Thermalright Begins Offering Pads as Cheap, Easy Alternative to Thermal Paste

For years the PC building community has argued over the correct method of applying thermal paste. Some parties insist on using a pea-sized dot, while others favor a more elaborate application with lines, X patterns, and so on. Running parallel to this online beef, a third party argues there's no need even to use thermal paste, as you can use a thermal pad instead. These pads offer complete coverage of a heat spreader but aren't as squishy as paste, so they can't squeeze into microscopic cracks. It means they're usually not as effective but much easier to apply (and replace). Thermalright has waded into the debate by selling thermal pads made explicitly for CPUs directly to consumers, marking it the first big company to do so (as far as we know). They're not available in the US yet, but it's probably only a matter of time until they come stateside.

Thermalright's new pads are branded Heilos and come in two sizes for Intel and AMD processors. Though AMD still uses the traditional square shape for its AM4/5 CPUs, Intel notably diverged from this precedent beginning with Alder Lake, when it adopted a rectangular shape instead. Intel's move complicated the "dot versus line" debate in the thermal paste world, as a central dot no longer spread to the nether regions of the CPU's elongated heat spreader. Thermalright's solution solves that issue, as the company offers a 40x40x0.2mm design for AMD and a 30x40x0.2mm version for Intel's newer CPUs. The Intel version supports LGA 1151, 1200, and 1700 while the AMD version works on both AM4 and AM5, according to TechSpot.

The big news is these pads are specifically made to offer full coverage to existing CPU heat spreaders. It completely removes the mystery behind manual paste application, making it an enticing option for newbies to PC building or anyone who just doesn't want to deal with the hassle of spreading paste around correctly. You apply the pad to the CPU cooler's heatsink and remove the backing tape. The pad isn't even much of a pad in that it's only 0.2mm thick, so essentially the same as a good application of paste. Overall, it's very thin for a thermal pad, as they're usually 1mm or 2mm thick.

The only major drawback is you won't get the same cooling performance as a fancy paste. Thermalright lists their thermal conductivity as 8.5 W/mk or watts-per-meter Kelvin. This aligns with many affordable thermal pastes, but not as high as expensive ones. For example, Kryonaut from Thermal Grizzly offers 12.5 W/mk and can withstand higher temperatures. Thermalright is also pricing its pads around $5, on the low end of a tube of thermal paste.

Still, if you're not interested in overclocking or are new to the DIY PC world, a thermal pad will do the job without the usual hassle. There's also the messy cleanup when upgrading your hardware, though that's a minor inconvenience usually. It will compete with DIY offerings from Cooler Master that have to be cut to fit your application, which is also something newbies would usually like to avoid.