Noctua Paste Guard for Ryzen 7000 Prevents Thermal Paste Spillovers
The NA-TPG1 helps you avoid excess paste embarrassments.
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.
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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Giroro So in order to keep a hot surface clean, this Igor guy used vinyl electrical tape? Has he like, never worked with electronics before, or is this just his first time using that tape?Reply
Thermal paste is going to be way easier to clean off than the rubbery gummy mess that the tape will turn into when it rots, which will take about 5 minutes at CPU temperatures.
Not that I think it's even a real problem if a non-conductive thermal paste overflows a little bit. -
lordmogul Replytargetdrone said:No it is a stupid design. Was the first thought I had when I saw it. -
Kamen Rider Blade Reply
I concur, I've hated the design since I first saw it, especially the 8-legged spider/octopus design with gaps on the side to the internal SMD capacitors/resistors.targetdrone said:The AM5 IHS is such a stupid stupid design.
Prove me wrong.
But I understand that they had to do it for "Manufacturibility" reasons.
That being said, I hope Zen 5 has a new IHS design that isn't nearly as ugly and problematic.
I hope they fill out those cut-outs and offer a more standard design that won't let ThermalPaste spillover and potentially touch any of the SMD capacitors/resistors or contact pads. -
DonQuixoteIII Igor is my favourite successor to Dr. Pabst.... He is also even more OCD than I am. However, other than being somewhat unsightly, an excess of Noctua paste is not in any way a dangerous to your components as it is electrically neutral.Reply
(For those that don't know, Dr. Thomas Pabst founded Tom's Hardware) -
InvalidError Reply
There is no manufacturability reason for this: AMD could have gone with a 2mm wider+longer substrate and socket designs to fit everything under the IHS without cutouts, spared itself the extra IHS machining steps and still maintained backwards HSF compatibility with HSFs that use the stock AM4 backplate.Kamen Rider Blade said:I concur, I've hated the design since I first saw it, especially the 8-legged spider/octopus design with gaps on the side to the internal SMD capacitors/resistors.
But I understand that they had to do it for "Manufacturibility" reasons. -
Kamen Rider Blade Reply
Then why didn't they go with that extra 2mm wider + longer substrate?InvalidError said:There is no manufacturability reason for this: AMD could have gone with a 2mm wider+longer substrate and socket designs to fit everything under the IHS without cutouts, spared itself the extra IHS machining steps and still maintained backwards HSF compatibility with HSFs that use the stock AM4 backplate.
Would it cost them a new mold, is their extra costs to a 2mm wider + longer PCB substrate?
Is there still enough room within the Socket for that extra 2mm? -
KyaraM Reply
Nothing to deny there or prove wrong. It's simply the truth.targetdrone said:The AM5 IHS is such a stupid stupid design.
Prove me wrong.