Things around here are going to get a bit bumpy, since our wedding is now only 24 days away (eek!) Still, I thought I would drop in and inform you folks of an awesome thermal compound I’ve recently discovered.
Disclaimer: I was not paid or asked to review this product in any way. This article is merely a representation of my own personal experiences, and the product was purchased with my own money.
One other quick note, before we start: I unfortunately had no plans to write this article when I first came across this stuff, so I don’t have any pictures of it being applied, nor do I have any “before/after” shots with speedfan. Sorry :/
I recently dropped an Athlon II X4 635 in my system, and I decided to give the stock cooler a try. After being (not surprisingly) less than impressed with it, I decided to reuse the Cooler Master TX2 I was using previously on my Athlon X2 5400+. I was looking at putting some Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound on there, and like everyone else I knew I had multiple tubes of the stuff…but I couldn’t find any of them. I figured I would just pick some up at our local Microcenter, since I needed to go there anyway to get more paper for our printer (a Brother HL-2170W, possibly the best printer I have ever owned.) I was in the “PC Mods” section, looking at the different compounds they had, when a sales associate suggested that I try IC Diamond 7. It was no more expensive than the others, so I bought a small tube of it (as well as a tube of Arctic Silver 5, just in case.)
Prior to applying this stuff, I did a little research online…and apparently almost everyone in the modding scene but me has heard of it. According to Innovation Cooling’s website, rather than using silver like a lot of compounds, it uses synthetic diamond dust. As a result, (they claim) that it has a much higher thermal conductivity than your “normal” compounds. I was still a bit skeptical, given the infomercial-styled website, but I decided to give it a go and followed the instructions on their site.
They may have an overly wordy website, and their claims may seem to be a bit out there…but this stuff actually does work really, really well! I’m idling at only 8-10 degrees centigrade above ambient room temperature, and my temps only go up about 11 degrees centigrade while under a full load. Now, I don’t know how much of that is due to having a fresh application of thermal compound, how much is due to the low TDP of the Athlon II X4, and how much of that is due to IC’s product being superior to other products…but either way, those are some mind-boggling numbers considering the TX2 is, compared to what else is on the market, a wimpy heatsink.
A couple of things to keep in mind: this stuff is much thicker than Arctic Silver 5 (or any other of the standard thermal compounds out there, like Arctic Silver MX-3, Tuniq TX-2, etc.) I very highly recommend holding the tube under hot running water for a minute or two prior to trying to use it. This will make the application much easier. Also, if you normally spread out your thermal compound over most of the processor, do not do that with this stuff. It expands very easily once there is pressure from the heatsink, so a 4.5-5mm ball of the stuff in the center of your CPU is plenty. It will spread out evenly on its own, with little intervention from you required. Lastly, unlike Arctic Silver 5, IC Diamond reaches peak performance within two hours or so, which means you don’t have to wait a week or two of constant stress testing to get a good idea of your temps.
It’s only been (as of this writing) 36 hours or so since I installed this stuff, so time will tell how well it holds up (not to mention how easy it is to remove down the road.) Still, my preliminary experience with it is extremely positive, and the good news is that IC Diamond 7 costs as much (if not slightly less) than Arctic Silver 5. All in all, I highly recommend you pick it up if you are in need of some thermal compound.
Time to replace the crap that came on my Southbridge heatsink!
