Battle of the Goop - Thermal Paste Comparison
Testing & Conclusion
Published: 5th August 2006 | Source: WaterCoolingUK | Price: |
Applying Thermal Compound can be a hit and miss affair, so to ensure our test results were as accurate as possible each of the compounds was applied several times. The application providing the lowest temperature was then allowed to 'settle in' for 24 hours before any measurements were taken.
The 'settle in' period consisted of the test machine being placed under heavy load for a total of 12 hours, and then left in an idle state for a further 12 hours.
Load temperatures were taken after 1hr of Prime95 with "In-Place large FFT's".
Test machine specification:
Intel P4 630 'Prescott' @ 4.2ghz (1.6v Vcore)
Swiftech Apogee Water Block
Laing D5 Pump
Black Ice Xtreme II Radiator
4x 72cfm Fans on Radiator
The clear winner in these tests was the Coollaboratory Liquid Pro. Being a full 6°C lower than Arctic Silver 5 when placed under load, this truly does go to show that there are major benefits to be had by switching your thermal compound.
Arctic Silver 5 took second position throughout, being threatened only by the Shin-Etsu X23-7762 compound which equalled its temperatures at idle, and was within 1°C of the AS5 under load.
In last place was the Shin-Etsu G751, which despite producing fairly reasonable results, was still almost a full 10°C above the Coollaboratory Liquid Pro in the load tests.
Arctic Silver 5 took second position throughout, being threatened only by the Shin-Etsu X23-7762 compound which equalled its temperatures at idle, and was within 1°C of the AS5 under load.
In last place was the Shin-Etsu G751, which despite producing fairly reasonable results, was still almost a full 10°C above the Coollaboratory Liquid Pro in the load tests.
Conclusion
For me the competition really came down to two candidates, the Arctic Silver 5 and the Coollaboratory Liquid Pro. The Arctic Silver produced some good results and was by far the easiest to spread out of all the compounds, however its performance was somewhat overshadowed by the excellent results from the Coollaboratory Liquid Pro.
It is also worth mentioning that many people find Shin-Etsu to produce better results than AS5 when used on bare core CPU's (Such as the Athlon XP), or uneven surfaces such as North/SouthBridge's.
Arctic Silver 5
Pro's
+ Easy to spread
+ Cleans up very easily
+ Good results
Con's
- Results overshadowed by the Coollaboratory Liquid Pro
Coollaboratory Liquid Pro
Pro's
+ Excellent results - 6°C better than the next best compound
+ Enough in syringe for many applications
+ Performance improvements equivalent to upgrading your heatsink
Con's
- Takes time and can be a pain to spread
- Hard to clean up
Shin-Etsu G751
Pro's
+ Easy to clean up
Con's
- Hard to spread
- Needs warming up to get successful application
- Performance not on par with the other compounds
Shin-Etsu X23-7762
Pro's
+ Performance within 1°C of AS5
+ Easy to clean up
+ Cheaper than AS5 in most stores
Con's
- Hard to spread
- Needs warming up to get successful application
Thanks to WaterCoolingUK for making this review possible. All of these compounds can be purchased HERE.
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Most Recent Comments
A poor attempt at that.
Heatpipes ftl
Heatpipes ftl
I am sorry, but I fail to see the difference between this and the standard card.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='Nagaru'
I am sorry, but I fail to see the difference between this and the standard card.
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If AMD want to sell them then they need to cut the price by £70-100. Not stick a differeent hs on.
is the GT lower than the Pro in terms of performance?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='ichiban'
is the GT lower than the Pro in terms of performance?
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