INTRODUCTION

    Both CPU and GPU temperatures depend on many factors including ambient temperatures, case airflow levels, type of cooler and yes, they even depend on which thermal conductive material you end up using (the IHS - Integrated Heat Spreader - also matters but lapping or delidding it is not something most people would do). Yes, the thermal paste may not be as important as the CPU/GPU cooler or even ambient temperatures and airflow levels (in certain cases) but you'd be surprised as to what differences you can expect in terms of cooling efficiency between average and top-end models. THERMAL HERO is a new player in the market and since recently they sent over their entire thermal paste lineup (NEO, ULTRA, QUANTUM and METALLIQ) I decided to test them out and see which is the best of the bunch.

    THERMAL HERO is an international brand specializing in the development of high quality thermal paste and cooling solutions. Leveraging over 25 years of experience, our expert team strives to enhance electronic device performance and reliability. Emphasizing close collaboration, we customize solutions for unique project needs. Our global partner network, modern logistics ensure worldwide product availability.

    Back in the day when we were looking to get a thermal paste, we considered 3 compound specifications, thermal conductivity, density and viscosity. Thermal conductivity is measured in W/mK (Watt per meter Kelvin - higher is better), density is measured in g/cm³ (grams per cubic centimeter - number depends on the compound) and viscosity is measured in PAS (pascal seconds - again this depends on the compound). Today however things have vastly improved and so even by just looking at thermal conductivity there's a good chance you can see which thermal paste is the best (not always the case however). Now as some of you may know there are several thermal compound types out there and so aside the typical ones (low to high end) which are a combination of two materials (bonding and filler) and use acrylates, epoxies and silicones for bonding (urethane too) and aluminum, silver, ceramic or even diamonds as filler (high thermal conductivity) there are also liquid metal compounds available (ultra-high end) made of rhodium, gallium, silver, indium and many other alloys. A rather new player in the market called THERMAL HERO makes all of the above and so their current models are the NEO (12W/mK), ULTRA (13W/mK), QUANTUM (17W/mK) and METTALIQ (80W/mK) with the last one being as expected a liquid metal compound and yes, I've had them all in the lab for roughly 3 weeks now.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE THERMAL COMPOUNDS

THERMAL HERO uses black and red plastic bags to ship their thermal compounds the front of which is taken by their logo, product picture and the main product features.

The features and specifications of the thermal compounds are printed at the rear of each package.

In the above picture you can see both that THERMAL HERO offers their thermal compounds in different sizes and also what is bundled in each package.

The very large sizes (50g cartridges) come with a very convenient gun used to apply it onto the CPU.

Been using Noctua's NT-H2 thermal paste for years now with my reviews so this is also what I'll be comparing all of the above with.

For this review and perhaps others too (as long as I'll be keeping this system in the lab) I'll be using the AMD Ryzen 7900X, ASRock X670E Taichi & EK AIO Elite Aurum 360 D-RGB test system.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

    Testing thermal pastes is something I haven't done in ages but since both readers and manufacturers asked, I will be using AID64 stress test and Cinebench R23 for a total of 20 minutes each to test each thermal paste under load (10 minute cool-down intervals). Needless to say, each time I applied a new thermal paste I use the system for at least 12 hours prior to starting tests (ambient temperature is set at 23-24 degrees Celsius).

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

    THERMAL HERO released many thermal compounds right from the get-go and well, I don’t think I remember anyone else doing so in the past (they also released thermal pads which I didn’t test this time over). This means that they’ve essentially covered every single consumer out there from casual to gamers and even enthusiasts so that’s a good thing. That being said I was honestly expecting more, not from all their lines but at least their QUANTUM one and well, I didn’t really get that. It’s very easy to see how well the NT-H2 by Noctua does in comparison and well, that also is something I didn’t expect (yes Noctua leads the air cooling PC industry but their NT-H2 is almost 5 years in the market). The METALLIQ did deliver (again, I was expecting slightly more and well, perhaps it does in far more demanding scenarios with far higher TDPs) but the fact that it’s a lot harder to apply (your system needs to be placed horizontally since this is liquid metal) at least for me makes it less appealing compared to the NT-H2. For a first time however I do sincerely think that THERMAL HERO is on the right path.

    Currently the THERMAL HERO NEO (4g), ULTRA (4g), QUANTUM (4g) & METALLIQ (5g) thermal compounds retail for USD10/25.24/17.10/30.96 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 10.32/13.44/25.94/36.16 Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). As with most top products the METALLIQ liquid metal compound which is also the clear winner of this review/comparison costs more than the rest and well, it should be well worth it for most people. For people who are looking for the easiest application the QUANTUM comes next but with compounds like the NT-H2 by Noctua retailing for less I just don’t see the reason as to why someone would go with that instead. At the end of the day every single thermal paste in this review/comparison has its own target audience but only the METALLIQ stands out and since it more or less does deliver the performance I was hoping for it deserves the Golden Award.

PROS

- Top Performance (METALLIQ)
- Available Models (NEO/ULTRA/QUANTUM/METALLIQ)
- Available Capacities (1/2/4/5/10/25/50g)
- Paste Gun (Extra/50g)
- Bundle

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Performance Could Be Better (NEO/ULTRA/QUANTUM)