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Category: Cooling
Manufacturer: Various
Thermal Compound Shoot out
Posted by: Arnie on 09th of May 2003
Introduction

Thermal Compound is a very important part of any computer system. No matter how polished your cooler is, or how l33t you think your lapping skillz may be, there will always be microscopic pits that need to be filled. The performance arena has long been dominated by Arctic Silver, who have built up an enviable reputation as makers of the best stuff you can buy. However, I have some tubes from less well known manufacturers just waiting to steal away the performance crown.


From top to bottom, we have:

- Shin Etsu G-751 Thermal Paste provided by Chillblast
- Arctic Silver Céramique provided by Arctic Silver
- OCZ Ultra Thermal Paste provided by OCZ Technology
- Arctic Silver 3 provided by Arctic Silver
- Vapochill Thermal Compound provided by Asetek

For constancy I have also taken readings from the now defunct Arctic Silver 2, and packet of some generic white crap I liberated from a Soyo motherboard. The most important thing when testing thermal compounds is to keep testing conditions identical for each test. For this reason, my analysis was conducted in a University College London laboratory which is kept constantly at an ambient temperature of 22ºC. Thanks to the university for letting a graduate like me back in :)

Another very important consideration when testing multiple thermal pastes is to ensure that after each test all residual compound of the pervious type is removed. For this you need a dissolving organic solvent which leaves no residue. The perfect substance for this is Isopropyl Alcohol (99% in my case), it will dissolve paste from the microscopic pits in the cooler, bringing them to the surface where they can be blasted away by pressure alone. Something like nail varnish remover will not do, as although the oil they contain might be good for your nails, they are not good for your processor!

All temperatures were taken using a thermometer attatched to the underside of the cooler, as close as can be attached without interfering with the contact. We also recorded temperatures on a P4 system which uses heat spreaders that react differently to the small AMD cores. To record the P4 temperature I used the chip's internal thermometer, read from the bios - this is a proven design that has been used for three Intel processor generations.

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