Prolimatech PK-3 - thermal paste

Product Information

Liquid metal compounds make their way to the top of the temperature chart with slightly cooler values than the traditional pastes. Interestingly, the difference between the top and bottom of this chart is less than 4C. Many thermal compound brands have come and gone, but one that’s at the forefront of nearly every PC builder’s builds over the last decade is Thermal Grizzly. And when it comes to standard, non-conductive thermal pastes, the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is possibly the best around. In contrast, traditional thermal paste compounds are relatively simple for every experience level. Most, but not all, traditional pastes are electrically non-conductive.

The Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut is a carbon-based thermal pad that offers an insanely high thermal conductivity rating of 62.5 W/mk. Just like with the BSFF thermal paste, carbon-based thermal compounds are excellent heat conductors, making them a great choice for high-performance CPUs. For a compound that costs less than half as much as leading competitors , Phobya's Liquid Metal Compound LM offers impressive performance, often besting the the CoolLaboratory Liquid Pro or Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut in our tests.Thermal paste is an important part of your PC, and helps to keep hot components cool by allowing for better heat transfer between chips and their heatsinks. That’s why if you’re looking to get the most out of your CPU, you’ll want a good thermal paste to help achieve optimal cooling performance.

Thermal paste is a staple in any PC build, but it can be a pain to work with. That’s where thermal pads come into play. Thermal pads serve the same function as thermal paste, but are much easier to work with, since they are pads you cut to size. They’re also more durable than thermal paste is. We tested each thermal paste with a low-tension air cooler mount, high-tension air cooler mount, and a high-tension AIO liquid cooler mount. Each application was given a 1-hour burn-in using Prime95 with ten load and cooling cycles over the course of the hour; six minutes each with a ten-second cool-down between. Each testing load session was then executed for a one-hour load period, again using Prime95. In addition to its excellent performance, it’s also beginner-friendly, and comes with extras to make the job easier. These extras include a spatula, CPU templates to help prevent messes, alcohol wipes, and a finishing card. Pactum PT-1 is grey, and its thermal conductivity is 4 W / mK, with a density of 2.5 g /cm³. As the density is relatively low, the paste is very easy to apply. The product does not conduct electricity. Together with the syringe, in which there is 4 g of the compound, the manufacturer adds a plastic spatula to facilitate applying the paste.

Corsair Commander Pro, 100%/50% PWM Speed profiles (liquid cooling pump always @100%, if applicable) For the air cooling low- and high-tension tests, we used a large Noctua NH-D15 air cooler. We created the low tension mount environment by torquing the mounting screws to 1.13 Nm (10 in/lbs). Even though a dizzying array of different thermal pastes is available — some blends have been around for over a decade — new formulations still come to market at a surprising pace. Long-time PC cooler maker NZXT recently entered the market with its first paste, the not-very-excitingly named NZXT High-Performance Thermal Paste. Cooler Master introduced a new purple CryoFuze, and Alphacool unveiled its Apex thermal paste. Cooling mainstay Corsair also has a new XTM70 blend that will be heading to our test bench soon, and Gelid has recently released its GC-4 Thermal Paste, showing that the TIM market is still thriving. This silicone-based thermal compound utilizes nano aluminum particles to effectively transfer heat between the CPU and the heatsink, making it a great conductor of heat, without being electrically conductive. In fact, with a thermal conductivity of 12.5 W/mk, it’s among the most thermally conductive thermal compounds on the market, with few others edging it out.

This aluminum and zinc oxide based thermal paste is a chart-topping thermal paste that can easily outperform other tried and true thermal pastes from the likes of Arctic Silver and Noctua. Offering a thermal conductivity of 11.2 W/mk, it ranks third on our list among other traditional thermal pastes for the best thermal conductivity. Thermal compounds might always be compared and debated over, but the simple fact remains: PC system building needs thermal compounds to effectively dissipate thermal loads. Without them, our beloved gaming and content-producing machines would struggle to keep components cool during heated frag sessions, heavy workstation computations, or just simply browsing the web.The BSFF Thermal Paste has an impressive thermal conductivity rating of 13.9W/mk, making it the most thermally conductive paste on our list that isn’t liquid metal. For many years, IC Diamond was the king of cool when it came to thermal compounds. And while it’s no longer sitting on the throne as the best in class, this diamond in the rough is still a solid choice with the IC Diamond 24 Carat Thermal Compound.

The caveat is that thermal pads are often less thermally conductive than thermal paste is. But that isn’t always the case. With high-performance thermal pads, the inverse can actually be true, and pads like the Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut are a great example of this. In addition to the spectacular thermal conductivity, the Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut is also dead-simple to use – just cut and place. And unlike thermal pastes, this will not dry out over time, making it reusable for many years. When it comes to thermal paste, there are quite a few different types, with liquid metal being the most thermally efficient. However, due to the electrical conductivity of liquid metal, most people opt for an electrically non-conductive thermal paste. Perhaps the next most thermally efficient type of thermal paste is a carbon-based paste, and with the BSFF Thermal Paste, it’s easy to see how that’s the case. This thermal compound is actually quite special in that it’s mostly composed of diamond powder, which boasts a much higher thermal conductivity than many metals that are found in normal thermal pastes. In the tube, it’s 92% diamond powder, and after it’s applied and properly dried, constitutes 94% of the total paste, making it a rich choice for cooling. We'll go into our breakdown of how we test these thermal pastes below, but the key takeaway here is that a single thermal compound can perform differently based upon several variables, such as what type of cooler and mount you use. To cover all the bases, we've tested every thermal paste with three variables:The performance value chart shows most of the liquid metal compounds with a poor value-per-gram rating, but once again, Phobya LM proves to be the outlier for that sub-category with its budget price tag. Liquid metal compounds are almost always electrically conductive, so while these compounds perform better than their paste counterparts, they require more focus and attention during application. They are very hard to remove if you get some in the wrong place, which would fry your system. But where it really shines is in the value it offers, with a phenomenal price for the amount of thermal paste you’ll receive. It’s also a non-curing thermal paste, meaning that it won’t dry out over time like other thermal pastes do. Small differences in temperatures jostle the chart a bit, but overall the more budget-friendly compounds show much more promising performance value due to relatively close load ranges. We see a trend that most good and great thermal compounds perform very similarly, but might be worlds apart in price per gram.