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Page 4 of 8
TIM Testing: Round 1
At the beginning of this 33-Way Thermal Interface Material review, the list of products is overwhelming. Since each test consumes an average of twenty minutes of time from setup to tear-down, our test day was very long. Throughout the test period, critical environmental temperatures were carefully measured and adjusted using constant air circulation inside the room.
The TIM product testing was a daunting task, and one that I have been putting off for months now, but my light at the end of the tunnel was coming with the reduction of test products for round two. Some of my old favorites line the list, including several names from the Arctic Silver laboratory.
| Product Name |
Description |
Amb/MB |
Amb/Idle |
Amb/Load |
Difference |
| OCZ Freeze |
Aluminum Oxide |
20.8/27 |
20.8/40 |
20.7/53 |
32 |
| IC Seven Carat Diamond |
Aluminum Oxide |
20.2/25 |
20.2/39 |
20.2/53 |
32 |
| TIM Consultants T-C Grease 0098 |
Aluminum Oxide |
20.4/26 |
20.4/39 |
20.4/53 |
32 |
| Shin-Etsu X-23-7762 |
Aluminum Oxide |
26.7/26 |
20.7/39 |
20.6/53 |
32 |
| Shin-Etsu Microsi Silicon Compound |
Aluminum Oxide |
20.6/26 |
20.6/39 |
20.4/53 |
32 |
| Shin Etsu G751 |
Aluminum Oxide |
20.6/26 |
20.7/39 |
20.6/53 |
32 |
| Thermalright Chill Factor |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.4/25 |
20.4/38 |
20.5/53 |
32 |
| Noctua NT-H1 |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.7/27 |
20.7/40 |
20.8/54 |
33 |
| Zaward HSC-G |
Aluminum Oxide |
20.7/24 |
20.6/40 |
20.6/54 |
33 |
| Arctic Cooling MX-2 |
Aluminum Oxide |
20.8/28 |
20.8/39 |
20.7/54 |
33 |
| Arctic Silver 5 |
Polysynthetic Silver |
20.5/26 |
20.5/39 |
20.4/54 |
33 |
| Tuniq TX-2 |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.5/27 |
20.5/40 |
20.5/55 |
34 |
| Arctic Silver 3 |
Polysynthetic Silver |
20.3/26 |
20.4/39 |
20.5/55 |
34 |
| Arctic Silver 2 |
Polysynthetic Silver |
20.0/25 |
20.0/39 |
20.1/55 |
34 |
| Zalman ZM-TG2 Thermal Grease |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.4/25 |
20.4/39 |
20.4/55 |
34 |
| Jetart Thermal Compound |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.6/26 |
20.6/39 |
20.6/55 |
34 |
| Masscool AK-100 Stars |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.8/27 |
20.7/39 |
20.6/55 |
34 |
| Arctic Cooling MX-1 |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.4/26 |
20.4/39 |
20.2/55 |
34 |
| Arctic Silver Lumiere |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.3/26 |
20.3/39 |
20.2/55 |
34 |
| ZEROtherm ZT-100 |
Aluminum Oxide |
20.6/25 |
20.7/39 |
20.6/55 |
34 |
| Zaward HSC-W |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.9/28 |
20.9/39 |
20.8/55 |
34 |
| Arctic Silver Ceramique |
Zinc Oxide Grease |
20.6/25 |
20.6/42 |
20.7/55 |
34 |
| Antec Formula 5 |
Polysynthetic Silver |
20.3/26 |
20.3/39 |
20.3/56 |
35 |
| Startech Silver Grease |
Polysynthetic Silver |
20.4/25 |
20.5/41 |
20.5/56 |
35 |
| Ultra Thermal Compound |
Silicon/Carbon Synthetic |
20.7/26 |
20.6/40 |
20.5/56 |
35 |
| SIL Heatsink Compound |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.3/25 |
20.3/39 |
20.3/56 |
35 |
| Jetart CK4000 |
Silicon/Carbon Synthetic |
20.7/27 |
20.8/39 |
20.8/56 |
35 |
| Xigmatek PTI-G3801 |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.3/26 |
20.3/39 |
20.3/56 |
35 |
| Rosewill RCX-TC050 |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.4/27 |
20.4/40 |
20.4/56 |
35 |
| Masscool Fanner-420 |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.6/26 |
20.6/39 |
20.7/56 |
35 |
| STARS 612 |
Copper/Silicon Grease |
20.9/27 |
20.9/41 |
20.9/56 |
35 |
| Cooler Master HTK-002 |
Silicon Oxide Grease |
20.7/27 |
20.8/39 |
20.8/57 |
36 |
| FrozenCPU Copper Compound |
Copper/Silicon Grease |
20.1/25 |
20.1/40 |
20.1/61 |
40 |
| (Tested by Benchmark Reviews: |
01 March 2008) |
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Apparent from the abbreviated description I have included, the white silicon-based thermal grease products appear to be taking a back-seat to the darker carbon-synthetic compounds spreading onto the current market. Two of our TIM products were particularly interesting, because they consisted of a copper-based grease and looked exciting. In practical application however these interface materials performed the worst, and seemed more of a novelty than solution.
In the table above, Benchmark Reviews has arranged the results in order of lowest thermal difference between maximum heat output attained and the ambient room temperature. While there were small room-temperature fluctuations which may have skewed our results, we felt that selecting the top fourteen products would ensure that no worthy TIM would be neglected in our next round of tests.
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