatech and Thermalright recommend to reapply every 12 month!
Posted On
Jun 03, 2011Posted By
ddales02Hi Vapor, I work for TIM Consultants and was hoping you could include Quantum. Will send you samples if you would like them. Thanks,
Posted On
Jun 04, 2011Posted By
Eric (Vapor) HassettI’ll include Quantum…kind of forgot about it since you’re not in many shops
No need to send any samples, I’ll pick some up. Won’t be very soon though; I’m set on the TR Chill Factor trio and the three Tuniqs for the next two batches after the Arctic Silver 5/Ceramique/Ceramique 2 trio that’s in progress now. So basically 2 months until Quantum can be tested, probably paired with Noctua NT-H1 and OCZ Freeze.
Posted On
Jun 06, 2011Posted By
ddales02Sounds great – thank you!
Posted On
May 18, 2011Posted By
Vile LasagnaAny idea if IC Diamond and Noctua’s paste are going to make it in? Hoped to see a few more numbers on ICD, even though it’s been tested before here, and didn’t see any about Noctua’s one, so curious about that.
Posted On
May 18, 2011Posted By
Eric (Vapor) HassettNoctua NT-H1 is on the docket, not sure I can give a prediction on when it will be tested though.
IC Diamond will only be tested after this testbed is ‘retired.’ Due to its severe polishing effect, ICD is not something I can test 15 mounts of and guarantee that the testbed will perform the same after as it did before (it permanently alters the CPU IHS and the block bases). That said, I did briefly test it while pre-testing for this testbed and procedure and I can say it’s really good with Poor Contact but does not improve much as contact improves, making it just an ‘okay’ paste when you have at least moderate contact, which most CPU blocks, most GPU blocks, and most heatsinks do. In the old testing, the Apogee GTZ used makes good contact and ICD just can’t keep up with Shin-Etsu X23-7783D (and wouldn’t keep up with Prolimatech PK-1).
Posted On
Mar 30, 2011Posted By
BatouBtw if u got problems on getting shinetsu x23 i got 2 and i can send 1 as donation for the tests!
Posted On
Mar 30, 2011Posted By
Eric (Vapor) HassettNo need, but thanks for the offer
Already have nearly every TIM in house, ensures there’s no testing delays based on availability.
Posted On
Mar 30, 2011Posted By
SluggoYo Vapor,
Any plans on adding Shin-Etsu X23-7783D to the mix?
Posted On
Mar 30, 2011Posted By
Eric (Vapor) HassettShin-Etsu X23-7783D, X23-7762, and G751 are all planned as a later batch (when that will be, I don’t know).