Thermal Paste Comparison, Part Two: 39 Products Get Tested

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143 Comments

Pastes: Just For Fun

Toothpaste

I made the mistake of buying a premium toothpaste with blue stripes through it. A cheap white paste would have probably fared better. Yes, you can use this stuff as a thermal compound, though its long-term stability is questionable and we wouldn't recommend it for overclocking. If all of the shops around you are closed, though, and you want to play a little Battlefield 4 on a new machine, you could probably get by for a couple of days.

Toothpaste
CPU Water Cooling, High Pressure
41.8 ΔT (22 °C ambient)
CPU Air Cooling, High Pressure
48.7 ΔT (22 °C ambient)
CPU Air Cooling, Low Pressure
49.1 ΔT (22 °C ambient)
GPU CoolingNot measurable (overheats)
Electrically ConductiveSlightly (depending on composition)
Viscosity2 (1-10, lower numbers mean easier to use)
Ease of Use9 (1-10, higher numbers mean easier to use)
Application HintsThis paste seems best suited for the "lentil ball" method, but should be used only in emergencies

Denture Adhesive

If you don't brush your teeth but do live with your grandma, denture adhesive could stand in for toothpaste during those same couple of days. Again, this is not a long-term solution. But then again, neither were grandma’s teeth (or yours, if you don't grab some toothpaste). Be careful with this adhesive. After burn-in, the cooler may stick to the heat spreader and prove hard to remove.

Denture Adhesive
CPU Water Cooling, High Pressure
38.2 ΔT (22 °C ambient)
CPU Air Cooling, High Pressure
43.5 ΔT (22 °C ambient)
CPU Air Cooling, Low Pressure
45.2 ΔT (22 °C ambient)
GPU Cooling85.5 ΔT (22 °C ambient)
Electrically ConductiveNo
Viscosity4 (1-10, lower numbers mean easier to use)
Ease of Use7 (1-10, higher numbers mean easier to use)
Application HintsThis paste seems best suited for the "lentil ball" method, but should be used only in emergencies
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Summary
  1. 39 Thermal Compounds Get Benchmarked And Tested
  2. Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra: Application
  3. Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra: Application Problems And Clean-Up
  4. Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra: Performance Measurements
  5. Thermal Adhesives: Arctic Silver And Akasa
  6. Pastes: Akasa And Alpenföhn
  7. Pastes: Arctic And Arctic Silver
  8. Pastes: be quiet!, Corsair, And Dimastech
  9. Pastes: Coollaboratory
  10. Pastes: Cooler Master
  11. Pastes: Gelid Solutions, Noctua, And Phanteks
  12. Pastes: Prolimatech
  13. Pastes: Revoltec, Scythe, SilverStone, And Thermalright
  14. Pastes: Xigmatek
  15. Pastes: Xilence And Zalman
  16. Pastes: Just For Fun
  17. Results: Closed-Loop Liquid Cooler; High Mounting Pressure
  18. Results: Air Cooler; High Mounting Pressure
  19. Results: CPU Air Cooler; Low Mounting Pressure
  20. Results: Air-Cooled GPU; Medium Mounting Pressure
  21. It's Not As Easy As Picking A Favorite...
About the author
Igor Wallossek

Igor Wallossek is a Senior Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware DE. He tests and reviews CPUs, GPUs, games and headsets.

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143 comments
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    Your comment
  • rolli59
    As good as the first part!
  • dragonfang18
    I loved the toothpaste part. What about Vicks Vaporub? I wonder how that thing would do.
  • Azn Cracker
    Yeaaaa! nice in depth article. Disappointed that cheese was not use as a paste :(
  • ledpellet
    Can you test Antec Formula 7 NANO DIAMOND Thermal Compound?
  • TehDudeMan
    Great article guys! As a reader for over 10 years pretty much daily, this reminds me of the old Tom's Hardware. These type of in depth articles on enthusiast products are what I love.
  • Matt Edwards
    A great article, agree the application of the compound, not the compound itself is most important.

    Like ledpellet I too am curious about these diamond compounds. Wonder if it offers similar results to the Coollaboratory products with an easier application, or if the results simply don't justify the price. E.g in Australia, Innovation Cooling IC7 Diamond 7 Carat Thermal Compound Paste - 1.5G can be found for as much as $25. The cheapest I have managed to find it for is $15. For that price it would want to be good considering the leading GELID GC Extreme, can be found for around $8.
  • TerranTerrance
    Adding Ceramique would be greatly appreciated!
  • danwat1234
    Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra isn't all that good after a year of hard use. In fact, it completely hardens / dries. On my X9100 after 9 months of nearly 24/7 100% load, I started seeing high temps and after 1 year auto shut downs while crunching. Turns out it was shutting off because it hit the 105 C thermal protection.
    Opened it up; thermal compound was as hard as a rock. has to pocket knife blade and sand it down.
    So for longevity it sucks. That is something to consider, not just initial performance, but performance months and years down the road. Especially for laptops that aren't designed to be opened up frequently for repasting.

    After trying Liquid Ultra many times and having it fail on me, I've put on Arctic MX-2 that has a supposed 8 year durability rating. Initial performance is great, we'll see how it lasts (been 3 weeks so far).
  • slomo4sho
    CLU and Arctic MX-4 are both great products. MX-2 and MX-4 can often be found free after rebate so they are an exceptional value.
  • CaptainTom
    More things like this! Articles like this will keep me here more often!
  • John Goodman
    Was really hoping you'd test IC Diamond, since that's what I've always used. Bummer.
  • stickmansam
    You could do a giveaway for the thermal pastes :P and include Canada this time :)
  • iam2thecrowe
    would have liked to see a test without thermal compound. Have used noctua nt-h1 for ages now, no curing time sells it for me.
  • All the hype aside, could Tom's include an actual industrial "Silicone Heat Transfer Compound", such as the one by MG Chemicals :http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/greases-and-lubricants/thermal-greases/silicone-heat-transfer-compound-860/, any of the future comparisons. If this stuff is good to use in mass industrial applications, how can it not be any better then let's say AS5.

    Plus, AS5 can short out your mobo if some of it gets on the PCB and it costs 10 times as much as the industrial stuff and I don't think it is 10 times better.
  • yannigr
    The good old Ceramique should have been in the list. Nevertheless nice article. Disappointed with the tooth paste. Expecting more from it.
  • rwinches
    Coollaboratory Liquid MetalPad sounds ideal.
    Might there be a way to achieve proper bond by heating the pad as well as getting the cpu hot?
    I guessing this would be most ideal for GPUs though, as they want to get very hot.
  • milktea
    Great article!

    BTW, is the Cooler Master Extreme Fusion X1 available in the USA?
  • PreferLinux
    It would have been nice to see the stock thermal paste on the Intel cooler too...
  • HazardManiac
    I just ordered the liquid pro and I'm already starting to regret it...
  • Technoart
    You guys should see how big tube of thermal paste and how big is the thermal tape that are available inside AMD. All of this product are obsolete.
  • dish_moose
    Nice article ... one small boo-boo "leaning toward the software compounds." on page 21 should be softer.
    -Bruce
  • Technoart
    Standard thermal paste is good enough to conduct heat but buy high aluminum or silver content based thermal paste will serve your HSF and CPU coolly. I'm talking about industrial grade thermal compound. Try to get one from the manufacturers. 3rd Party based like CM, Arctic Silver and more still not good enough for our HSF and CPU. This is because when your CPU heat up so fast and cool down rapidly, your thermal compound may degrade fast until you thermal compound is flow to the sides of your CPU's IHS.
  • Technoart
    Also can try propanediol although is liquid but good for CPU benchmarking for setup in testbench mode.
  • BigMack70
    FANTASTIC article! Extremely informative and helpful, especially for newbies or anyone like me who hadn't ever seen the liquid metal compounds in action before.

    I'm personally partial to Noctua's NT-H1... I've gotten pretty nice results with it, and I love how easy it is to use compared to other compounds I've had. Might try the Gelid GC extreme at some point in the future when I run out of Noctua's NT-H1, though.

    Also, a big +1 for the lulz of using toothpaste and denture adhesive :lol:
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