PC builders know the importance of the thermal paste. It is crucial for cooling your system. The thermal paste is a compound which is applied to the heatsink or processor to reduce the temperature of your processor. It incredibly increases the performance of your heatsink. A thermal paste that helps lower the temperature of your CPU/GPU will improve its efficiency. These paste are used to fill the gaps between your installed heatsink on the CPU/GPU.
Thermal paste or thermal grease are used to eliminate the air gaps or spaces from the interface area in order to maximize heat transfer. It is also called a thermal insulator. Let’s discuss what the thermal paste consists of
Types / Composition of Thermal Paste
Thermal paste consists of a polymerizable liquid matrix or suspension liquid. These materials are epoxies, silicones, urethanes, and acrylates. The fillers in the thermal paste are made of aluminum oxide, boron nitride, zinc oxide, and aluminum nitride. The filler compound or material with a high thermal conductivity that helps in heat transfer. Higher the thermal conductivity of a thermal paste, the better is its performance. The metals are the top in terms of thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity which is a bit downside of the metal-based thermal compound. Let’s see different types of thermal paste/thermal grease
Silicone-based Thermal Paste: This thermal compound uses a metal oxide or ceramic powder which is suspended in silicone compound. It is cheaper and has good performance than the metal and carbon-based thermal compounds. The filler which is used in this thermal paste is generally aluminum oxide, zinc oxide, boron nitride, and silicon dioxide. These thermal compounds have nonconductive nature. The thermal conductivity of these heatsink compound is good but pure silicon thermal compound has poor thermal paste properties so it’s better to avoid it.
Metal-Based Thermal Paste: Metal-based thermal compound has greater performance than other thermal compounds. The filler used in these heatsink compounds have higher thermal conductivity. The most commonly used metal is silver and sometimes aluminum. These thermal paste are quite expensive than others because they use gallium. The metal-based thermal paste has some disadvantage also i.e., they are electrically conductive which can result in a short circuit or damage your components.
