So, it’s finally on! I did each run three times for each pad and then even ran the last one for over an hour to check. After 4 to 5 minutes all components have reached operating temperature and after about 10 minutes hardly anything fluctuates. One can easily live with the smaller deviations in the curves of 1 to 2 degrees, because these do not result from the cooling, but slightly changing loads. You can always see that very clearly, especially with the better pads.
Let’s look at the blue curve first. This is our reference pad with the thermal conductivity of 11 W/(m*K), so on paper it’s actually the weakest pad in the test. But to our surprise, what do we see? The reference pad even clearly beats the two pads with the printed and advertised 12 W/(m*K) to the point of complete declassification! But let’s start with the better of the two pads and then get to the execution, because there’s hardly any other way to describe the result.
In reality, I would give the EC360 from Jaden Technologies GmbH a maximum thermal conductivity of 8 W/(m*K), but never the printed 12 W/(m*K). Moreover, the 60 °C is only just below what our somewhat cheaper reference pad also manages with 7 W/(m*K). However, both pads have the same price in relation to the temperature and if the print of the EC360 Silver was at least honest, then this pad would even be really good in the race. As it is, however, it is unfortunately a deliberate misleading of the customer, but at least not a financial rip-off. That’s to redeem myself, because I’m fair too. Maybe the German importer didn’t know any better, but blindly trusted the supplier.
Exactly this mildness I can’t do anymore with the GP-Extreme from Gelid, because with a whopping 80 °C it cools hardly better than the pad with 3 W/(m*K) from the absolute entry-level class! Extrapolated, this is only between 4 and 5 W/(m*K) and nobody tells me that an experienced filler like Gelid didn’t know better himself. To print a misleading 12 W/(m*K) on such a pad and to sell it for such a price is not only cheeky, but the customer is completely ripped off!
Summary and conclusion
Once again we see that in the end the customer cannot know what he is actually buying. Blind trust in the imprints is therefore completely out of place and one notices again and again that the providers remain brash and cocky as long as nobody really checks the whole thing once. Of course, we are not a standardization and testing body, but the test setup is always sufficient for an objective assessment. Because it shows one thing very impressively: the differences between the products are really immense.
Let’s move on to the evaluation of the two pads we tested. In the case of the EC360 Silver, I would even consider the price/performance ratio to be reasonable, because the EC360 Silver does exactly what the reference one performance class lower does in relation to the price/cm² within the scope of the purchase price. Only the information with the 12 W/(m*K) is never correct in life, which one must confidently call misleading. That’s a shame, because it’s actually a pretty usable pad with good adhesion properties and a purposeful consistency. Can buy, but with eyes closed and knowing what you are really acquiring.
The GP-Extreme from Gelid, on the other hand, is a complete bad buy. The pad has limited usability, but plays in the very lowest league. I’m almost certain that the dried and wide-rolled dregs from my lab sink’s knee are no worse for cooling. Yes, it’s something between a heat source and a cooler, but for that price and those features, it completely failed. Whoever certifies 12 W/(m*K) for this pad has either just thrown a dice at the number, or deliberately lied.
That’s why I give it the explicit non-purchase recommendation. It doesn’t really get much worse than this. I rarely use such extreme language, but I’m still so flattened and annoyed even now after a few hours that Gelid really deserves such a snub as well. You just can’t do that so easily. Dot and trash can.
Afterword
If there is a supplier of thermal pads reading along: For a test I only need a 1 mm pad with at least 100 x 100 mm area for the three runs including some reserve and the data sheet including proof of availability (Geizhals, Amazon etc.). The postal address is in the imprint, the contact details too. Your advantage is that I test the pads for you for free, but the disadvantage is the publication that will follow in any case, regardless of the result.
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