IC Diamond Test Results - Page 6

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CPU: i5 530 @ Stock
HSF: CNPS 10X QUIET
Case: Antec 300
Fan RPM: 1450

Measured with HW Monitor. My i3 seems to have a sensor bug as it starts at 5'C when ambient is 17. However I think that it doesn't matter for this purpose. All temperatures are measured in Celsius.

Pre-IC7
Compound: Zalman ZM-STG1
Abient Temp: 17
Idle Temp: 5
Load Temp: 28

IC7
Ambient Temp: 17
Idle Temp: 4
Load Temp: 22

Saw a great improvement over the Zalman paste.

Hey guys thanks for the recent tests results - Have to add it up but but I think we are only 1 short on the multi forum tally chart from 500 user test results. Looks like TH is going put us over the top.

Well im sure TH results will show up on this page of there site.

http://innovationcooling.com/thermal.htm

Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 @ 3.63 GHz, 1.328 VCore
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme

IntelBurnTest v2.50, Stress Level: Maximum, Times to run: 10

Pre-IC Diamond 24 Carat

Compound: Arctic Silver 5

Ambient Temp: 30°C

Idle Temp:
Core 0 ····· 60°C
Core 1 ····· 54°C
Core 2 ····· 54°C
Core 3 ····· 54°C

Load Temp:
Core 0 ····· 86°C
Core 1 ····· 84°C
Core 2 ····· 86°C
Core 3 ····· 87°C


IC Diamond 24 Carat

Ambient Temp: 32°C

Idle Temp:
Core 0 ····· 57°C
Core 1 ····· 51°C
Core 2 ····· 51°C
Core 3 ····· 50°C

Load Temp:
Core 0 ····· 82°C
Core 1 ····· 80°C
Core 2 ····· 80°C
Core 3 ····· 80°C

A definite improvement over AS5.

Thank you Innovation Cooling.

@BaraCubra

Is it possible for you to reseat the NB heatsink on your P5N-D? Before I gave my P5N-D to my brother, I know that the NB temps would ALWAYS be around 75C (used nVidia System Tools) idle and like 80+C load, so I'd be very interested to see what the reduction would be over the stock Asus gunk.

Lots of notebook repasting these days


http://forum.notebookreview.com/as [...] ess-2.html

will post results, as soon as the ic diamond paste arrives (hopefully).

check your email -link to your result

looks like you improved contact on consecutive test s

This one is a well balanced mount, little bias east to west and north to south and good pressure. looks like the load is carried on the edges of the IHS and the IHS is a little concave so C/P is lighter inboard of the edges - hard to compress a rectangular square vertical edge.

You can tell he went all out pressure wise on this test and increased pressure will give you better contact but it will not overcome a rigid edge. Still the one sided bias and I believe a lapped IHS might have made for an easier optimal install

I am putting together an intro for a C/P competition at overclockerstech.com and generated the attached charts from some forum user tests done awhile ago. I think they make a nice connection to the preceding C/P lab Report.


Technical/Troubleshooting Note:

As most experienced users understand that when troubleshooting thermal problems there are usually 3 areas of concern.

1.) Pressure
2.) Contact
3.) Application

Taking a thermal measurement on it's own is not enough without a relative basis of comparison. Application and use of thermal compound is a mechanical function though many electronically oriented people tend to attach little importance to mechanical measurements.

Every thermal compound has it's own unique ideal pressure/thermal performance curve. A highly liquid retail compound with great contact resistance will test well at low or moderate pressures as they hit their Bond line thickness (BLT) or average thickness relatively easily but since they are at optimum at these lower pressures adding more pressure fails to yield much of an improvement.

IC Diamond is of a much higher viscosity and has a very different pressure/ performance curve than a more liquid retail compound so at lower pressures and/or contact thermal results maybe equal or less. In paste reviews the major failure is in quantifying the mechanical aspects of what is being tested, are they @ 35lbs and 50% contact area? or 60lbs 60% contact? And how does that relate to multiple thermal/performance pressure curves of different compounds?

Note: 80% of sampled retail sinks were over 50lbs psi

Quantifying mechanical's is not realistic for the individual user but they get around that by observing multiple user results to mentally average a comparison unlike the individual anecdotal test they have a reference point(s) more or less like we are doing here providing samples for comparison.

I generated the attached charts Below from some forum user tests done awhile ago.

What they show is what most know already - that good C/P provides a good thermal result. What it also shows is that IC Diamond performance margins increase with over 50 psi force and with good contact margins are higher. Pressure is dominant and contact will increase with pressure.



It's not rocket science. Data point # 2 has weak pressure and poor contact resulting in a + 3.7C increase in temps over the liquid paste. Data point # 10 with great contact and pressure shows a -5C improvement over the more liquid compound. This is a nontrivial approx 9C spread and pretty well explains why people get different results.

Also observe Point # 6 it has a somewhat lower pressure but a higher contact hence the improved thermal

So to optimize your thermal result, apply enough compound, tighten your sink and do some lapping

Thanks, I will add it to the final report. Should have it up tonight working on it now

Final IC Diamond Test Results For Toms Hardware.

Bumped it down so all data is together.

Here are the results I came up with if you still want them. This was tested on my brother in law's computer. Ambient temp was 74F in all tests. I can't remember what voltage was used.

Pentium Dual Core E2220 @3.0ghz
MASSCOOL 8W553B1M3 90mm Ball CPU Cooler
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream case


Cooler master thermal paste (included with my Hyper 212+)
Idle- 39C
Load- 74C

IC Diamond Paste
Idle- 38C
Load- 71C

From what I've seen this paste really shines on GPUs so I just might have to test it out on my GTX 460 next.

Final IC Diamond Test Results For Toms Hardware.

It is time to close this out and I would like to thank all those that participated in this IC Diamond field test, it is a lot of work mounting and remounting hardware and all were conscientious in their effort to doing a great job. Thanks to my buddy Shadow70379 for suggesting TH for a giveaway.

Tom's Hardware results were fairly consistent with the overall of 16 forums giveaways on a comparison basis with an average improvement of -3.87 C on a reported 54 results vs The gross average of -4.04 of the 16 forum 529 user test averages within .17C.

TH's had the largest group of GPU data reported to date, enough so I can start consolidating that segment and will edit this into the final report here

I have broken out the individual compounds in this test series and added them to the 16 forum overall and the multiforum breakout of individual compounds for a more in depth comparison.

Notes On Test Result Comparisons

When comparing results more credence should be given to larger sample sizes, smaller less so.

1-5 samples 1 or two tests can flip results either way so usually get thrown onto the miscellaneous group.

6-10 samples may start to indicate trends but can be heavily influenced by outliers and so are lightly weighted other than a general trend indicator

11-20 samples - Starting to develop more of a confidence in the trend direction.

20-30 samples - Confidence level improves.

30+ Samples - High degree of confidence

Notes for observational request on IHS, This is part of the final report

This is part of the final report


All thermal Compounds are Polishing Compounds to some extent and a good shop practice should be obvious here to avoid overworking any compound on installation and removal by not rotating the sink under pressure or over rubbing a compound on removal and letting the cleaner do most of the work to soften the material should resolve most issues.


Aluminum oxide aka Corundum AKA Ruby and Sapphire which are used extensively in the abrasion business most commonly in sandpaper is also used extensively in thermal compounds. In general people should be careful and not overwork there compounds when installing and removing. If it is a concern use a white paste generic zinc oxide compound.

From MSDS Product Identification
Arctic Alumina Premium Thermal Compound
Product Code: AA
SECTION 2: COMPOSITION/INFORMATION ON INGREDIENTS
Product Ingredient Information CAS No.
[COLOR="Red"]Aluminum Oxide 1344-28-1[/COLOR]
Boron Nitride 10043-11-5
Polyol Ester Non-hazardous
Polyether Glycol Non-hazardous

This is the final IC Diamond report although this is the end of the exercise anyone should feel free to post their results at any time, make comments or post a question. I am particularly interested in long term reliability those that keep the the compound installed for for any period of time 6months, 1-2 years etc. I have a guy @ xtremsytems @ 2years with no change in temps on several systems overclocked and folding 24/7 and would like to gather more data.

So to to close this out a little song for you. I have a guy I sponsor who is a great fan of the paste and he wrote a song about IC Diamond which is performed by his daughter on you tube. So I claim a first here- The first song ever written about a thermal compound and performed publicly.


Danielle sings IC Diamond

If it does, it's really no harm, so why worry?

IC Diamond Test Report is Final - was going to add more data but upon review too much unnecessary redundancy.

Great Job People! and thanks for all your efforts.

All the Best

Andrew

And thank you Andrew for making this all happen

If anybody cares I applied it to my Asus Direct CU GTX 460 TOP card and I saw a 4C drop in temp at 100% load in Furmark. I think idle was about the same as it was before.

Kind of a technical or troubleshooting note

We are now at 20 giveaways the most recent from OCUK with something a little different

This set of data that separates OCUK from all the 20 or so groups tested by us.

In the past water cooling is usually less than 5% of the sampled results, on OCUK at this point we are 30% water cooling(marked in red), 70% air.

What made it readily obvious was the statistical cluster of 20% water in the marginal-zero-negative result category. The other 10% is mostly the H50 in the performed as expected group. Might be linked to compound mix but I have a sense that it may have an overall edge in C/P for the H50.
In any event The air cooler group (marked blue) has it over the water with pretty much positive results across the board.