INTRODUCTION

Hi LYN!

Always been headache about which thermal paste you should buy? Worry not! This review is here to rescue you and it is certified to be over 9000% more effective than taking panadols

In this review, i will be comparing the commonly found thermal pastes from our friendly garage sales and our IT stores. There will be 5 candidates for this test and they are Arctic Cooling MX-2, Arctic Silver 5, Tuniq TX-2, Gelid GC1, Ocz Freeze

APA ITU THERMAL PASTE? BOLEH MAKAN KA?



Ok, since now u know that its not something to be eaten already (altho they didnt say cannot eat lol) then i guess we shall not waste more time and lets move on to the introduction pictah for each of the thermal paste


CANDIDATES

OK, here we go.... ini lah candidate number one



AIKSS....posted wrong pictah

btw, here is our candidate number one again




This is the famous Arctic Cooling MX-2. It comes in a 4 grams package and is said to be better than the Arctic Silver 5 by 2c according to the box.



Next up is the Arctic Silver 5. This TIM is said to be showing the best results when its has already cured (200 hours ) and used for super low temp extreme benching . As for this tube, there will be no box cos i borrowed it from someone. He bought it from US and its the 12 grams version. This tube here costs him 20 USD excluding shipping.



OK, this one is the common Tuniq TX-2 that most of the forummer here uses it cos its cheap and performs well lol. This TIM comes in a very simple packaging and have a content of 3.5grams. Due to the simple packaging, sometimes there are cases where buyers who uses postage receiving that TIM "divided by zero" when it reaches them



Lying over here will be the new comer Gelid GC1. This TIM is said to be on par with Arctic Cooling MX-2 and according to the box, able to beat Arctic Silver 5 by 2c just like the MX-2. This TIM comes with 5 grams of content and a small applicator for those who likes to "sapu" the thermal paste on their proc. There's no need to use credit card or plastic to cover your hands anymore with this lol





This iz are our last candidate Ocz Freeze. Dubbed as the best TIM by benchmarkreviews.com. It comes in a 3.5gram package just like the Tuniq TX-2 but it has a shelf life of 24months stated on the box. The rest of the TIMs have no indication of shelf life available on the box.

This post has been edited by tkh_1001: Jan 11 2009, 08:25 AM

TESBEDS





HARDWARES
PROCESSOR: INTEL QX6800@3.5GHZ (1.28V LOAD, 1.296V IDLE)
CPU COOLER: THERMALRIGHT ULTRA EXTREME
CPU FAN: XIGMATEK 60CFM LED FAN


SOFTWARES
REALTEMP 2.9 WITH TJMAX SET TO 90
CPU-Z TO MONITOR VCORE
PRIME 95 FOR STRESS TESTS


AMBIENT
Test was done in a room without air-conditioning on a naked rig setup. Test was done starting from midnight till early morning where the room temps are almost identical.


ARCTIC CLEANER IS USED FOR CLEANING THE THERMAL PASTE




TESTING METHODS
- The test is done with all the TIM cleaned before and after each test. Then, new TIM will be reapplied again
- The test is started off by stressing the processors using prime 95 small fft for 20 minutes and the load temps are recorded at the 20th minute
- After that, the proc will be left to idle for 10 minutes and the idle temp taken
- Upon the completion of the test, the cpu cooler will be cleaned, applied with the same TIM again and then remounted for another cycle of tests for temp reading redundancy check
- Because my wish for hiro nakamura's power during christmas didnt came true, none of the TIM are allowed cure time becos it will take me too long to finish the review. They are tested straightaway out of the box.
- Tests are subjected to user error during cpu cooler mounting, thermal paste application and temp reading but i can assure you guys i tried my best i could to keep everything the same.
- This is my first time doing review for TIMs. Please advice me if there are any noobness of mine


THERMAL PASTE APPLICATION





This post has been edited by tkh_1001: Jan 11 2009, 06:38 AM

RESULTS





CONCLUSION
As you guys can see, the winner for this test are shared by Ocz Freeze, Tuniq TX-2 and Arctic Cooling MX-2. All 3 of them have almost the same characteristic except for MX-2 which is more viscous a little bit in my opinion. I know now you guys will be asking why is the Arctic Silver 5 so far behind and to be honest, I couldnt believe it myself too I have retested the the Arctic Silver 5 three times and the best results i could get was still at 70c. If you guys were talking about curing would have helped, well all i can say is the rest of the TIMs used were not cured too and they delivered out of the box. At the end of the test, i have decided to retest Ocz Freeze and Arctic Silver 5 again to make sure the results for Arctic Silver 5 was not affected by ambient temp and Ocz manage to retain its original winning result while Arctic Silver 5 shown no improvement. As for the new comer Gelid GC1, although there are nothing much impressive from the shown results, i believe its a good TIM to buy for those who likes to apply their TIM directly on the proc instead of the drops method. After all, it comes with the highest content of TIM and were priced closely to the rest except for Arctic Silver 5 which will cost you quite a bomb.

At the end of the day, i would like to thank all those who have helped me to complete this review and to the sponsors of the thermal paste too. Names will not be mentioned here under request but i would really like to thank you guys a million for the contribution you guys gave to the review.

This post has been edited by tkh_1001: Jan 11 2009, 07:02 AM

EXTRAS






This post has been edited by tkh_1001: Jan 19 2009, 06:17 PM

This post has been edited by tkh_1001: Jan 11 2009, 07:04 AM

Nice review ! Thanks for TS

Well done tkh. Nice comparison.
What about local price for these TIMs?

nice one tkh.

i knew this would come as soon as u posted all of them at Buy Club.

---

Added on January 11, 2009, 8:14 amand i like the way u present the review.

This post has been edited by hilmiangah: Jan 11 2009, 08:14 AM

Tuniq TX-2 FTW !!

i wonder wut type of thermal that the girl in da pic supply btw nice review tkh

Im pretty sure tkh iz dazzled with Mayanneh pic at this moment

if got put the price sure very perfect, can do the price/performance ratio.

i can see that the shelf life is 24 months.. but start from when? there is no manufacturing date..

and means after application.. every 24months one must reapply again? from a new package.. instead an old package?

This post has been edited by jinaun: Jan 11 2009, 11:10 AM

apply liao no need to reapply gua. the stock heatsink also like tat de, used for few years still ok.

24 months is 2 years...hmmm

Shouldn't be a problem anyway lolz

Cause after 2 years need reapply anyway

how to spread out the thermal paste?
i tried using business card but it was a terrible failure =o

This post has been edited by Zmir: Jan 11 2009, 12:33 PM

Haha, TS is a funny 'girl' ..

Anyway, very good review, i'm Tuniq-TX2 user....

i think if TS put the <RM10 cooler master TIM and some cheap TIM in comparison will make the chart more perfect. At least let some TIM newbie know whats the differences of cheap TIM and branded TIM.

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jan 11 2009, 12:44 PM

I've use tuniq TX-2 since based on review another thread here..
last me for few upgrades.
Maybe if I want to reapply all the mobo chipsets with new TIM then will I need more TIMs.

don't spread out la, just apply a dot.

i wonder hows my CM nano fusion fare..........