APH Networks Reports: Thermal Paste Roundup August 2008

It has been over a year since we've reviewed thermal paste. With the previous presented to us being Arctic Cooling's excellent MX-2 thermal compound in July 2007 and reviewed August 2007 -- it was, no doubt, excellent thermal paste; and were able to achieve a score of 8.1/10 on our Number Ratings. Thermal paste may seem so insignificant -- it can be easily overlooked to an extent that many people simply buy what they've heard of the most, and not necessarily what is the best. Thermal paste may 'seem' to be all the same with each other; but each are actually quite unique with different companies making different formulas for synthetic compounds or metal compounds. But all serves the same purpose to allowing better transfer between the cooled device and the cooler; filling microscopic valleys in surfaces that has microscopic imperfections to maximize heat transfer efficiency at its source. Today, we will be looking into several different brands of claimed 'high performance' thermal paste and see which one performs the best. Our four-way competition today includes the 'classic' Arctic Silver 5, our previous winner Arctic Cooling MX-2, the price competitive Tuniq TX-2, and the NT-H1 paste from silent PC enthusiasts' favorite company Noctua.

View: Thermal Paste Roundup August 2008