Freaking crazy good and very informative article Keep up the work and your great detail in future testings!

I learned a lot from this, so a grateful thanks from me :-)

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!

i got tuniq tx-3.its awesome!A+ result!..

Good to know that the syringe of AS-5 I've had in my desk for 5 years was worth the $15 I paid for it. I've used it in several low-end (P4, not Xeon) custom-built servers that run 24/7 and never had a heat problem with them. The thin-coating does seem to do the trick.

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 don't find Artic Silver 5 to be thin at all. It's really thick to me... Did mine go bad or something?

Sorry... I have no idea of what a bb size is... Could anyone please let me know? Thank you in advance

Truly a very great article. Concise, informative and practical. Very well done. I salute you.

thank you so much, man this is amazing, i just want to applaud all your guys hard work and thank you so much for the info
i learned so much, and not just about TIM

Great test, it really helped me to choose a Thermal Paste.
Now I'm dying to see how the new ones like MX-3 go in the next test.

there is also Shin-Etsu MicroSi G765, is it better than the winner of this test?

ofcourse, I read only some parts I was interested in

Nice test, it really helps to choose a TIM. I wanted to know how the best ones compare to Arctic Cooling MX-3 and the Indigo Xtreme.Especially the last ones that i see verry few reviews.

You mention the best materials are carbon based. When I scan all the results, I didn't see a single product based on carbon. Did I miss it? You said all the best are now using carbon. Where are the results of carbon based TIM? I would go for them based on what you've stated. Please help. Thanks.

Great job man!

It would be grate if each product's electric conductivity was listed in the charts at the final results.

Wow, this test article was amazing. I tip my hats to all involved for creating such an in-depth and comprehensive test on thermal pastes. It was a pleasure to read through the full article, I especially liked analysis into the different ways of applying the paste, I've always spread the paste out with a razor and never gave much thought to other methods. I especially liked the idea of spreading the substance out with a slick plastic surface.

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!

Was it mentioned what the temperature difference was using no compound? (metal to metal)

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)

Really liked the entire session of TIMs...
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..

If you're gonna do a "1 layer spread" would it not be better to spread it on the CPU heat spreader than that of the air cooler? Reason being, the CPU heat spreader has a smaller surface area. Seems obvious.

Great methodology within defined limitations. Acknowledgement of the effects of technique. Superbly honest. A commitment to testing products over time. I really am gobsmacked by the quality of this review. Any lab I know would by glad to have you onboard. Thanks for a well thought out review Olin.

I enjoyed this review a lot and benefited from it much.
You did a hell of a job
Keep the marvelous work

When will a 2011 version of this comparison become available???

Superb job of testing, definitely the most comprehensive guide I've seen. It looks like it could stand to be updated; as I know that some of the products -- most notably IC Diamond -- have undergone changes in their formulation and properties, so the tests in this article no longer apply. Other than that, it's definitely my go-to place to refer anyone looking for TIM info.

Epic article. Can't but echo all the praise dished out in the previous comments.
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.

This is an excellent, comprehensive article comparing various TIMs. I have relied on it and send people to read it all the time. However, it is 2.5 years old now and many people just come her and look at the date before shrugging and saying "meh, it's two years old, there are newer TIMs on the market now".

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.

I read with great interest ALL of the article, and found it to be solid, Fair, and a FULL PICTURE of the subject matter.

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

This definitely solidifies my point on the fact that AS-5 is still one of the best (tied for first). Many people that test it do not do the 200 hours of curing, and if they do, its not the proper way with the heat cycles.

This is the kind of article that makes the open web worth going to. Was super helpful and I can attest to the fact that (consistent with the ratings) IC7 beat the pants off AS5. After 2 applications of AS5, I have a 55w processor running significantly cooler than I ever got a 45w processor to run with 7 applications of AS5.

I for one cannot say enough about thermal paste, I presently am using antec6 on my cpu and gpu and the temps have gone down significantly in idle and under stress, if your system cpu is running above the 20's at idle, you need to check your paste. Oh and I have one of the cheapest after market cooler, the cm-212 evo my normal idle is 18c to 21c. I am not affiliated with any corporation this is strictly my own experience.
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.

I have been looking for a comparison of TIMs for over 2 years. I have found many but there was a noticeable assumed problem with all of them. When comparative results are limited to only a dozen or so products it leaves me wondering if any given test could be skewed toward one product or another.

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.

Salut, Master Chief. Serious #. One of the most detailed and well-executed tech tests I've read in recent times.

Thanks, Olin, for a well-designed and -executed study. (I have to admit, I'm curious how you managed to maintain +/- 0.5C !)

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.

Your article on thermal compounds is the clearest written and best researched work on the subject that I have come across. I'm appreciative of all the effort, and patience, that must have gone in to such a complex project. Many thanks, Mr. Coles!