Review Sample Provided by: Noctua
Review by: Garfi3ld
Pictures by: Garfi3ld
Specifications
Volume 1.4ml (for at least 15 applications)
Specific Gravity 2,49 g/cm³
Color grey
Recommended storage time (before use) up to 2 years
Recommended usage time (on the CPU) up to 3 years
Peak operating temperature -50°C to +110°C
Recommended operating temperature -40°C to +90°C
Packaging
The HT-H1 Thermal Paste came in standard blister pack with a cardboard backing. With only one staple holding it together it was easy to open up. This also makes it easy to put back together if you need to. The front of the packaging has the standard Noctua colors, blue and brown. Keeping it simple there isn't much on the front. A small list of features and a Noctua Logo for the most part. On the back they have all of the Specs and instructions on the left side. On the right side they have a description in 7 languages. They also have the main features listed again, the main one that gets my attention is that HT-H1 is Not Conductive. I know I’ve talked about it before, but I cant stress how important this can be.
Performance
In order to put this to the test we put it up against just about everything we have. The only reason you don't see Arctic Silver 5 on the list is the curing time. But we put AC5 against the TX-2 in the past with the TX-2 having better results. Here is the list of Thermal Pastes in the test.
Tuniq TX-2
Thermalright Chill Factor
Stock paste
Gelid Solutions GC1
Noctua HT-H1
In order to get fair results we ran all tests with a room temp of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Idle temps were taken after 10 minutes of idling. Load temps were the highest read temp while running prime95 on both cores. In order to get temp readings we used RealTemp.
The Test Rig
Intel Core Duo 2 6300 @1.82ghz 92mm Masscool heatsink Intel DG965WH Motherboard 2gigs of G-skill ramEvga 7800gt video card
After the surprising results of our last review I wondered if anyone would be able to keep up. But I did have high hopes from Noctua. In the end the Noctua matched the Gelid Solutions thermal paste in testing. Considering those numbers are beating out Tuniq’s TX-2 and ThermalRights Chill Factor. Both are very big names in the cooling industry.
Overall
The Noctua held its own against some of the best thermal pastes. Not bad from our friends in Austria. The consistency of the paste was thicker than the others, reminding me of the Arctic Silver. This can be a good thing if you’re worried about it running off of your cpu, or a bad thing if you can’t twist the heatsink much to spread it out per the instructions. I would recommend this paste to anyone who wants reliable performance from a name they can trust. I will point out that at $8.99 it is a few more dollars than the GC1, and that is for less paste than the GC1. But when it comes to Noctua we never expect low prices (even though they would be nice) because you are also paying for a name you can trust.