Noctua Paste Guard for Ryzen 7000 Prevents Thermal Paste Spillovers

The cooling experts at Noctua have announced a new product designed to prevent accumulations of thermal paste in the nooks and crannies of AMD’s latest Ryzen 7000 series ‘Raphael’ processors. Noctua’s NA-TPG1 works simply enough, functioning as a barrier, hugging the contours of the AM5 processor with its precisely cut from polycarbonate form. It is designed as a physical barrier to any errant thermal paste which may emerge when a CPU cooler is installed.

AMD’s latest AM5 socket processors certainly are easy to distinguish with their eight thick legs, but PC enthusiasts and DIYers are worried about thermal paste squeezing out and getting stuck in the crevices when a cooler is strapped on. We know of no particular issues a little bit of non-conductive thermal paste might cause other than it looking somewhat unsightly. Nevertheless, a tidy and clean PC build is always preferred.

The Noctua NA-TPG1 is made of “highly heat-resistant polycarbonate,” according to the cooling accessory maker. In addition, its “tight seal” around the irregularly shaped Ryzen 7000 heatspreader should ensure no leakage.

As users may swap and repaste their CPUs and coolers from time to time, Noctua’s standard NA-TPG1 offering comes with a ten-pack of NA-CW1 cleaning wipes. In addition, there are two different SKUs; one with a bundled tube of NT-H1 thermal paste and another with a tube of NT-H2 thermal paste. If in doubt, Noctua published a guide to applying thermal paste to one of AMD’s new Ryzen 7000 CPUs in late August.

Noctua says the above-mentioned product combos will become available in December. This is pretty quick for the Austrian firm, which is well known for delaying products on its roadmap for years. The SKUs and pricing are listed below:

• NA-TPG1 thermal paste guard: EUR/USD 7.90
• NA-TPG1 with NT-H1 3.5g AM5 Edition: EUR/USD 9.90
• NA-TPG1 with NT-H2 3.5g AM5 Edition: EUR/USD 13.90

For further information about thermal paste choice, and our evaluation of Noctua formulations, please check out our Best Thermal Paste for CPUs 2022 guide, which considers more than 90 brands/formulations.

Igor’s DIY solution

The worry of thermal paste getting where it shouldn’t on AM5 platforms was enough for Tom’s Hardware Germany alumni Igor Wallossek to write a page about preventing the issue in a DIY manner. If you follow the link you will read and see photos of Wallossek’s painstaking process of cutting and applying electrical insulation tape – for the same result of using a NA-TPG1, but instead using some materials you might already have at home.