After a quick search on sites like RS, there are some very good thermal grease products that cost less than most performs pc products (or at least for their volume) and seem to have a better thermal conductivity properties. Around 10W/mK compared to around 8 (according to an ekwb source. But I can't link as am posting from mobile). What I'm wondering, has anyone tried these professional products. Or see any catch I'm missing? Ed
It could be that the ones you're looking at are (while thermally very good) electrically conductive, making them less ideal if you're messy or new to PC building.
It could also be that the outliers are manufactured by a firm in Shenzen that isn't subject to strict truth in advertising regulations.
I'll let you, and your googling, decide for yourselves.
RS is generally a very reliable source for materials. They rarely stock anything they consider sub standard and most of their goods can be trusted. I'm yet to find any instances where this isn't the case. However your point on conductivity may be true.
A bit off topic, but I heard the Intel single use bags were better quality than the white grease you can get for cheap from china. I went to my local electronics shop and asked if they had any spares and they handed me a handful for free.
Has even 80 W/mK but introduces only 7% better result than average of tested pastes/compounds. So I expect 1°C difference at most between 8 and 10 W/mK. And if someones hands would shake during application, the 10 W/ paste might perform even worse
It is very interesting to see the Tom's hardware graphs. A huge difference in thermal conductivity and yet obit a small change in temperature. Which implies that it is not the limiting factor. Either that or the better paste is still am order of magnitude almost from being significant. Very interesting.
It is possible that the limiting factor is the TIM instead, as the tests were done on a 7700k.
