During the typical maintenance of a PC, in which, in addition to cleaning all the dirt that may have accumulated inside, we must replace the thermal paste, both on the processor and on the graphics card, although many users forget that the GPU also uses it comes from the factory already assembled.
In the market we can find a large number of manufacturers of thermal paste. They all perform the same function and are more than sufficient for normal use of the equipment, both for playing and for working. However, some processors require greater cooling power, so it is necessary to use a more powerful cooling system and thermal paste with greater dissipation power.
The best thermal paste on the market
In this sense, the group of researchers from the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas published the results of a test they carried out adding ceramic powder to a thermal paste, which increases its refrigerating power between 56 and 72%.
This test consists of a mecachemical mixture of galistane (gallium, indium and tin) and ceramic aluminum nitride. The result is greater power refrigeration that the solutions of liquid metal available on the market. Thanks to this new alloy it will no longer be necessary to use more complete, expensive and energy-consuming cooling systems, which is why it is also an excellent solution to seek greater efficiency.
On an individual level this may only have a minimal impact, but in data centers, where 40% of spending is on energy consumption, this advancement is truly significant. According to Guihua Yu, professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering:
Power consumption of cooling infrastructure in high-power data centers and other large electronic systems is skyrocketing. This trend is not going to dissipate anytime soon, so it is essential to develop new methods, like the material we created, for efficient and sustainable cooling of devices operating at kilowatt levels and even higher power.
The main innovation of this thermal paste is that it is transformed into a colloidal substance by mechanochemistry (ensures the dispersion of the ceramic in the liquid metal in an optimal and uniform way), a mixture of liquid metal called galinstane with a particular ceramic of nitride d microscopic insoluble aluminum.
While it is true that this advance in the refrigerating power of thermal paste mainly aims to reduce the consumption of cooling systems of data centersit is also a great option for users who like to mount their cooling systems as it gives them a greater margin of use.
At the moment, we don’t know when it is expected to hit the domestic market, if at all, as it depends on the price at which it is sold. What is clear is that major thermal paste manufacturers like Thermal Grizzly and Thermalright are not going to sit idly by.