System Cooling

Given that our motherboard is passively cooled, we'd also like to keep the rest of our system as quiet as possible. For years, we've stuck with the Zalman CNPS-7000-AlCu and the B-revision successor. We've also found the Silverstone Nitrogon NT02 to be an excellent choice for tight spaces, low-noise performance, and easier cleaning. This time, we'll be going with an 18 dB Zalman CNPS-9500AT copper cooler.

This one of the largest coolers on the market, and it’ll looks even sillier on a micro-ATX motherboard.

Zalman CNPS-9500 AT
$60

Running Total: $535

Thermal Paste

In the last few months, there has been renewed interest in thermal interface material. With today's high-performance aftermarket heatsinks, most people are putting on too much thermal grease; a translucent haze of Arctic Silver 5 is sufficient.

To address the problem of thermal paste being too thick, two new thermal grease materials have been introduced, offering superior ease of installation: Cooler Master's NanoFusion and Zalman's ZM-STG1. NanoFusion is a premium thermal grease that offers superior performance to Arctic Silver Ceramique. Since it's less dense than Arctic Silver 5, it's easier to spread over the CPU core. Zalman's ZM-STG1 is liquid thermal interface that is brushed onto the surface of the CPU and the heatsink. This is probably the easiest premium thermal interface to apply. Even though the STG1 doesn't offer the same raw cooling performance as NanoFusion or Arctic Silver 5, real-world performance is very positive since it's so easy to apply an appropriately thin layer.

Both of these compounds are good alternatives to Arctic Silver 5, however a properly applied layer of Arctic Silver 5 offers similar performance to NanoFusion and ZM-STG1 when using standard air-cooled heatsinks. First-time system builders may want to consider NanoFusion or ZM-STG1 though.

We'll also need more time to determine how NanoFusion and ZM-STG1 hold up over time. One of the concerns about Zalman’s thermal paste is that it has a high alcohol content. There is some concern that the STG1 has excellent initial qualities, but may need re-application at a later date or see poorer results over time. We’ll be keeping track of our temperatures both after initial application and then 30 days later, and then swap it out for Arctic Silver 5 and repeat the experiments.

Anything better than Arctic Silver 5?

One new product that has rapidly generated buzz in the extreme cooling community is CoolLaboratory's Liquid Pro. This is a gallium-alloy (presumably galistan) that's liquid at room temperatures and has properties similar to mercury (minus the toxicity). The compound is a literally a pure liquid metal alloy. As a thermal interface, this compound is exceptional with 4 to 5 degree improvements over Arctic Silver being very common. The main reason this compound hasn't gained widespread acceptance is that it's difficult to work with, and the material will oxidize aluminum, meaning that only pure copper coolers can be used. Due to the difficulty of the install, we're only recommending Liquid Pro to experienced system builders running a water-cooled rig. The improvement over Arctic Silver 5 on conventional air cooling isn't substantial enough to warrant changing from Arctic Silver 5.

Arctic Silver 5 – 3.5g
$6

Zalman ZM-STG1 Thermal Compound
$10

Running Total: $551