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Cooler Master NanoFusion


Date
: 01/2/06 – 06:05:47 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Cooler Master

Price:
$8.99 (Newegg)

A well-known name around the enthusiast market is Cooler Master. Known to produce everything from computer cases to accessories, the ten-year-old company specializes in thermal solutions. These include heatsinks, case fans, VGA cooling solutions, RAM and chipset cooling products, and fan and temperature monitors. The company prides itself on its business philosophy of "Innovation, Speed, and Customer Satisfaction". To give an example of this, Cooler Master was one of the first companies to design and market BTX form-factor cases such as the Centurion, CM Media, and the highly praised CM Stacker. Recently, in an attempt to keep up its namesake of being the master of cooling, the company has also started making, apart from the aforesaid, thermal interface materials (also called thermal grease, thermal compound, or thermal paste).

Cooler Master has supplied us with its NanoFusion, a newcomer to the thermal interface material market. Can this novice thermal compound compete against true and tested products such as Arctic Silver 5, which is greatly revered by many and even worshipped by some in the overclocking community, or is it just a flop? We will uncover the answers in this review as you read on…

Page 2 : Package and Contents

Cooler Master sent the NanoFusion envelope-package via USPS from Ontario, California.

The actual package of the thermal compound is the dreaded clam-shell, also known as a blister pack. These blister packs are a pain to open but they allow the product to be displayed more evidently than if a box were to be used.

The package highlights all the features at a glance; for example, the name of the product is clearly displayed along with the subtitle "Supreme Thermal Compound". Also, the bottom of the package demonstrates Cooler Master's innovation and that is NanoFusion has the world's smallest bond line thickness. Bond line thickness is a combination of the thickness of a layer of paste and the size of the particles comprising it.

The backside of the package is more verbose, divulging another feature listing and a specifications table. Here is a reprint of the features section:

The first item in the list is pretty generic. After all, isn't lowering CPU temperature the purpose of all thermal compounds? The second is interesting as most metal-based thermal compounds are slightly electrically conductive or capacitive and have the potential to short out pins and traces if the compound bridges them; thankfully, users no longer have to worry about that with NanoFusion. The third item in the list refers to RoHS compliance; RoHS, which stands for Restriction of Hazardous Substances, is a directive proposed in 2003 by the European Union to restrict the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. Among the restricted materials are lead, mercury, cadmium, and chromium.

As you can probably tell, the English used in the packaging is choppy at times but consumers don't buy thermal compound based on grammatical appeal!

Next, there is a specifications table with a listing of different numbers. We will go into detail about these in the next section.

Below the features and specification tables are the UPC barcodes and a warning message, reproduced below:

In any case, after a small skirmish with the blister pack, the contents are unraveled. They consist of an application guide, which is printed on the inside of the paper which served as the title and specifications sheet, a set of two stickers of different sizes, an applicator-card, and the syringe of thermal compound itself.

Next, we will continue to install the thermal compound but first let us take a more detailed look at the specifications listed in the table.

Page 3 : Specifications

Here is a specifications table, taken from Cooler Master's website, which is identical to the one present on the back of the package:

For comparison purposes, I looked for similar specifications for Arctic Silver 5, one of the most famous and mainly used thermal compounds in the enthusiast community:

Note that I had to do several conversions to get the quantities to be in the same units as those given by Cooler Master for NanoFusion and the values are by no means absolute.

From the values for specific gravity, the relative density of a substance, it seems that NanoFusion is less thick than Arctic Silver 5 and may be easier to apply. Also, we can see that Arctic Silver 5 has a higher thermal conductivity and lower thermal resistance, putting it ahead of the NanoFusion. However, NanoFusion has a smaller bond line thickness.

Here is a small graphic, courtesy of Cooler Master, to visually demonstrate the effect of bond line thickness, thinner is better when it comes to heat conductivity:

Enough of the theoretical statistics; let us see what NanoFusion can really do!

Page 4 : Installation

The installation setup consists of the following:

The installation instructions are all portrayed in the included application guide (a makeshift manual).

I will go through application for the CPU only as the process is similar for the chipset and video card core.

As always, the first step in installing a new thermal compound is removing the old one. Therefore, the removal of the heatsink is a must; it is advisable to remove the motherboard from the case before doing this to minimize damage, a removable motherboard tray would be a blessing here. After removing the heatsink, clean off the old compound from both the heatsink and the CPU's integrated heat spreader (IHS) using high-purity alcohol or any kind of specialized cleaning compound made especially for this purpose; do not use corrosive household cleaners and the like.

Refer to Jody's guide for more detailed instructions regarding this procedure, available in the forums via this URL.

Next, as per the instructions, the appropriate template sticker, there are two different sizes so choose the one that corresponds to the size of your CPU, was placed on the heatsink so that the square opening aligns with the center where the CPU would make contact. Then, a copious amount of NanoFusion was applied to one side of the square. After that, I used the included applicator-card to slide across the template sticker to fill in the square evenly with NanoFusion.

The sliding part proved to be quite tricky because of the stickiness of the NanoFusion; it was hard to cover the whole square as some thermal compound would stick to the card and peel off the heatsink and so on. However, after about 20 minutes of trial and error, I was able to coat the square with an even layer.

Peeling off the template sticker, I was pleasantly surprised to see a patch of thermal compound reminiscent of the preapplied 'goop' found on certain heatsinks.

As you can tell, this whole method is quite different from the application method recommended by Arctic Silver and other companies wherein the compound is applied straight to the CPU and then the heatsink is placed on it to squeeze out the compound. However, I am not sure which method is more preferable as with this method, you can be sure about the amount of thermal compound to use while using Arctic Silver's method, you are always afraid whether you used too much or too little. The tradeoff is that this method requires a lot of time and patience and is also much messier.

The next step is to install the heatsink back onto the processor. Place the heatsink down correctly, lining up the clips, and secure it. Be sure to connect the fan to the appropriate header and that's it!

It's time to find out whether NanoFusion is up to the test against the rest of the competition.

Page 5 : Testing and Performance

The test setup consists of the following:

NanoFusion has been installed on the aforementioned items and its performance will be gauged against three other thermal compounds: Titan Nano Silver, Evercool STC-01, and Arctic Silver 5) The image below shows the consistency of each; NanoFusion is slightly thick, Evercool STC-01 is like clay, Arctic Silver 5 is slightly runny, and Titan Nano Silver is also runny though a bit thicker than Arctic Silver 5.

The other items in the setup:

Before doing anything, I installed each thermal compound one at a time. For example, first I used NanoFusion on all the components. I left the computer on for 24 hours running a 3DMark05 loop. Then I left it off for 12 hours to allow the thermal compound to cure. Then, I turned the computer on and left it on for 30 minutes before measuring the idle temperatures using Asus PC Probe 2. In both cases, the maximum ambient (case) temperature was measured using the Aspire X-Dreamer II case's built-in thermal probe.

From the idle temperature chart, we can see that the NanoFusion can hold its own against Arctic Silver 5. It easily surpasses the Titan Nano Silver and the Evercool STC-01 and is beaten by Arctic Silver 5 in only the chipset temperature measurement.

Before jumping to conclusions, let's review the load temperatures. These were measured via Asus PC Probe 2 after the idle measurement phase while running the entire PCMark05 test suite. The maximum temperatures during the run were recorded and charted.

This time, the NanoFusion still manages to compete with Arctic Silver but is beaten by a 1° difference in every case. The Titan Nano Silver and Evercool STC-01 bring up the rear.

After the temperature measurement tests, I proceeded to check whether the different compounds aided in overclockability of the CPU and GPU. The results were insignificant. For example, I could not push my CPU past 288×9 (2592MHz, 1.550V) no matter what. Also, the GPU maxed out at 575MHz core and 1140MHz memory. CPU stability was tested with Prime95 (6 hours) and GPU stability with ATI Tool's artifact scanner.

Now, we can draw conclusions!

Page 6 : Conclusion

Cooler Master has indeed come up with a thermal compound revolution. NanoFusion truly deserves its title of "Supreme Thermal Compound" just for being able to compete with the legendary Arctic Silver 5. By creating this innovative newcomer, Cooler Master has done more than extending their product line; they have created some competition.

As availability increases, NanoFusion may serve as a cheaper alternative for Arctic Silver 5. It is capable of performing almost on par with it and the only thing that deters it from overtaking the market right now is its availability. Sure, installation and application was a little tricky with the applicator-card and template sticker, but it is worth it in my opinion. Those on a budget will also approve of its value; the NanoFusion tube is almost two times bigger than a syringe of other compounds.

In all, NanoFusion may represent the golden middle for those demanding a good thermal interface material without burning a hole in their wallet or settling for generic 'goop'.

Advantages:

• Great performance (competent with Arctic Silver 5)
• Good value (big syringe)
• Inexpensive

  Disadvantages:

• Difficult application method
• Not readily available in North America

  Overclockers Online would like to thank Cooler Master USA for providing this review sample of NanoFusion.