EKWB Indigo XS Thermal Material is Phase Change Metallic Alloy

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

EKWB has updated its Indigo TIM with its new Indigo XS TIM.

EKWB has introduced a new thermal interface material. Contrary to what you might expect, it's not based on a grease or viscous liquid material. Instead, the EK-TIM Indigo XS is a sheet which contains a phase change metallic alloy, which you place in its entirety over the CPU lid. Such a system is not very common, but according to EKWB, it has a number of advantages.

EKWB claims that it is more reliable, more user friendly, and performs better. EKWB boasts a thermal conductivity of 40 W/mK, supposedly the best there is.

Contained in the package you'll find two EK-TIM Indigo XS applicators, a single bottle of Indigo Xtreme Surface Cleaner, a pair of gloves, 'cleanroom-grade' dry wipe cloths, and the probably necessary installation manual.

The kit only works on Intel LGA 1556/1155/1150 sockets, and is already available for a price of $30.27 through EKWB's webshop.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • chicofehr
    Only works on Intel? What if I put on my Phenom X6 @4.2GHz? Not sure how it wouldn't work with it as long as I cover the whole surface.
    Reply
  • vmem
    I don't know about User friendly, but the Indigo extreme has been by far the best performing thermal material for a while now (in my own personal experience), and also the most expensive. as for Intel only... these things are pre-cut, and I am not sure what the results of trying to trim it yourself would be. that aside, for Indigo material to work properly, you're literally MELTING it between your CPU'd lid and your heatsink (you're suppose to run your system with the fans OFF), and then when your system cools down it will re-solidify, thereby seamlessly connecting your CPU to your heatsink. since AMD CPUs are a bit lacking in the thermal protection department, you could cook your AMD chip before this material works properly...Like i said before, not the most user friendly stuff. but when done right, it's the best thing next to soddering
    Reply
  • Kelthar
    This seems extremely interesting. If it works properly, and does outperform common paste, then I'm looking forward to the responses from other companies, probably with similar solutions. The fact that it is only available for Intel at the moment is a downside but they *probably* have their reasons for that.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Is is possible to remove the heat sink after this has been "melted" in? Sounds reasonable final solution as you explained this...
    Reply
  • will1220
    WTH is a Intel LGA 1556 socket?!
    Reply
  • Au_equus
    Hmm... some sort of gallium/silver alloy? The thermal transfer between the die and the heatsink is only good as its weakest link and the TIM used by intel underneath the IHS for ivy bridge and haswell is not very good.
    Reply
  • dimar
    If this material is so good, why not get rid of the CPU's headspreader and have this thingy straight on the CPU die? Can it be used on GPU memory chips? Maybe the stupid laptop manufacturers can put this thing instead of the cheap thermal pads on chipsets...
    Reply
  • vir_cotto
    So when are you going to review this with other thermal solutions Toms? :)
    Reply
  • rRansom
    Does/will it make a difference if I have a delidded CPU?
    Reply
  • chumly
    I would like to see real world performance. I also want to know if it can be removed.
    Reply