GD900 and GD-2 in the thermal paste discount review – Purchase warning and a look into the alchemist’s kitchen of horror

1 - Introduction and fabrication 2 - Performance comparisons and measurements 3 - Microscopy, composition and pump-out 4 - Summary and conclusion 5 - GD900 vs. GD-2

There are many thermal conductive pastes – good ones, bad ones and then there are those from GD. Today in the test: two products that could hardly be more different at first glance, but ultimately share a sad and common fate – they perform underground. We are talking about the GD900 and the GD-2, two pastes from “GD High Conductivity Electronics”, which are regularly marketed in online stores as a “low-cost alternative” to branded products. And that’s true – if by “alternative” you mean a low-performance, unstable and chemically questionable mix that has only one advantage: the price.

Who or what is really behind GD? Behind the cryptic-sounding label “GD” is Foshan High Conductivity Electronics Co, Ltd, a Chinese company that, according to its own description, develops, produces and sells thermal conductive materials worldwide. On paper, a manufacturer – in reality, a prime example of how a whole flood of inferior products can be distributed via global trading platforms such as Amazon, AliExpress or eBay using the simplest technology, minimal process control and maximum PR. The company apparently actually operates its own production facilities – I say “apparently” deliberately, because while browsing the Chinese-language company website, I came across an official factory video that matches the measurement results so well that you could almost call it a creative work of art.

What I saw there – exposed agitators, manually guided filling, technology from industrial pre-retirement – made me seriously consider whether GD could stand for “Generally Deficient.”. And so this test will not only be a sober laboratory analysis of two products whose technical data are already causing frowns, but also a look behind the scenes of a manufacturer who apparently interprets the term quality control more as a friendly suggestion.

There is one thing you should take away after reading this article: The GD900 and GD-2 may be really cheap, but they are so for good reason. Anyone who thinks they are being clever by saving a few euros will sooner or later realize that cheap thermal paste can not only cost time, but in the worst case also hardware. These lines are therefore not just a test report in the classic sense, but an explicit purchase warning. Anyone who confuses greed with wisdom is falling into a thermal trap here, and with a crystal-clear message.

Let’s take a look at the “official technical data sheets” of the GD900 and GD-2 – although the term “data sheet” should be treated with the same caution as a ditch at night. Both products boast thermal conductivity values that seem astonishingly ambitious on paper. The GD900 is advertised with a value of a whopping 4.8 W/m-K, while the GD-2 is advertised with an incredible 7.5 W/m-K. For the inexperienced reader, this sounds solid, but anyone expecting these figures to be even remotely confirmed in practice will realize this after the first test run: The reality is different – it is cruel, sticky and thermally inefficient.

Because what is sold here as thermal conductivity obviously comes from a very free interpretation of physics – let’s call it thermal paste lyricism. It is the kind of set of figures that was presumably determined by applying a multimeter to a broccoli soup. In any case, no such values could even be reconstructed in my tests. In use, the paste acts more like a thermal insulating material with an alibi function – it makes contact, but the heat prefers to stay where it is.

The question of durability is even more absurd. While reputable manufacturers today focus on long-term stability, polymerization control and diffusion protection, GD900 and GD-2 tend to act according to the motto: “Nice that you were there – but please don’t stay too long”. After just a few weeks or even days, both pastes show clear changes in behavior. The consistency either becomes dry and greasy or develops the famous “silicone bleeding”, in which the volatile components slowly disappear into the environment. You could say that the shelf life corresponds to that of a scoop of pistachio ice cream at half past twelve in the Dubai summer sun, served on a decorative asphalt plate from Villeroy & Boch.

In short, the technical specifications may look good on the labels, but they have about as much to do with a serious assessment of thermal conductivity or durability as a horoscope has to do with meteorology. Anyone who is tempted by such information will have learned something in the end – but unfortunately usually the hard way. And then there was something else…

The main thing is cheap

The images shown here are taken from a slightly pixelated factory video from Foshan High Conductivity Electronics Co., Ltd. and nevertheless give a vivid impression of the actual production technology behind the GD series of thermal conductive pastes, especially the widely used GD900. The images reveal a combination of semi-industrial mixed operation, simply structured filling solutions and an overall process design clearly geared towards cost optimization. What we see today is not a throwback to a factory of the 1980s, but the current production facility of the thermal compound that has become an integral part of the bottom shelf of electronics retailers: GD900. The star among the pastes when it comes to mastering the balancing act between “works somehow” and “costs almost nothing”.

The first picture below shows a manual mixing process with two workers working on open mixing systems. The design of these machines is reminiscent of so-called Z-sigma kneaders or planetary agitators with a horizontal mixing container, which are traditionally used in the processing of highly viscous materials. Opening the protective hood during operation suggests that the process is neither fully automated nor enclosed in accordance with modern safety standards. There is no extraction technology or protective cladding against emissions or flying particles, which is a cause for concern when processing fillers such as aluminum oxide, zinc oxide or silicon compounds. The mixture remains openly accessible, presumably so that the aluminum powder can also develop socially.

Temperature control or real-time monitoring by integrated sensors is also not visually recognizable, which allows conclusions to be drawn about a rather manually controlled process management. The machines themselves appear functional, but outdated. They correspond more to the lower industrial segment, as is typical in workshops with a medium level of automation – robust, but far from today’s standards in terms of precision, efficiency or reproducibility.

The second picture shows the periphery of raw material storage and provision. Several blue 200-liter drums can be seen, apparently for storing the finished or partially processed thermal paste. Next to them are several devices that strongly resemble older catering or small batch agitators. These could be used for laboratory samples, the premixing of additives or the manufacture of particularly small production quantities. The simple hand pump for emptying the drum is an argument against automated batch documentation or pure batch removal – a key aspect when it comes to reproducible quality standards. The cleanroom suitability or chemical-resistant design of these devices is also questionable. Overall, this area can be interpreted as functional and simple, with a focus on low costs, manual control and minimal technical equipment. Visually, there really is a hint of chemistry class here, combined with the aesthetic austerity of a DIY store storeroom. And you can’t help but wonder: what weighs more – a barrel of GD-900 or the customer’s trust?

The third picture illustrates the final production step: manual filling into standard plastic syringes. The viscous paste is pressed directly from a storage container into the syringes via a pneumatically controlled needle valve. This process is completely manual and is controlled by visual inspection and manual guidance of the operator. There are no automatic volume controls, weighing cells or inline degassing systems to ensure that the filling is bubble-free. Here, too, it is clear that the production logic is aimed at pragmatic throughput optimization and low unit costs, but not at process engineering excellence or analytically traceable batch production. Such filling processes are typical for OEM products in the low-end to mid-range segment, particularly in Asia. And it is also the moment when mass becomes product. With a syringe and a valve, like taking blood – except that the risk here is not a needle, but the paste itself. Every gram is a small thermal adventure, dosed by eye and feeling – in the industry this is also known as “hand-picked heat transfer”.

It is clear that the production facility of Foshan High Conductivity Electronics Co., Ltd. is undoubtedly an in-house production facility and not just a sales brand. The facilities are functional to a certain extent and obviously just adequate for a certain market segment, but in no way meet modern quality standards, such as those used by premium manufacturers like Shin-Etsu, Dow, Wacker or Henkel. These companies work with automated kneading reactors, inline process analysis (e.g. viscosity control, IR spectroscopy) and traceable serial number production. The production method shown here is more typical of a Chinese contract manufacturer with a direct focus on costs and minimal technical sophistication. It also explains the wide price spread and the occasional wildly fluctuating quality reports on products such as GD-900. Welcome to the backyard.

Test setup and methods	Material analysis and microscopy	Basic knowledge
Here you can find out why effective thermal conductivity and bulk thermal conductivity can be completely different in practice, what role the contact resistance between the surfaces and the paste plays and how thermal compound can be measured precisely. There is also a detailed description of the equipment, the methodology and the error tolerances.	You will learn how laser-induced plasma spectroscopy works and the advantages and limitations of the measurements. There is also high-resolution digital microscopy and analysis of particle sizes. This information is also used to estimate the long-term stability of a paste.	Anyone who has always wanted to know what is or is not in a paste and how these pastes are produced will find what they are looking for here. The basic article provides a better understanding of what is often sold for far too much money and sometimes with adventurous promises.