3DVelocity would like to thank ESG Associates and especially Scott Gallmeyer for their help and courtesy in providing this product for review.

Testing :

First up I wanted to take three popular greases and see how they coped with being heated for a sustained period of time. Using Arctic Silver (original), Nanotherm Ice and a generic silicone grease available just about anywhere, I placed three blobs onto a piece of white paper.

Then using an old credit card, the three were spread as equally as I could before being placed into a warm oven for about thirty minutes or so.

I then removed the paper and used a finger to see if the compounds could still be spread. I think it should be evident from the picture below that while the silicone grease and the Arctic Silver remained pliable, the Nanotherm had pretty much completely dried out. Although it looks scorched, it didn't really powder and left no residue on my finger when I tried to spread it, so assuming it is still thermally conductive in this state it may not be as bad as it looks, but you can see some stains around it where something within the compound has separated out and spread. I must admit that this does raise questions in my mind about its long term performance, but without testing it over a period of months I can't be certain if this result is relevant or not.

Using more conventional testing methods, Nanotherm faired pretty well.

Test System :

Athlon 1.4GHz (266FSB) @ 1.4GHz
DFI AK76-SN Motherboard
256MB Kingmax PC2100 DDR SDRAM
Swiftech MCX370-0A Heatsink with Pabst Fan.

	IDLE	STRESSED
Arctic Silver	35 Celsius	40 Celsius
Nanotherm Ice	36 Celsius	41 Celsius
Generic Silicone	36 Celsius	42 Celsius

I was impressed to see a non metallic compound stay within 1 degree of the mighty Arctic Silver, but the more budget minded amongst you will almost certainly be looking closely at the equally impressive results of the considerably cheaper generic silicone grease. It looks very much as though any conductive material that has the ability to fill the microscopic air pockets between CPU and sink is effective enough to do the job for most people. The big disadvantage with silicone of course is the mess, and cleaning a CPU core that's had silicone grease applied is one of life's least satisfying ventures, particularly when it gets on the package.

Wondering how the Nanotherm's more viscous construction may be best used, I decided to rummage through my desk draw until I found a cheap and nasty heatsink with a pretty poor base finish. I then took a wire brush to it just to scuff it up a little more and reran the test.

	IDLE	STRESSED
Arctic Silver	41 Celsius	48 Celsius
Nanotherm Ice	42 Celsius	47 Celsius
Generic Silicone	42 Celsius	48 Celsius

It appears that the superior gap filling qualities of Nanotherm give it a distinct advantage in this example, beating out Arctic Silver by a full degree. I suppose the question is whether anyone would use a crappy heatsink then pay top dollar for their grease, and my guess is they wouldn't which kind of voids this argument. The only time I'd expect this situation to arise is if someone has a top quality sink that somehow suffers damage to the base and they can't be bothered lapping it.

Conclusion :

** Please read the update at the foot of this conclusion also**

PROS :

Electrically non conductive
Cheaper than rival products (just)
Easy cleanup
Syringe Application

CONS :

Not quite the best performance available
(May) be prone to drying out and discolouring over time

 

Nanotherm is a bold step in the creation of a new breed of thermal greases, and without doubt it has its virtues. Being non electrically conductive is always a bonus for something that needs to be spread onto potentially very sensitive electronic components, and the ease with which Nanotherm can be cleaned off is far beyond that offered by its competitors. This alone may be enough to convince you to take a long look Nanotherm for your cooling needs. Its performance is good without being spectacular, but with only a 2 degree gap between best and worst, this also becomes less of a reason to cross Nanotherm off your list.

I think it's also worth mentioning the syringe that ESG have used. Being smaller in diameter it is considerably easier to apply the required amount of grease that it is with bigger syringes used by the likes of arctic Silver. It's also clear, which lets you see exactly what you're getting.

I must admit I like this stuff. It does the business with minimum of fuss, mess and risk to your expensive processor. With other manufacturers rushing to pack as much metallic content as possible into their greases, ESG are to be commended for taking this new direction. As a first of its kind, I expect to see future products improve on the performance, and we may yet see the day where Nanotherm is the only grease worth buying, but for now it'll have to settle for a place on the recommended list.

UPDATE :

Before I ran this review, I contacted Scott at ESG about the scorching we'd witnesses, and though he agreed that this "torture" test wasn't really indicative of of real life conditions, he mentioned that he'd also heard from another site who reported slight discoloration of the product when it had been used for several months on a heavily overclocked CPU. Being the perfectionist he is, Scott immediately set about isolating the component that was letting the side down and reformulated the grease so as to stop he problem (hence this review is over a month late). 2 days ago I got the new improved formulation through the post, along with their latest product, Nanotherm Ice thermal Epoxy which we'll be testing shortly. I decided to repeat the the oven test with this new formulation, and just for good measure I figured I'd check out the moisture resistance claims by dunking it in a bowl of water for 48 hours to see how it held up.

First off I threw the new formulation back into the oven along with some Arctic Silver and the original Nanotherm formulation. I turned up the heat and watched what happened.

Nanotherm original is on the left, the Arctic Silver in the middle and the reformulated Nanotherm on the right. I think the results speak from themselves, the new formulation has worked wonders and is considerably more heat tolerant than the original. In fairness, the only time you're likely to stress your thermal grease to this extent is if the fan on your heatsink fails, but I guess in that situation the longer your grease remains effective, the better your chances of saving your CPU from permanent damage.

Just for the record, all three compound held up perfectly well to being submersed in water for 48 hours.

48 hour water test results

As for temperatures, well they remained identical to the original formulation, well actually the results I got were a degree higher at first but that was because I'd put a little too much on in my rush the wrap up this review. The thick nature of this grease is an asset as it stays where its put and does a good job where the surface finish of the base of your heat sink is less than perfect, but if you do apply too much it will tend not to spread the way some thinner greases do so I suggest it's worth the extra time and effort needed to get a good thin layer.

In light of these improvements I had to revise the rating. Nanotherm is an impressive product that may not quite offer the thermal efficiency of metal packed greases (though it's damned close), but which balances this with other advantages that make it safer to use, easier to clean and better suited to surface imperfections. Kudos to ESG for listening to the comments of those using Nanotherm and responding quickly to address the issues raised.