Innovation Cooling's Diamond 7 TIM test results

[ceemic]

Very good. I'm looking forward to Your results

[littleowl]

By those temps and humidity I would think you live in a rain forest. It is interesting speeds changed disabled vs. enabled I would have thought the reverse.

In any event looks only to be about 1/2 cfm or less.

I think I am pushing on a string here with this type of test thinking it through.

The test that would tell me something would be the before baseline and after new app of IC diamond, but I think it may be a long shot. I may do it as a focus on another beta test group. Sometimes just knowing what a particular feature is'nt is just as valuable as knowing what it is.

Thanks for your extra effort much appreciated.

yeah the humidity sucks! I wish it was 120f and no humidity! It makes it feel really hot and sticky when we have high humidity. most of the time it don't get all that warm it just gets high humidity here in Ohio.

Edit:
OMG I took my fuzion off my G0 today for a couple reasons. one to try my idea that I got off of dragon and the other was to put the 24k diamond on my chip to see the difference from d7 to d24.
Well I was amazed to see this on my waterblock. Take a look!!!! I should add that I have taken note of the setup temps and room temps and core temps! I will post them in a different post showing before and after with the compound change.

[tastymannatees]

You mention high humidity- what happens is the area covered by the compound is airtight and exposed area being copper is subject to oxidation, hence the lighter area covered by the paste maintains the original polish

[Deux]

A quick update on the DICE results. It worked well if it was allowed time to spread before being frozen.

[tastymannatees]

A quick update on the DICE results. It worked well if it was allowed time to spread before being frozen.

That was always my concern, I have tested/thermal cycled ICD -40 C to +85 C - for up to 250 cycles with no change in performance. But never a straight shot to sub zero -

Letting it settle first, giving it a chance to resolve down to the BLT or cure first is definitely the way to go.

Maybe warm it up a couple of times with a hairdyer to speed up the process?

[Movieman]

Some more info for you;
Just assembled a dual harpertown last night with IC7
Machine is clocked at 3404 right now
Temps all in the high 40's-51C at load.
Very nice considering the heat load those are tossing at that speed.

[littleowl]

You mention high humidity- what happens is the area covered by the compound is airtight and exposed area being copper is subject to oxidation, hence the lighter area covered by the paste maintains the original polish

the ring on the outside edge of where the past was is purple like it was super hot. That is what I was trying to point out not the copper color.
My temps were never very hot and I run both real temp and core temp. but when I report I always report core temp. I just cant get over how it looked burnt!

[ceemic]

A quick update on the DICE results. It worked well if it was allowed time to spread before being frozen.

Good to know
But how compared to Ceramique?

[Deux]

It's tough to measure performance subzero because all monitor programs bug out with negative temps. The ceramique seemed a bit easier to remove afterwards but that's probably due to the fact that it is not as thick as ICD.

[littleowl]

Deux what would you recommend for sub? ICD or ceramique?

[ceemic]

...or Liquid Metal Pro?

[Deux]

I would recommend ceramique but only because it is easier to remove. I suspect that ICD and LMP have better thermal conductivity but honestly when you are -80 C does one or two degrees from TIM really matter or make a difference in clocking.

[littleowl]

I agree Deux that is why I asked what one you thought would be better.

[64dragon]

i just did a lil modding, i know my chipset gets pretty hot, 40C+ according to the IR temp guage on my multimeter, and since i have a few tubes of D7 i figured why not pull off the heatpipes on my board and replace the AS5 with some D7. after pulling it off i found a nice surprise, only 3 of the voltage regulators or whatever in the mofset area had contact with that portion of the heatpipe, i figure this was due to the stock plastic clips and springs that hold down the heatpipe. based on what i've learned from the heatsink testing, that the more i compress the spring the more pressure will be applied. so i went out to lowes and got some screws and nuts that fit in the mounting holes (#4-40 screws 3/4" length). i just got done putting it back together and have been in XP for 30 minutes running orthos to load up the processor. the heatsink/pipe on the chipset is now at 35C, a 5C drop from changing out the paste and adding more pressure!!! thats the best $1.04 i've ever spent

[littleowl]

that is great dragon! your idea didn't work for my fuzion. my room is now 30.6c and my core temps are 46 40 37 38
that is not as good as it was before I added the washers.

[tastymannatees]

I Have been going over the IC Diamond data the last few days what seems interesting to me is that predominately force is the most prominent factor which generally has a hardware basis and tended to compensate for light contact tests.

On the multiple forum tests approx 80% saw an improvement vs our sample which was approximately 70% where there was more of an emphasis on the original no result tests but all in all it pretty well well lines up with a breakout of +result, equal result, - negative result.

This was a broad sample test and can be used as a general indicator of the groups/forums tested and not a live or die by any individual test or result.

This group as a whole are pretty experienced when it comes to proper mounting, lapping/contact issues and are creative overcoming hardware deficiencies with bolt through, shims, higher force springs etc. as a matter of course. The test group had several pressure samples and where able to do some optimizing to get the best result by lapping or tightening/balancing their mounts with an indicator.

My experience on my own copper synthetic 1 in. die which is flat // to .0005 and I have easy access top, side and back with no flexing MB or socket issues. This is a definite advantage when seeking perfect contact, even so I still have to wiggle the last couple of degrees alternately securing and loosening screws while monitoring temps to get the lowest number possible it usually takes me about 20 min before I am satisfied.

So at least from my observations it is a pretty challenging pursuit to get an optimal mount under the best of conditions. Many get there through multiple remounts taking the best temp they can get by "feel" and reworking when necessary which is what I do with my set up although compounded by complexity with an in system mount.

I have an old T bird sink that I use as a ref. with a single bent spring clip which only makes contact with on/over the exact center of the die with consistent/constant pressure. 4 years ago, today and tomorrow it will give me the same result. I had overlooked hardware as problem issue because my experience was lacking in the new stuff so the beta testing here has been valuable, again thanks to all participants.

I have learned alot from this group on the hardware side as I have not really looked hard at hardware mounting and will be very useful in some sink development I am doing. An odd point here, a manufacturer could not have the best performing sink in a range of sinks but with a good hardware mount design could run the web site review circuit and average out better with good contact and balanced pressure than better performing sinks. I would imagine a best hardware mount should be a priority for the competitive sink market.

As noted the spread on these results run about 9C the difference between a great mount and a marginal one is the difference between a high end sink and an average one.

Taking a repetitive holistic approach. Temp results can range 9C factoring out the heat sink and just considering compound/contact/pressure on it's own.....Non trivial with the whole picture in mind.

The following is posted here for easy ref and comments. I will post some further breakdowns along with some new data in the next week or so

[orclev]

So what was the final result with this stuff? I found this thread doing research on some other TIMs and actually had a thread up in the water cooling forum asking about CLP when I ran across someone mentioning diamond based TIMs which eventually led me here. Anyone done any comparison of this stuff versus say MX-2 or CLP? Aside from poor performance with inadequate pressure or poorly lapped CPUs, any other problems? I know some people where looking at the sub-zero performance of this stuff, but I'm looking for a TIM for a WC setup, so I'm more interested in its performance under "normal" conditions, particularly with regard to other TIMs and in less than perfect conditions (it seems by looking at these test results that you get better cooling with several other TIMs unless you really go the extra mile to have good pressure and a extra flat contact area).

[64dragon]

heres 2 posts that i found in this thread where someone used MX2

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=152

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=442

[orclev]

Thanks. I'm surprised it was able to beat MX-2 by that much, think I'm definitely going to pick this stuff up, if for no other reason than I can use it on my NB/SB/Mosfets, unlike CLP.

[tastymannatees]

Application Notes - From all the forum testing on application and application sizes, a pea sized amount on center was pretty universally decided as the optimal amount on all forums. Thanks to all for their efforts, much appreciated.

Besides just knowing the amount I like to know why. I believe I have most of that figured out with some additional testing on my own. Check out my results

[orclev]

Thanks, that's great info. Glad to see some real scientific work behind recommendations as well, and not just vague hand waving. When I get this stuff I'll make sure to use a sufficiently large quantity. I suppose it should be possible to wipe off excess from the edges after application, just need to find the proper tool to get in underneath the heatsink to the edge of the chip.

[AtlasShrugged]

Err.. I suddenly feel a need to remount my CPU...

[CyberDruid]

I too appreciate all the work you put into this...but oddly enough I was able to determine fairly quickly on my own that the Diamond TIM worked better with more of a bead than say X23 Shin. It only took a few mounts to see how far it was NOT spreading lol. Temps were all I went by in terms of deciding whether I got the mount right. I had already sold and used a number of tubes of IC7 and was already recommending it when I found this thread

I tend to use Shin on a well mated surface and IC7 on any questionable surface and on any chips where TIM conductivity might be an issue.

[tastymannatees]

I added The content from our testing to our web site and most is data supplied from you guys Thanks again for all the effort.

Be a little forgiving on the design front as I am at the bottom of the learning curve when it come to HTML and web design and once I get the content and links squared away I will turn it over to a professional to smooth it out.

I will be doing some more forum beta testing and am mulling over some different tests I need done to fully round things out. In any event thanks again.

http://innovationcooling.com/index.html

[tastymannatees]

For those that have an interest we are sponsoring another giveaway at OCAU
and results are starting to come in.
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...d.php?t=718724