| 80-way Thermal Interface Material Performance Test |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cooling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Olin Coles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, 14 June 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Page 11 of 14
C: Moderate PerformanceThere was a trend set in the late 1990's that held strong until about 2006, during which silver, gold, and copper-based TIMs all got a spot in the limelight simply based on their ingredients. The reality was considerably different than the theory, and some products were quickly buried in the rubble left behind when aluminum-oxide 'grey' thermal pastes began to gain popularity. In our last section, a copper-flake infused mineral-oil and silicone paste formula's really proved that you can't just add a highly conductive metal to your recipe and expect the best performance. Alternatively, the truly simple zinc-based 'white' thermal pastes all have the same general appearance, but use extremely different formulas. Moving deeper into our results, it's painfully obvious how much of the market is now aluminum- and zinc-oxide, with relatively few products still building off of metal-based formulas.
In the chart below, Benchmark Reviews has assembled those products receiving an "Enthusiast Grade" of C for fair thermal conductivity performance compared to the other TIM products in our tests:
EDITORS NOTE: As a result of Antec's concern for the rating or their product, the following information has been added to this article for clarification: The Antec 77063 Formula 5 Silver Grease used in our tests is identical to Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste. As of 26 June 2009, Antec's application instructions do not recommend or require any amount of material curing time, despite Arctic Silver recommending 200-hours of thermal cycling to allow a proper cure of their AC5 compound. Because no curing time is suggested by Antec, Benchmark Reviews has tested the Formula 5 thermal paste after one-hour of thermal-cycling was complete, which is how all materials with no curing time specified have been tested. Benchmark Reviews recognizes that this product (and other AC5-clone products) will perform slightly better over time, however the product instructions supplied by Antec are different than those of the original formula manufacturer (Arctic Silver) and was tested based on specific manufacturer recommendations. Each product tested received the curing time recommended (see below), or approximately one hour of thermal cycling prior to testing when no cure time was specified.
(0) No Curing Time or Special Application Suggested
(1) Antec Formula 5 Application Instructions (no curing time recommended)
(2) Arctic Silver II Application Instructions(48-hours minimum curing time recommended)
(3) Arctic Silver 3 Application Instructions (up to 200-hours recommended curing time)
(4) Arctic Silver 5 Application Instructions (up to 200-hours recommended curing time)
(5) Arctic Silver Ceramique Application Instructions (25-hours minimum recommended curing time)
(6) IC Seven Carat Diamond Application Instructions (10-minute evaporation time, 2-hour curing recommended)
(7) CooLaboratory Liquid Pro Application Instructions (no curing time recommended)
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Comments
This is one of the best review ever consider the amount of writing and scrutiny the writer had been through! I cannot give you enough compliment!
Makes me want to know more detail about how to prepare/polish the heatsink surface as it seems really important. Like exactly how you go about it and exactly what materials are used? I imagine you could make it worse rather than better by not doing it well?
Brilliant article, thanks again!
Haven't even seen the result charts yet, but just having the pictures of different ways to apply the paste is hugely helpful.
Thanks again!
Great article. Thanks for all the work.
If you're looking for a follow-up article - investigate why the machine OEMs use such a thick layer of ITM in their boxes when it's blazingly obvious that a thin layer works much better.
I would expect that even the ones that are without a curing recommendation would do better. That would be a great comparison.
Still, great review. It does however tell us that near the top, we are probably chasing diminishing returns here. I suspect that the 0.5 degrees could be within a margin of error.
found out on my test that any paste that require spread method. will give max/best result right away but over time the paste bleeds out of place, due to air bubbles. therefore decreasing performance.
i learned so much, and not just about TIM
Now I'm dying to see how the new ones like MX-3 go in the next test.
Now I just use a bit more TIM. I didn't mind lapping my old E4500 as there wasn't much at stake but I didn't lap my (current) O/Ced QX9560.
Now I just use a bit more TIM. I didn't mind lapping my old E4500 as there wasn't much at stake but I didn't lap my (current) O/Ced QX9650.
I am not talking about "Shin-Etsu MicroSi G751", I am talking about "Shin-Etsu MicroSi G765"
I happened to run out of Arctic Silver one night while assembling a build for a customer and I had a small tube of Radio Shacks white Tim. I used it on a a few builds and was surprised at the performance. The only thing that was worth mentioning stating is that it does dry out after 3-4 years and needs to be replaced IMHO.
Anyway, great review, later........................................
It would be grate if each product's electric conductivity was listed in the charts at the final results.
There is a slew of information in this article and it's definitely going into my bookmarks. Great job and many thanks for the extensive effort that was put into this project!
Helped me alot.
Or even a dumb (non-contaminating, non dangerous, cheap and available) poor mans product like toothpaste, or ??
Or a test showing the best product with poor application technique?
Seems like with all the work, a few more comparisons made to show the importance (or lack) of this.
Was repeatability also ensured for accuracy of claimed results? (eg, 30 tests later, do the same test with XYZ and ensure same results obtained)
By the way I had a ghetto thought about this If Money is no problem why not weld the heatsink base and CPU IHS...
Will love if this is done..
Sincerely,
/Antonio
You did a hell of a job
Keep the marvelous work
Funny how a 2 or 3 hour a day PC user could eyeing up the next upgrade path before as5 has cured. Any way I'm off to lap my sink
Try reading the article.
Must say though, that adding the viscosities of each thermal goop was a brilliant move as it's hard to find any real info on them elsewhere.
I would love to see some of the newer TIMs tested and added in a section at the end of this article as an addendum. I have been very interested in the metal TIMs I have seen around. Some people claim they are getting a 10c difference using a metal TIM over a TIM like AS5. I've never tried a metal TIM myself, and although I hear they are a little bit of a pain to clean off I would still like to try one.
As it stands this is still the best article around on TIMs, but it could use a little bit of an update.
Saying they nearly all perform the same may have been true 2-3 years ago, but not so much now. I would sure like to put some of those claims to the test, but since I can't get TIMs like Liquid Ultra locally I can't test them myself.
Frankly, until they are, no one can make any claims regarding them and be taken seriously, and that includes the naysayers. I have seen these claims on ocn. I can't counter them because I haven't tested these new TIMs.
Have you?
Then there are the people this article is aimed at, the enthusiasts who care that the difference between the poorer TIMs are better TIMs can be 5c. When you're overclocking, and aiming for a particular clock rate, then 5c can be pretty important.
Your question is akin to comparing the fuel in a street car to that in a race car where a few octane can make a difference.
AND when I read all of the comments that were written thanking you and praising you for your all of your hard well thought out work, Nice elements table too, Then there were the "when are you going to do a new one" Persons. I have to just shake my head sometimes in wonder at the different densitieses that are exhibiteded in such exchanges.
I have worked in metallurgicaliFielde ild much of my life and pretty well versed in such matters, had to laugh at the suggestion of soldering the processor to the cooler, I wonder do people actually take the chance on refinishing the surface of the processor? I can see flat lapping the cooler but I would never touch the processor, except to install.
Thank you for all of you efforts and I enjoyed all of it and agree with all of your findings.
Bay Blues
P.S I also put the antec 6 on my 5670 card voided the warrantee, but I more than likely extended its life its getting 32c vs 40c plus before.
When you put up 80 products agains each other the possibility of favoritism practically vanishes and the real picture begins to emerge.
I do agree with several here who have expressed wishes this test included results after long term use and curing of the TIM application(s). At the same time I must understand the time and cost required to do such an in depth test with so many products. All in all considered this is a great trade off.
In Short, I didn't think it mattered. It does! Buy it!
One thing I think could have really driven your important point home would have been to add a short table at the end, showing the "Before and After lapping" temp results using an A+ and a D- (perhaps thin and thick examples of each) on the illustrated Ultra-120 eXtreme heat sink, thus demonstrating the benefit obtained from prep, and the much lower importance of the paste used.
Also, as someone who laps metal pieces flat and polishes them to a mirror finish in my daily work, checking with an optical flat/monochromatic light, I'd like to emphasize to the masses that a FLAT surface is not the same as a SHINY one. Obviously, flat AND shiny is what we're after, but it's important not to "unflat" a surface in the pursuit of "ultrashiny", which is easy to do if not performed properly.
Finally, in answer to a question asked upstream to the effect of, "why would anyone not overclocking worry about this stuff?"-- those of us who are in quiet environments, particularly audio, like to keep our stock-volted machines as quiet as possible, which is partially accomplished by improving heat dissipation thus enabling lower, quieter, fan speeds.
Thanks again for the insane number of hours this (and previous articles) must have taken, including the excellent presentation.