Which is the Best Thermal Paste? - 2015 (Update) 5

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UPDATE FOR 2017 – BEST THERMAL PASTE FOR 2017 – CLICK ME

Introduction

The debate on which the best thermal paste to use when cooling your CPU has raged on for many years; everyone has their own personal preference and allegiance, but obviously 2015 is a new year and there have been quite a few advances in the technology over the last couple of years.  Some manufacturers are claiming they are the best choice and others let their reputation do the talking, but when it is all said and done, which is the best thermal paste so far in 2015 for cooling performance?

We have a huge array of thermal pastes to go through and the testing process has been long, long and did I mention pretty long?  From new pastes on the market to the old guard everyone is familiar with, each paste has had the exact same method of testing, same curing time, same testing time and of course, we have tried to keep the exact same ambient temperature to give the most comprehensive and consistent results; take into consideration a 1-2c error of margin when comparing our results etc.

So what thermal pastes do we have on test?  Well, we figured the easiest thing to do would be to list them below so you can see the huge variety we have on test for you today! – To make it easier to distinguish each pastes main focus, some are designed for extreme cooling, some for water cooling, some are even just designed for regular use, but we all know thermal pastes all serve one purpose; to keep the CPU/GPU it is applied to super, super cool.  Click each thermal paste below to purchase or learn more about the particular paste on test!

Akasa Pro-Grade 460

Arctic Ceramique 2

Arctic MX2

be quiet! DC1

Coollaboratory Liquid Copper

Coollaboratory Liquid Pro

Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra

Cooler Master Generic

EKWB Ectotherm

Gelid GC Extreme

Generic

IC Diamond 7 Carat

JunPus D9000

JunPus DX1

Noctua NT-H1

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut

Thermalright CF III

Xigmatek PTI

XSPC K2

19 thermal pastes, some well-known, others not so known via consumers. The main question though, which yields the best performances on our test system today and which of course sucks; I’m sure none of them suck but, of course, someone has to finish last and no-one likes that!

Thermal paste 3

So we have seen the thermal pastes which will do battle, now it’s time to see what the testing platform and methodology is…

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12 COMMENTS

  1. What about articooling MX4? It would be nice to see how it performs. For legacy purposes i would also like to see ArticSilver 5 in the test.

    Regards from PT.

  2. You missed two very good ones Gav! Lol :p

    Test Phanteks TH-NDC and Prolimatech PK-3. GC-Extreme will still win but those two are the next best. The Phanteks one I don’t think that you can buy on it’s own as it comes with their coolers. I’ve got a spare tube if you want it.

    -RawZ

  3. Agree with the rest, where is Artic Silver 5? Ive been using it from some time, how is possible that one of the most used and highest rated brands is not in this review?

    • It is awaiting to be tested this week; you have to bare in mind that I paid retail price for every thermal paste on test bar a couple of them (companies were kind), so I didn’t have the budget to buy “every” brand. Rest assured it will be added over the next 7-10 days etc!

    • If you were to send us a sample or the company in question, we would give it a test in 2016’s upcoming round-up this summer 🙂

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