New thermal pad product - claimed as good as paste.

[martin-w 3,234]

This is interesting. They claim its as good as paste, lasts for years, reusable. From IC, the company that gave us diamond paste. It's a graphite pad.

 

Only ONE degree warmer compared to IC Diamond. And I guess Diamond is about one or two degrees away from the very best non- liquid metal pastes.

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by martin-w

[vortex681 806]

Very interesting, indeed. At a stroke, this would remove all of the potential problems with applying thermal paste (and, particularly, liquid metal). No degradation over the life of the system is a further big advantage. Anything which makes building your own system easier has got to be good. Another review here: https://www.innovationcooling.com/ic-graphite-notebook-testing/

Edited April 30, 2018 by vortex681

[stans 702]

I'd like to see more tests, but that does look to be easier to apply than thermal paste.  Being graphite, it is still electrically conductive, so you would still need to be careful to cut the pad to fit in a fairly precise manner.

Edited May 1, 2018 by stans

[vortex681 806]

5 hours ago, stans said:

Being graphite, it is still electrically conductive, so you would still need to be careful to cut the pad to fit in a fairly precise manner.

But, unlike liquid metal, it's quick and easy to apply and there's no chance of it spilling over the edge of the CPU. Whilst it may not give the level of cooling provided by liquid metal, I'd certainly trade 1°C for the ease of application and the ability to reuse it. It'll certainly make all of the "best way to apply thermal paste" videos and articles redundant!

[stans 702]

I agree, and 1*C is not a huge difference in cooling.  I'd gladly give up that degree just for the ease of use that comes with the pad.

[martin-w 3,234]

On 4/30/2018 at 6:31 PM, vortex681 said:

Very interesting, indeed. At a stroke, this would remove all of the potential problems with applying thermal paste (and, particularly, liquid metal). No degradation over the life of the system is a further big advantage. Anything which makes building your own system easier has got to be good. Another review here: https://www.innovationcooling.com/ic-graphite-notebook-testing/

 

The thermal pad in question is akin to conventional paste in terms of cooling, so not as efficient as liquid metal, so not suitable for delidding really. Would be worth a try though to see how it fared.

 

Quote

Whilst it may not give the level of cooling provided by liquid metal, I'd certainly trade 1°C for the ease of application and the ability to reuse it

 

It would be one degree warmer than IC Diamond, which is a conventional paste. Compared to liquid metal it would be about 4 to 5 degrees warmer. 

 

Quote

It'll certainly make all of the "best way to apply thermal paste" videos and articles redundant!

 

😀Ha, you bet. No m ore arguments about blob methods, x methods or spread methods.

[martin-w 3,234]

On 5/1/2018 at 11:04 AM, stans said:

I'd like to see more tests, but that does look to be easier to apply than thermal paste.  Being graphite, it is still electrically conductive, so you would still need to be careful to cut the pad to fit in a fairly precise manner.

 

Yep, it is electrically conductive. I don't see that as an issue though really to be honest. As long as the builder isn't daft enough to have the board powered up during cooler mounting there shouldn't be an issue. Once it's in place and the cooler is clamped down it's not going anywhere.

 

You don't have to cut them, they come in two sizes, you just buy the size suitable for your CPU. 

Edited May 5, 2018 by martin-w

[lownslo 592]

Curious what substrate (if any) they're using for these pads.  Almost looks like some form of foam, but that would mean a very good insulator... not a good choice.  Time will tell.  Clearly, the product does a good job conducting heat away (he dropped that pad rather quickly after hitting it with the torch 😮).  And as well, the numbers support the claims.  Product looks promising.

Greg

[martin-w 3,234]

It hit the same temp as Gelid Extreme here...

https://www.innovationcooling.com/initial-desktop-tests-ic-graphite-vs-gelid-gc-extreme/

Available in the US from May 9th. That's on Amazon.

[HiFlyer 9,344]

Well, being the curious type, I ordered this from Amazon, and surprise, surprise, it works just as advertised! 🐱

[stans 702]

13 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

Well, being the curious type, I ordered this from Amazon, and surprise, surprise, it works just as advertised! 🐱

That is good to know!

[martin-w 3,234]

16 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

Well, being the curious type, I ordered this from Amazon, and surprise, surprise, it works just as advertised! 🐱

 

Oh right, great news. What was your old paste, and what temp difference if any?

[HiFlyer 9,344]

2 hours ago, martin-w said:

Oh right, great news. What was your old paste, and what temp difference if any?

The old paste was Artic silver

As for temp difference, my main interest was to see if this stuff worked at all! (which it does)

At 4.6ghz full load on all cores (Intel burn test) max temp is now 75c (Core Temp and Realtemp)

26c at idle.

Variance across cores was a max of 5c, so in fact at max load. all cores except core1 were actually at 70c

Previous was running at between 80 and 85c

For me, the main plus will be nearly infinite reusability for all intents and purposes, and removing the guesswork in messy paste applications. (Was it even? Was it thick enough? Too thick? Etc...)

Plus the temps are quite nice, and I've always hated applying thermal goop.

 

 

[martin-w 3,234]

Quote

For me, the main plus will be nearly infinite reusability for all intents and purposes, and removing the guesswork in messy paste applications. (Was it even? Was it thick enough? Too thick? Etc...)

 

Yep, another point is that we would no longer have to be concerned about paste degrading over time. 

[stans 702]

Very happy to hear that it works and works so well.  Bye-bye tube of paste, hello pad!