Best thermal paste for laptop

Thermal grease

For tests we took the following thermal paste: Noctua NT-H1, Arctic MX-4, GD900, Zalman ZM-STG2, HY810, HY880, HY510, HY710, HY610

As a test laptop was selected HP EliteBook 2570p with an Intel Core i7-3520M processor (CPU TPD – 35 Watt)

test best thermal compound for laptop cpu
thermal paste test on laptop CPU Core i7-3520m

The thermal paste was applied in a thin and even layer over the entire surface of the processor chip.

thermal paste apply laptop
thermal paste apply laptop

For all the thermal grease, the same conditions were met for the tests, it was a summer day, the room temperature was about +32 °C

The test is conducted in AIDA64 program mode “Stress Test”, for 10 minutes.

Thermal paste test results

test best thermal paste for laptop
Thermal test results

Noctua NT-H1 is the best thermal paste on the results of testing, but as you noticed on the graph above, the difference from Arctic MX4 was only 1 °C, so at this level there were thermal greases GD900 and HY810.

The results were surprising, of course, the cheapest thermal paste GD900 which showed some of the best results, at its low cost for 1 gram – 51 cents. Even more surprising was the thermal paste Zalman ZM-STG2 which at a cost is the same as Noctua NT-H1, with a difference of 4 °C.

The best thermal paste for the laptop CPU is Noctua NT-H1 it a clear leader among all, the quality of the thermal paste is at a good level, even at the stage of applying paste on the processor, its density is felt, it does not spread. The price of Noctua NT-H1 thermal grease on Amazon averages $7 per 1.4 ml tube. If I want to overclock the CPU or GPU, I will use Noctua NT-H1, because every degree is important for the dispersal.

Also best thermal grease for laptop it’s Arctic MX4 – it showed decent results with its price of $8 for 4 gram on Amazon. Arctic MX4 thermal grease can be safely used even on powerful systems. If you are a service provider and you have to collect many systems, then using the Arctic MX4 in large volumes will not be costly, compared to the same Noctua NT-H1 at its cost of $7 per 1.4 ml.

As a result of the test, the thermal grease GD900 and HY810 from the Chinese manufacturer were also shown well. But there is a high probability of buying a counterfeit product and unfortunately such a fake will quickly dry out and your laptop will be overheating.