Category: TIMs

A host of BeQuiet! news: Cheap ATX 3.0 PSU and thermal pastes

News, PSUs, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

Shortly after the Dark Power 13 power supplies, BeQuiet! is releasing significantly cheaper alternatives from the Pure Power range (12 M), in up to five output variants starting at 550 W. In this instance too, these are PSUs that are designed to meet the more stringent ATX 3.0 standard. In addition, BeQuiet! is expanding its range of thermal pastes, one of which is actually a liquid metal with a higher stated thermal conductivity than TG Conductonaut. Read more “A host of BeQuiet! news: Cheap ATX 3.0 PSU and thermal pastes” »

Arctic MX-6 thermal paste is out, a quick replacement for the MX-5

Cooling, News, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

Arctic is renumbering the MX thermal pastes (from 5 to 6) faster than ever before. The MX-5 arrived just last year, but earlier this year there was a report that some batches were drying up prematurely. As a result of such a shortcoming, customer confidence in these thermal pastes may have been so lowered that a new model is the best route to take from a business perspective. And here it is, unfortunately again without the basic parameters. Read more “Arctic MX-6 thermal paste is out, a quick replacement for the MX-5” »

Paste on AM5 won’t get where it doesn’t belong – Noctua NA-TPG1

Cooling, News, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

The large number of creases on the heat spreader of CPUs for the AMD AM5 platform means a lot of places where thermal paste can run off and dry out. Removing it is then very laborious when cleaning, which is why Noctua has released a frame to protect these critical spots. And it will also protect the exposed SMD next to the heat spreader from paste or possibly liquid metals. Read more “Paste on AM5 won’t get where it doesn’t belong – Noctua NA-TPG1” »

Thermaltake TG-60 is a new, hopefully more available liquid metal

Cooling, News, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

The choice of liquid metals is rather limited. And even the few options, that are designed for application in PCs, have fairly poor distribution. This could be changed/improved by the involvement of Thermaltake, which after all has a wider field of operation than the above mentioned companies. Their solution (TG-60) is a replacement for conventional pastes, but with significantly higher thermal conductivity. Read more “Thermaltake TG-60 is a new, hopefully more available liquid metal” »

How to apply thermal paste on Ryzen 7000? Noctua is clear on this

Cooling, News, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

With the new generation of AMD processors (Ryzen 7000), the shape of the heatspreader (IHS) is changing after an extremely long time. It is also significantly different compared to Intel processors, and this again creates room for debate on what the most sensible technique for applying thermal paste should look like. One suggestion has already appeared, in the manual for the Noctua NT-H1 and NT-H2 pastes. Read more “How to apply thermal paste on Ryzen 7000? Noctua is clear on this” »

Commentary: Is adding a spatula to the Noctua NT-H1 useful?

Cooling, News, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

Noctua has quietly, almost secretly, added a new package of NT-H1 thermal paste with the additional designation SW. These are the initials of the English words spatula and wipes. It is with this accessory that the NT-H1 SW pack is supplemented. And in particular, the addition of the spatula raises the question of whether Noctua has revised the recommended technique in applying thermal paste. Read more “Commentary: Is adding a spatula to the Noctua NT-H1 useful?” »

A matter of (dis)honesty: expensive NZXT paste with only 6.3 W/mk?

Cooling, News, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

NZXT has released its first thermal paste and looking at its parameters opens the topic of what quality the manufacturers present us on paper. However, NXZT is probably not pretentious, on the contrary, the paper thermal conductivity of their thermal paste is surprisingly low considering the price. Is this the reality, are other manufacturers (with two to three times higher thermal conductivity values) misleading or is NZXT thermal paste uncompetitive? Read more “A matter of (dis)honesty: expensive NZXT paste with only 6.3 W/mk?” »

Alphacool: Our new thermal paste is faster than stainless steel

Cooling, News, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

Watch out, Alphacool has started aiming pretty high. In the specifications for the latest Apex thermal paste, it lists a thermal conductivity that it claims is not only above the best competing thermal pastes, but even outperforms some metals. Unless Alphacool is stretching reality, this is going to be an extremely effective formula. You won’t guess what its main ingredient is. Read more “Alphacool: Our new thermal paste is faster than stainless steel” »

Beware, some Arctic MX-5 thermal pastes may dry out faster

Cooling, News, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

Less than a year into the MX-5’s existence, the first publicly known flaw is associated with this thermal paste for which it may achieve lower thermal conductivity than expected. This is due to the compound that makes up the paste not holding together properly, and the thermally conductive interface will harden before application, in the tube. Arctic has supposedly already withdrawn these batches from circulation, but one needs to be cautious. Read more “Beware, some Arctic MX-5 thermal pastes may dry out faster” »

Enough TF thermal paste for now, Thermalright introduced the CFX

Cooling, News, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

Until now, Thermalright’s current thermal pastes have been from the TF series. The latest paste (CFX) no longer carries this label. This might be because it no longer fits into the current pyramid due to its properties. The new CFX thermal paste is among the top of the company’s range in terms of parameters, but we believe that you may pay less for it per unit of “ability to dissipate heat” than is usual with Thermalright. Read more “Enough TF thermal paste for now, Thermalright introduced the CFX” »

Low price, high thermal conductivity – SPC Pactum PT-4

News, Thermal compounds, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

A new thermal paste has been introduced – Pactum PT-4. Its specifications are admirable, considering the lower price range. The thermal conductivity is more than double that of the previous Pactum PT-2. At least on paper. It could finally be a real competition for the Arctic MX-5. Particularly the application of the PT-4 should be comfortable for its low viscosity. Read more “Low price, high thermal conductivity – SPC Pactum PT-4” »

Arctic kept his word, the MX-5 is on sale. We know the specs

News, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

As of March 15, various size tubes of the new MX-5 thermal paste are in stock on Amazon. Arctic thus managed to start the sale on the day they announced in January, when no specifications were yet known. These are already quite detailed and include commonly unspecified specs of electrical insulation. However, something feels fishy here as the basic information about thermal conductivity is missing for some reason. Read more “Arctic kept his word, the MX-5 is on sale. We know the specs” »

After 10 years, a new Arctic paste from the MX series is here – 5

News, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

There is no more popular series of thermal pastes than MX from Arctic, which was released in the early phase of the company under the old name Arctic Cooling. Two years ago, Arctic boasted a statistical report on 10,000,000 sold pieces of MX-2 and MX-4 (in total) and now, without prior news, there has been a notice of the upcoming release of MX-5. The exact date is already known and you won’t have to wait long. Read more “After 10 years, a new Arctic paste from the MX series is here – 5” »

Should you remove an SSD sticker before mounting a heatsink?

Cooling, Extra tests, TIMs | | Ľubomír Samák

Here are some questions that everyone who wants to tune their computer to the last detail deals with: Does it make any sense to remove a sticker from a powerful M.2 SSD format? Is it worth the effort and, if something goes wrong, the breach of warranty? How much will the heating be reduced? As a part of detailed tests, we also replaced the original stickers for ones of commonly available materials (paper, plastic foil, aluminum…) just out of curiosity. Read more “Should you remove an SSD sticker before mounting a heatsink?” »

Ryzen iGPU and the return of thermal compounds

Cooling, News, TIMs | | Jan Olšan

AMD has released the first Ryzen desktop processors with iGPU this week. APU Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 2200G could be attractive for compact computers because it’s easier to cool a single heat source than to cool both CPU and GPU, and the integrated graphics cards of these processors should have performance equal to GeForce GT 1030. However, it also means that the old enemy has returned, thermal compounds. Read more “Ryzen iGPU and the return of thermal compounds” »

1 2