Simply a central location on XS for all my TIM testing from 2011
Thread will/should be updated within a day or two of each new installment going live, as long as I remember to keep updating it Reviews will be done in batches of 2 or 3 TIMs, with each TIM taking a minimum of 7.5 days to test (so a little over 2-3 weeks every update).
I'll post the 'master' charts here, every TIM will be on every chart and charts will probably get pretty large when the number of TIMs grows (and hopefully not too difficult to read, but there's only so many colors in the rainbow). Each installment will have a smaller selection of TIMs for comparison so that readability will be easier.
Quick summary of how I test:
I use three different Koolance CPU-360 blocks with various modifications to alter the base's convexity and pair them with different mounting pressures as well. This gives me the ability to test over a spectrum of contact from "Poor" to "Moderate" to "Great." Most CPU blocks land somewhere around "Moderate" contact (some better, some worse); I've never seen a retail block approach the contact that the "Great" block does. Often GPU/NB/MOSFET blocks will be somewhere between "Poor" and "Moderate."
Each TIM gets tested with five mounts per contact setting, with each mount being 10 hours long. Temperatures are logged every second of those 10 hours per mount and from the constant monitoring I can analyze cure (or any performance change over time). The worst mount on each contact setting is excluded from the average.
Full how/what/why can be found in any and all of the installments--this thread is more about the results than how I got them, IMO.
Installments:
Arctic Cooling MX-2, Indigo Xtreme, and Spire SilverGrease SP-457
Arctic Silver Matrix, Cooler Master IceFusion, and Prolimatech PK-1
Coolink Chillaramic, Nanoxia Heat Buster, and Nexus TMP-1000
Arctic Cooling MX-3 and MX-4
Deep Cool Z3/Z5/Z9
Arctic Silver 5, Ceramique, and Ceramique 2
Thermalright Chill Factor, Chill Factor 2, and Chill Factor 3
IC Perihelion, Noctua NT-H1, and OCZ Freeze
Shin-Etsu G751, X23-7762, and X23-7783D
EVGA Frostbite, Phobya HeGrease, TIM Consultants Quantum
Tuniq TX-2 and TX-4
Alphacool Silver Grease, Dimastech HTX-EE, and XSPC K2 (in progress)
Zalman STG-1 and STG-2 (upcoming)
Feser H-Bridge, Scythe Thermal Elixer, and ZeroTherm ZT-100 (upcoming)
Antec Formula 5, Formula 6, and Formula 7 (upcoming)
Gelid GC-1, GC-2, and GC-Extreme (upcoming)
Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 and TIMTronics Grey Ice 4200 (upcoming)
Rosewill Varieties (upcoming)
SIIG Varieties (upcoming)
Thermaltake Varieties (upcoming)
Xigmatek Varieties (upcoming)
Newer Shin-Etsu Varieties (hopefully)
IC Diamond, Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra, Liquid Pro, and Liquid Metal Pad (finale)
Overall and General Performance Charts:
Best Temperature (any contact):
Contact Dependence:
Cure Factor:
Poor Contact Performance:
Moderate Contact Peformance:
Great Contact Peformance:
Contact vs. Temperature:
Overall Performance Score:
Average Temperature Weighted for Overall Performance Impression:
Average Temperature Weighted for Typical CPU Mounting Quality:
“Overall Performance Impression” takes into account all three contact settings, “Typical CPU Mount” takes into account Moderate Contact, Great Contact, and Best Mount temperatures. ”Overall Performance Impression” is an average designed to describe the overall performance of a TIM where “Typical CPU Mount” is an average designed to describe expected performance with CPU blocks and heatsinks, where contact quality tends to be good.
Last Updated September 27, 2011
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