**The Mystery of Silicon-Based Thermal Paste**

For those who are unsure about what silicon is and its purpose when it comes to CPUs and coolers, I'll explain it briefly. Silicon is actually a thermally insulating material, not a thermally conductive one. This means that if you use a substance that is thermally insulating, the heat won't be able to move from the CPU to the cooler, which can lead to overheating and potentially even fires.

According to online sources, many entry-level thermal pastes are actually based on silicon. However, higher-end thermal pastes specifically advertise not using silicon as a base because it's associated with lower-quality products. I've decided to test this silicon-based thermal paste against its carbon-based competitor, Arctic MX4, which has become my reference thermal paste over the last few months.

**Testing the Silicon-Based Thermal Paste**

I'll be using an Intel i5 7600K overclocked to 4.5 GHz, with a Reven E12 cooler that's essentially a Cooler Master Hyper 212 with an RGB fan on it. I'll run all fans in the system at their maximum RPM for the entire test period of 15 minutes, and then take the average temperature using HWiNFO 64 and the temperature at the end of the test.

When applying the thermal paste, it's relatively easy to use MX4 - you just squirt out the amount you want. However, with this silicon-based thermal paste, it's much more liquid than MX4, which means a huge amount squirts onto the CPU, making it difficult to control the flow. I've tried to wipe some of it away to get a comparable application, but keep in mind that there may actually be more silicon thermal paste on the CPU than MX4.

**The Results**

Despite my efforts to apply the thermal paste evenly, the results are clear - this silicon-based thermal paste performed significantly worse than MX4. In fact, for a thermal paste to make a three- to four-degree difference in temperatures is fairly substantial, and this product didn't even come close.

So, why are people sending this thermal paste to their friends? Honestly, it's hard to see a value argument here - at nine dollars, you get 20 grams of silicon-based thermal paste, while Arctic MX4 costs $10 for only four grams. However, the actual amount you're paying for is pretty much the same, and how often do consumers need to reapply thermal paste regularly enough to justify the higher volume?

**The Conclusion**

I have no more information about why people are buying this thermal paste than I did before starting this project. Is there some kind of running joke between Canadians where they send each other terrible thermal paste? Why is this happening? Unfortunately, I don't have any answers.

With that, I'll wrap up this video. If you like this video, please like and subscribe to the channel for more content like this one. Share it with your friends if they're sending thermal paste to each other, and... well, that's all for now until the next video!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ennow according to Amazon Canada this is the most gifted thermal paste on their website and by gifted I don't mean that it has superpowers I mean it's the thermal paste that people send most of to their friends which honestly raises a couple of questions the first one is who sends their friends thermal paste via Amazon and the second one is why is it silicon based now maybe I was stupid for thinking this but I was actually under the impression that silicon is a thermally insulating material as opposed to thermally conductive now for those of you that on a hundred percent sure what it Tim is and what it's supposed to do when you have a CPU and you want amount of cooler to it you want to use a substance in between that is thermally very conductive so that the heat can easily move from the CPU to the cooler to be dispersed into the air so that means that if you use a substance that is very thermally insulating the heat won't be able to move from the CPU to the cooler and you're at risk of causing fires now according to the Internet many entry level thermal pastes are actually based on silicon but when you look at higher and thermal pastes some of them actually specifically advertise not using silicon as a base because it seems to be associated with entry-level thermal pastes now it's obviously my job to test to this thermal paste and see how it performs against all of its carbon-based brethren now for the tests today I'm going to be using Arctic mx4 as the competitor to this because it's kind of become my reference thermal paste over the last couple of months now for the tests I'm going to be using an Intel i5 7600 k overclocked to 4.5 gigahertz the cooler is going to be a reven e 12 which is pretty much just a cooler master hyper 212 with an RGB fan on it now when running these tests I said all of the fans in the system to run at their maximum rpm for the entire time regardless of temperature and I ran Ida 64 for 15 minutes and then took the average temperature over that time with hardware info 64 and then the temperature at the time of the end of the test and when it comes to the actual thermal paste application it's really easy to use mx4 you kind of just squirt the amount out that you want and that's what you get but with this silicon thermal paste it's much more liquid than the carbon-based mx4 which means just a huge amount of it squirts onto the cpu and it's quite difficult to control the flow so do keep in mind when looking at these tests that there may actually be a bit more of the silicon thermal paste on the CPU then there was mx4 but I tried to wipe some of it away so that I get a kind of more comparable thermal paste application well though we've seen many tests by many tech youtubers which show that the amount of thermal paste doesn't really matter when it gets to a certain point and as you can see with these temperatures this silicon based thermal paste actually performed quite a bit worse than the mx4 in fact for a thermal paste to make a three to four degree difference in temperatures is fairly substantial why are people in Canada sending this thermal paste to their friends I mean you could make a value argument because for nine dollars you get 20 grams of this whereas 10 dollars gets you four grams of Arctic mx4 but honestly for a consumer the value perspective doesn't really make any sense because the actual amount you're paying for it is pretty much the same and how much thermal paste do you really need as a consumer I've been using that tube of mx4 for the last four months and I've gotten about 20 applications out of it and I'm not even halfway through the tube so why would a consumer want more thermal paste which honestly they wouldn't be reapplying regularly enough to justify is the higher volume so with all of the testing out of the way I have no more information about why people are buying this than I did before I started is there some kind of running joke between Canadians where they send each other terrible thermal paste why is this happening anyway with that it brings me to the end of this video if you like this video do like and subscribe to the channel for more videos like this one share it with your friends if they're sending with thermal paste to each other and yeah with that I think it brings me to the end of this video until the next video byenow according to Amazon Canada this is the most gifted thermal paste on their website and by gifted I don't mean that it has superpowers I mean it's the thermal paste that people send most of to their friends which honestly raises a couple of questions the first one is who sends their friends thermal paste via Amazon and the second one is why is it silicon based now maybe I was stupid for thinking this but I was actually under the impression that silicon is a thermally insulating material as opposed to thermally conductive now for those of you that on a hundred percent sure what it Tim is and what it's supposed to do when you have a CPU and you want amount of cooler to it you want to use a substance in between that is thermally very conductive so that the heat can easily move from the CPU to the cooler to be dispersed into the air so that means that if you use a substance that is very thermally insulating the heat won't be able to move from the CPU to the cooler and you're at risk of causing fires now according to the Internet many entry level thermal pastes are actually based on silicon but when you look at higher and thermal pastes some of them actually specifically advertise not using silicon as a base because it seems to be associated with entry-level thermal pastes now it's obviously my job to test to this thermal paste and see how it performs against all of its carbon-based brethren now for the tests today I'm going to be using Arctic mx4 as the competitor to this because it's kind of become my reference thermal paste over the last couple of months now for the tests I'm going to be using an Intel i5 7600 k overclocked to 4.5 gigahertz the cooler is going to be a reven e 12 which is pretty much just a cooler master hyper 212 with an RGB fan on it now when running these tests I said all of the fans in the system to run at their maximum rpm for the entire time regardless of temperature and I ran Ida 64 for 15 minutes and then took the average temperature over that time with hardware info 64 and then the temperature at the time of the end of the test and when it comes to the actual thermal paste application it's really easy to use mx4 you kind of just squirt the amount out that you want and that's what you get but with this silicon thermal paste it's much more liquid than the carbon-based mx4 which means just a huge amount of it squirts onto the cpu and it's quite difficult to control the flow so do keep in mind when looking at these tests that there may actually be a bit more of the silicon thermal paste on the CPU then there was mx4 but I tried to wipe some of it away so that I get a kind of more comparable thermal paste application well though we've seen many tests by many tech youtubers which show that the amount of thermal paste doesn't really matter when it gets to a certain point and as you can see with these temperatures this silicon based thermal paste actually performed quite a bit worse than the mx4 in fact for a thermal paste to make a three to four degree difference in temperatures is fairly substantial why are people in Canada sending this thermal paste to their friends I mean you could make a value argument because for nine dollars you get 20 grams of this whereas 10 dollars gets you four grams of Arctic mx4 but honestly for a consumer the value perspective doesn't really make any sense because the actual amount you're paying for it is pretty much the same and how much thermal paste do you really need as a consumer I've been using that tube of mx4 for the last four months and I've gotten about 20 applications out of it and I'm not even halfway through the tube so why would a consumer want more thermal paste which honestly they wouldn't be reapplying regularly enough to justify is the higher volume so with all of the testing out of the way I have no more information about why people are buying this than I did before I started is there some kind of running joke between Canadians where they send each other terrible thermal paste why is this happening anyway with that it brings me to the end of this video if you like this video do like and subscribe to the channel for more videos like this one share it with your friends if they're sending with thermal paste to each other and yeah with that I think it brings me to the end of this video until the next video bye