Thermal compounds might always be compared and debated over, but the simple fact remains: PC system building needs thermal compounds to effectively dissipate thermal loads. Without them, our beloved gaming and content-producing machines would struggle to keep components cool during heated frag sessions, heavy workstation computations, or just simply browsing the web.

Are you looking for the best thermal paste to use on your CPU or GPU, but aren’t sure which one to go for? If that’s why you’re here, you’re in for a treat because we’ve personally tested over 20 of the most popular pastes used by both enthusiasts and builders to come up with our top 5 best thermal pastes. For a compound that costs less than half as much as leading competitors , Phobya's Liquid Metal Compound LM offers impressive performance, often besting the the CoolLaboratory Liquid Pro or Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut in our tests. Enermax ETS-T50 Axe aRGB /basic HP HSF /errr.../oh! liqui..wait, no:sizable vapor chamber/a nice one My System: i7-13700KF // Corsair iCUE H150i Elite Capellix // MSI MPG Z690 Edge Wifi // 32GB DDR5 G. SKILL RIPJAWS S5 6000 CL32 // ASUS RTX 3080 TUF OC // Corsair 5000D Airflow // Corsair SP120 RGB Pro x7 // Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 850w //1TB ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro/1TB Teamgroup MP33/2TB Seagate 7200RPM Hard Drive // Displays: LG Ultragear 32GP83B x2 // Royal Kludge RK100 // Logitech G203 Lightsync // Corsair Void Pro RGBLogi Z333/SB Audigy RX/HDMI/HDMI/Dolby Atmos/KZ x HBB PR2/Edifier STAX Spirit S3 & SamsungxAKG beans

In contrast, traditional thermal paste compounds are relatively simple for every experience level. Most, but not all, traditional pastes are electrically non-conductive.We tested each thermal paste with a low-tension air cooler mount, high-tension air cooler mount, and a high-tension AIO liquid cooler mount. Each application was given a 1-hour burn-in using Prime95 with ten load and cooling cycles over the course of the hour; six minutes each with a ten-second cool-down between. Each testing load session was then executed for a one-hour load period, again using Prime95. Even though a dizzying array of different thermal pastes is available — some blends have been around for over a decade — new formulations still come to market at a surprising pace. Long-time PC cooler maker NZXT recently entered the market with its first paste, the not-very-excitingly named NZXT High-Performance Thermal Paste. Cooler Master introduced a new purple CryoFuze, and Alphacool unveiled its Apex thermal paste. Cooling mainstay Corsair also has a new XTM70 blend that will be heading to our test bench soon, and Gelid has recently released its GC-4 Thermal Paste, showing that the TIM market is still thriving.