CPU Thermal pad or not ?

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

nephri

Active Member
Sep 23, 2015
541
106
43
45
Paris, France
I will change my CPUs on a server that use SuperMicro Heatsinks

When they are new, a thermal pad is fixed on the heatsink.
Now, i will have to apply a paste or pad and would know your feedbacks about pads like GELID Solutions | GP-EXTREME

Is it good enough for Xeon 135W or not ?
i can go to the route with thermal paste as usual but i'm never feeling to confident when i apply them (but i never really had issue)
 

Confusion

New Member
May 15, 2019
10
6
3
Thermal paste is always a better solution, as a layer of thermal paste (considering a good heatsink pressure on it) will be always thinner than a thermal pad. Thermal pads are used in industrial hardware mostly because of their lifetime and stability, but not thermal conductivity characteristics.
 

nephri

Active Member
Sep 23, 2015
541
106
43
45
Paris, France
I saw that is not really intended to use for CPU
But the Specification of it's thermal Conductivity (12 W/mK) is pretty good.

In comparison, the Gelid GC-Extreme thermal paste that is considered as a good one is given for 8.5 W/mK

In the doubt, i will use thermal paste as usual...
 

Confusion

New Member
May 15, 2019
10
6
3
By the way, you may want to look at Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut pads. As I heard, they are designed for CPUs, provide a very decent thermal performance and all pros of traditional pads.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nephri

alex_stief

Well-Known Member
May 31, 2016
884
312
63
38
And there is the catch: thermal conductivity is given in W/mK.
So if your thermal pad is even only 0.5mm thin, it is still a much higher heat resistance than any thermal paste which spreads out to less than 0.1mm thickness.
There was a recent release of a thermal pad that had high enough thermal conductivity to be actually used on CPUs. I can't recall the name of the product rn (edit: right, that one mentioned by Confusion). Apart from that, thermal pads just can't handle the high heat flux of modern CPUs. They belong on lower power parts where some actual gap between the hot side and the cooler needs to be filled.

I will change my CPUs on a server that use SuperMicro Heatsinks
When they are new, a thermal pad is fixed on the heatsink.
I never heard of a CPU cooler being shipped with a thermal pad. Maybe you are confusing the layer of pre-applied thermal paste with a pad?
 
Last edited:

Deslok

Well-Known Member
Jul 15, 2015
1,122
125
63
34
deslok.dyndns.org
And there is the catch: thermal conductivity is given in W/mK.
So if your thermal pad is even only 0.5mm thin, it is still a much higher heat resistance than any thermal paste which spreads out to less than 0.1mm thickness.
There was a recent release of a thermal pad that had high enough thermal conductivity to be actually used on CPUs. I can't recall the name of the product rn (edit: right, that one mentioned by Confusion). Apart from that, thermal pads just can't handle the high heat flux of modern CPUs. They belong on lower power parts where some actual gap between the hot side and the cooler needs to be filled.


I never heard of a CPU cooler being shipped with a thermal pad. Maybe you are confusing the layer of pre-applied thermal paste with a pad?
Linus reviewed that thermal pad
it was from IC diamond and it worked fairly well. That said I personally prefer the thermal Grizzly Kryonaut if grease is an option it's rated for 12.5 W/mk if you have a high pressure mounting(xeon's and some aftermarket coolers) it's as good as you can possibly get before jumping to liquid metal

This is a good read if you're curious Thermal Paste Round-up: 85 Products Tested