Anyone who has ever searched for a paste and been overwhelmed by the range of products on offer, complete with a flourishing data fantasy, knows by now that the supposedly simple business of thermal pastes is flourishing. Of course, sensitized readers now know that the legal regulations also require correct specifications and safety data sheets for every product. I recently tested the EC360 Ruby from Jaden Technologies and was rightly upset about missing or even incorrect information. This product then prompted me to test the remaining three of the four pastes on offer in order to get as complete and objective a picture as possible, as there can always be an outlier. When in doubt, you first assume innocence.
Actually, all of this was only intended as an inventory, but after the tests I now have to ask myself whether the supplier (it is of course neither a manufacturer nor a buyer with its own engineering) even knows what it has let itself in for with the thermal pastes. I admit, I’m a little shocked at how thoughtlessly products are offered here, not even questioned and then completely thrown out of all stores in a panic because you suddenly feel you’ve been caught out. And rightly so, but this could have been solved by correcting and providing the correct data at short notice, even without an exit, instead of making all the products disappear without a trace.
I would like to demonstrate why I am now accusing the provider of a general lack of knowledge by means of a small spoiler that shows the positioning of the four pastes in their own portfolio and whose values do not match the real performance at all. This is because you have actually taken advantage of yourself by selling the best of all four pastes as the second cheapest and the highly labeled sour cream as the most expensive. Here is a brief preview of my research, whereby the leading position of the EC360 Emerald in the test is somewhat relativized, at least in terms of the very thin layers and durability. But more on that in a moment, let’s first look at the table and wonder (and since Jaden Technologies is surely reading along, of course):
| Positioning Manufacturer | The product | Manufacturer data | Real bulk measured values | Results |
| 1. Upper class | EC360 Ruby | 13.4 W/m-K | 3.93 W/m-K | 3. Lower middle class |
| 2. Middle class | EC360 Diamond | 11.0 W/m-K | 4.06 W/m-K | 2. Upper middle class |
| 3. Entry level | EC360 Emerald | 9.0 W/m-K | 4.62 W/m-K | 1. Upper class |
| 4. Low budget | EC360 Carbon | 5.15 W/m-K | 2.07 W/m-K | 4. Low budget |
Now let’s take a look at the prices for the 4-gram tubes and puzzle over them: The EC360 Emerald, the best performing paste, is sold for 4.99 euros, which is only 1 euro more expensive than the completely useless EC360 Carbon, the worst performing paste at 3.99 euros. The EC360 Diamond is significantly worse than the EC360 Emerald, but costs almost twice as much. The EC360 Ruby is also no bargain at around 9 euros, but is also only mediocre. The manufacturer has (shortly after my last video and comments in the forum) withdrawn all four pastes from the market here in Germany (and thus left a 404 in the Google links), which is completely excessive, as it would have been very easy to make improvements. They now sell the Arctic MX-4 in their own webshop instead, but will that really help?
Data sheets and safety documents can easily be entered into the system and registered with the BAuA within one working day. Unless you don’t have access to the data of the originator of these products and are selling things that nobody actually knows what they are. However, the wild pricing of the pastes makes me think the latter. Fun fact: you can still buy some of these pastes in non-EU countries, but you can no longer have them delivered to Germany. Oops…
Now I’m not someone you can’t talk to or who refuses to provide constructive information. But unfortunately, they preferred to take the path of least resistance and give up the business (for the time being). Spoiler alert: it’s not really a loss. But the EC360 Emerald would have made an almost ideal paste for users who need really high performance for a not extremely long period of time and don’t want to spackle graphics cards with it. Incidentally, I will use it in my upcoming CPU tests (except for the reset sample) because it works excellently under these conditions.
Now let’s move on to the test setup, which I will no longer include as text and images in the articles in future, but for which I have written extra basic articles, including a presentation of the equipment and measurement methods, to save me and you a little redundancy. If you would like to read up or refresh your knowledge, please use the following links to the two measurement setups for ASTM D5470-17 with the TIMA5 nanotest and LIBS including microscopy with the Keyence VX-7100 and EA-300:
After so much introduction, we now come to the practical side and the measurements, so please turn the page.
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