Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste

 

For the testing phase of this review I will be assessing the heat transfer properties of each thermal grease by applying it in the system below:

 

 

 

 

Each thermal grease specimen will be applied in 3 seperate instances and the hardware thoroughly cleaned between application with ArctiClean. Idle and load temperatures of the processor will be measured using Core Temp 0.98.1. Load temperatures will be simulated by running 2 x instances of SP2004 ORTHOS Edition. Idle temperatures were recorded only after they had settled and load temperatures were recorded after 20 mins of SP2004. An average was taken of the three runs per  thermal grease application. Ambient temperatures at the time of testing was between 23.4 and 23.6 degrees Celcius.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the results above we can see that Noctua’s NT-H1 provides consistently better heat transfer at idle and load temperatures than AS5. Sure AS5 requires around 200 hours to cure properly and temperatures will drop steadily during that time, but NH-1 manages to do it straight out of the syringe. I’m sure that Noctua’s NT-H1 will see some temperature reduction given a longer curing time also. The Thermalright grease was the standout performer though during the testing, and subsequently, deserves some credit.