IC Diamond Test Results

IC Diamond

Distinguished
Apr 19, 2010
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PLEASE READ THOROUGHLY BEFORE TESTING/POSTING YOUR IC Diamond RESULTS!!!







PLEASE ONLY POST WITH RESULTS WHEN YOU HAVE FULL RESULTS, OTHERWISE YOUR POST MAY NOT BE SEEN BY ALL IF YOU RESERVE THE POST FOR LATER RESULTS WITH IC7. PEOPLE TEND TO GO TO THE NEWEST POST, SO IF YOU WANT IT TO BE SEEN BY ALL, POST YOUR RESULTS ONCE YOU HAVE THEM ALL. ALL OTHER DISCUSSION/SUPPORT POSTS, GO RIGHT AHEAD!!

PLEASE BE SURE TO BENCHMARK YOUR CPU TEMPS WITH YOUR CURRENT TIM AND RECORD YOUR RESULTS BEFORE USING IC7 FOR TESTING. WE NEED BEFORE AND AFTER PLEASE!

ALSO, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU DON'T CHANGE ANY VARIABLE OTHER THAN THE THERMAL COMPOUND USED FOR BEFORE/AFTER (I.E. SAME VOLTS/CLOCKS, COOLER, AND OTHER HARDWARE)



APPLICATION METHOD


For all those participating in the IC7 giveaway, please follow this link to the Innovation Cooling website for more information on the product:

Innovation Cooling

Proper application is the key to this product. The nature and consistency of this product is likely quite different from what most of you are used to in a Thermal Compound. We don't recommend use of traditional methods of applying the TIM like razor blades, lines, x's (though some people have reported great success with the X method), etc. Through extensive testing, the best overall application method has been determined to be a pea sized amount directly in the center of the CPU. The TIM should be adequately spread via the downforce of the CPU cooler (a sufficient amount of downforce will provide best results; minimum 50psi of downforce should be the goal for optimum results. please see the Innovation Cooling website for more info). Also, for coolers/surfaces that have many peaks and valleys, it may be beneficial to wet the surface(s) with a small amount of IC7 to initially fill the voids in the mounting surfaces...then proceed with recommended application as usual. Please click on the link below for application methodology and shoot me a PM if you have any questions.
Keep in mind, IC7 has been formulated with the specific goals of providing superb thermal conductivity with short set times, but also for long term stability and performance without pump/bakeout through extended thermal cycling or usage. This stuff is very stable over long periods of time.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

Please do feel free to navigate through the whole Innovation Cooling website as there is tonnes of information on there that might prove beneficial.


HOW TO POST RESULTS


THE FORMAT IS AS FOLLOWS (ALL TEMPS IN C):

OPTIONAL INFO: PROCESSOR, VOLTS/CLOCKS, HEATSINK/COOLING USED, ETC.

Pre-IC7
Compound:
Abient Temp:
Idle Temp:
Load Temp:

IC7
Ambient Temp:
Idle Temp:
Load Temp:

Added 5/22 - Cure Time- Cure Time averages 2 hours in most situations for sinks with adequate pressure loading with maybe .5C more overnight. Lightly pressure loaded sinks may take a day or more depending on the amount of pressure


If you have any problems or need support, please feel free to post here for now. Remember, proper application and good even heat sink pressure (goal should be minimum of 50psi or more) are crucial for peak performance. Too much or too little compound will impact your results so please do visit the Innovation Cooling website for Application Instructions with images and explanations. For those with direct touch heatpipe coolers, you might want to try wetting the contact surface of the cooler with a tiny amount of ICD to fill any small voids before proceeding with the normal application method.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to post up. Sign ups are still open and should be posted in the sign up thread.


Observational Request - I would appreciate any observations on wear and tear from polishing on any laser etched lettering. Nobody has has complained for the last couple of years and this has not been my experience but a few isolated incidents of late have drawn our attention. Some thermal compounds are are by nature identical with polishing compounds, ceramic or oxide particles suspended in a fluid. I have anecdotal reports of compounds like Arctic Alumina which is a ceramic having the same kind of effect .

Our position on it is that abrasives in order to work have to "move" and in the normal course of application and removal it is not an issue. When it becomes an issue seems to be in case of people doing frequent multiple installs and removals such as what a reviewer would do when running multiple tests causing wear and tear most likely what you would see with most other compounds although with diamond it probably would happen faster. In any event depending on feedback we would put up an advisory on our site not to overwork the paste on installation and removal.

This is one reason we do these giveaways is to investigate things like this and improve use and application of our product.


Thanks all and happy testing!!!



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Tomshardwarejuly92010GPUupdate.png


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Oh, Cool.

I'l start us of.

Max- Prime 95-

Average of 3 runs: 9.5C reduction from 5 year old dried up Lantec Paste.

Ambient: About 27C as we are aproaching summer rapidly.

Idle: Reductions of 2c as an average.

Conculsion: IC daimond rapes my old Lantec paste.
 
GPU Temp results for Arctic Silver 5 on a softmodded nVidia 8400GS (to NVS 290) and overclocked.
See here for full details on the GPU: GPUZ validation



AS 5 cured for ~ 1 year. System running 24 hrs. System was shut down only for about 5-10 minutes a week for updates. This system was running Folding@Home GPU client for 80-95% of the time, so the GPU pretty much ran at the MAX temp.

===========================================
Test set up:
Ambient temp was ~25.5C(78F) for both tests.
OCCT was run WITH OUT Folding@Home running for accurate results.
Tested WITH OUT case.
***Note: the dates in OCCT are written in the DD/MM/YYYY format NOT the traditional USA/Canada MM/DD/YYYY format. ***


===========================================
Arctic Silver 5:
4601000809_545cf63fe0_o.png



Now today, I applied the IC Diamond:
4601042967_51e29f6e54_o.png




Ambient: 25.5C
Max for AS5: 87C
Idle for AS5: 54-55C

Ambient: 25.5C
Max for IC Diamond: 81C
Idle for IC Diamond: 49-50C

Difference between AS5 and IC at Max: IC Diamond was 6C cooler than AS5.
Difference between AS5 and IC at Idle: IC Diamond was 5C cooler than AS5.





I will have CPU temp results over the week end.
 
So I found some time today to actually test it out and I will say I am pretty impressed at it. I got about a 8c drop from idle across the cores and a 9c drp under load. I am not too suprised since I was using the standard Zalman thermal grese that came with the CPNS 9700 LED I have but still, its a nice drop. Now I used HWMonitor and the temps seems high so I also used Speedfan to make sure and there is about a 10c difference. It might be due to an issue with the Q6600 G0 that was around since 2007 when I built the machine. Some temp programs still have it listed as a 105TDP CPU so it is normally higher than the real temp.

I did take screenshots of idle and load. I used Prime95 Small FTTs since that one tends to really load the CPU to max.

My specs:

Asus P5K-E Deluxe Wifi -AP
Intel C2Q6600 G0 stepping @ 3GHz 1.25v
Zalman CPNS 9700 Cooler
4Gigs Corsair XMS2 PC8500
2x Seagate 500GB SATA 300 in Raid 0
ATI Radeon HD4870 1GB GDDR5
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatality Extreme Gamer(has the 64MB X-RAM)
BFG 800 Watt Quad Rail PSU
Apevia X-Navigator Case. It has a lot of blue lights
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
Logitech G500

My CPU is running at 3GHz under load, 2GHz idle and has a voltage of 1.232v idle and 1.224v under load (yes I was lucky enough to get a Q6600 G0 that would run lower than stock voltage OCed to 3GHz stable and I love it 😍 ).

The TIM I was using was the generic Zalman TIM that came with my CPNS 9700 as seen here:

e6750_vs__q6600___zalman_tim.jpg


I had it on my CPU since 2007 when I built the machine so it has had 2.5 years time to cure so it was pretty set. My Q6600 is relativley flat luckily and the Zalman CPNS 9700 I got has literally a mirror finish thats pretty good for not being lapped.

This is my CPU with the Zalman TIM idle:

icdiamond3.jpg


CPU: Q6600 G0 @2GHz
VCORE: 1.232v
CPU Temp: 34c
Ambient: 25.5c

Cores in HWMonitor:
Core 0: 47c
Core 1: 45c
Core 2: 39c
Core 3: 39c

Cores in SpeedFan:
Core 0: 37c
Core 1: 35c
Core 2: 29c
Core 3: 29c

Zalman TIM under load:

icdiamond4.jpg


CPU: Q6600 G0 @3GHz
VCORE: 1.224v
CPU Temp: 55c
Ambient: 25.5c

Cores in HWMonitor:
Core 0: 69c
Core 1: 65c
Core 2: 58c
Core 3: 57c

Cores in SpeedFan:
Core 0: 60c
Core 1: 56c
Core 2: 49c
Core 3: 47c

Now for the results. I pulled off my HSF, cleaned off the Zalman TIM completley using 90% Isopropyl alcohol. Added a pea sized drop in the middle per the IC Diamond website instructions and put it back together while applying enough pressure. I also tightened my HSF using the screws, which is one thing I love about my HSF since it is mounted vias crews and not push pins.

IC Diamond TIM idle:

icdiamond5.jpg


CPU: Q6600 G0 @2GHz
VCORE: 1.232v
CPU Temp: 27c
Ambient: 25.5c

Cores in HWMonitor:
Core 0: 39c
Core 1: 39c
Core 2: 34c
Core 3: 34c

Cores in SpeedFan:
Core 0: 29c
Core 1: 28c
Core 2: 24c
Core 3: 24c

IC DIamond TIM under load:

icdiamond6.png


CPU: Q6600 G0 @3GHz
VCORE: 1.224v
CPU Temp: 46c
Ambient: 25.5c

Cores in HWMonitor:
Core 0: 60c
Core 1: 59c
Core 2: 56c
Core 3: 56c

Cores in SpeedFan:
Core 0: 50c
Core 1: 49c
Core 2: 46c
Core 3: 46c

Overall, the IC DIamond TIM seems to have lowered my CPU temps by a range of 3-9c depending on the cores. In my CPU, Cores 0 and 1 run hotter and also noticed the best results while Cores 2 and 3 run cooler and didn't drop as much. In terms of performance compared to my Zalman TIM, its awesome and I would probably buy this over most other brands since I do tend to overclock.

As said before by others, idle is not as big a concern as load temps. And the games I play all have multicore support enabled so this TIM will really help lower the temp while doing that. That said, I do live in Arizona, Tucson to be exact where its May and soon to be 100+ every day. I do keep my house at about 78F all the time though.

If you need any more data from me I will be more than happy to provide it and thanks for including me in your test.

Just copied from the other thread.
 
Artic Silver 5 on a Q8200 @ 3.2ghz 1.36 VCore
Idle Temps
CPU die Temp 27 Idle

Core 1- 44
Core 2- 39
Core 3- 38
Core 4- 39

Ambient 27 C Thermometer on my desk

Cooler OCZ Vendetta

Load Temps 10 Minutes In Place large FFT's
CPU die Temp 54

Core 1- 64
Core 2- 60
Core 3- 60
Core 4- 58

IC Diamond 24 on a Q8200 @ 3.2ghz 1.36 VCore
Idle Temps
CPU die Temp 27 Idle

Core 1- 40
Core 2- 38
Core 3- 36
Core 4- 39

Ambient 27 C Thermometer on my desk

Cooler OCZ Vendetta

Load Temps 10 Minutes In Place large FFT's
CPU die Temp 54

Core 1- 60
Core 2- 58
Core 3- 57
Core 4- 57

All temps taken with HWMonitior

So about a 3C decrease from AS5 so it does definitely work a little better but is it a huge difference no would I go out of my way to get it probably not but it is good compound none the less.
------------------------------
 

I don't think it really matters what you use because it's the delta temperature that you're interested in, not the absolute temperature. Although I would not recommend HWmonitor for Core ix chips at least, as it doesn't seem to provide consistent readings. I think it does a rolling average instead of doing what most programs do (which is IA32_TEMPERATURE_TARGET - DTS reading).
 
I have checked HWMonitior against my bios temps it was the most accurate of all I have also checked the die temp with a laser thermometer and it was dead on accurate so for me they are the most accurate.
 
I can't participate 🙁 .... I put IC Diamond on in the initial build.

But I do wanna thank the IC folks for their efforts in the notebook arena w/ boutique builders. Nice having the option to have IC installed "at the factory" for CPU / GPU ..... though I just noticed that price climbed from $20 to $40 this month ($5 less for AS5).
 


I haven't had any problems with Speedfan. HWMonitor still doesn't seem to have my Q6600 G0 set right because its consitent with the +10c temps.

The Q6600 G0 had a 10 lower TJMax than the B3 did and it seems most programs changed over except HWMonitor which is why I used both. Its strange that the HWMonitor had the same CPU temp which is the whole package reading as Speedfan but the individual cores was higher by exactally 10c which means it probably had the B3s specs in it with the 105TDP instead of the 95w TDP that Q6600s G0s have.
 

The problem is, at certain temps, the DTS can get "stuck". The reason to use RealTemp is due to the "Test Sensor" feature available. If the DTS gets stuck at some point, it can throw off temp readings by a significant amount which invalidates the results.
 
It's usually easy to spot a stuck sensor without the cooldown test, but in any case it will almost always only affect idle temps, not load (although there are rare cases where it affects load as well).

Besides, if you have a stuck sensor no program is going to help you :)
 
Ok
I have a hitch when removeing my stock heatsink to apply the IC Dioamond, I noticed one of the retaing clips to the heatsink had failed at some point. It was loose and the black part fell into two pices when i unlocked it. I mannaged to get the heatsink back on not to loose to test the same heatsink with the IC Dioamond. Im showing 14degree diffirance in core temp with a 2degree diff in ambient but cant say how much the defective clip effected the results.
 
Here is my first set of results, on user mattidallama's CPU and GPU. My own test results will take at least another week, as I still can't get reproducible temperatures from my new water cooling setup.

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 940, overclocked to 3.6 GHz (200x18) with 1.4v. Cooler used is a Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer 120, with two 65CFm fans in push/pull. Method for applying thermal paste was two parallel lines 1/3 of the distance of the IHS on the CPU, and spaced 1/3 of the distance of the IHS apart.

GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4870 1GB, overclocked to 790MHz core and 1020MHz memory. Cooling is the card's stock Vapor-X cooler, with fan forced at 60% at all times. Application method was a single BB sized dot on the GPU core.

Original compound on the CPU was Tuniq TX-2. On the GPU was Arctic Silver Ceramique, fully cured.

Ambient temperature for all tests is 24.5C (76F).
Idle temperatures were measured using SpeedFan for the CPU and GPU-z for the GPU, and taken after 15 minutes of idling at the Windows 7 desktop.

Load temperatures were measured using Prime95's Small FFT test for the CPU and Furmark's default testing for the GPU, measured again from Speedfan and GPU-z, respectively.

Temperature data:

CPU
Tuniq TX-2------------------IC Diamond
Idle: 38C-----------------Idle: 35C
Load: 67C-----------------Load: 61C

GPU
AS Ceramique--------------IC Diamond
Idle: 55C------------------Idle: 54C
Load: 84C------------------Load: 77C

CPU temperatures at idle and load were reduced 3C and 6C, respectively.
GPU temperatures at idle and load were reduced 1C and 7C, respectively.
 


Yeh, I still don't know if i want to remove the stock cooler though.....

Dangerous.
 

It has a small particle size as does Arctic Silver Ceramique, so it should be better than AS5 especially on IHS-less GPUs. AS5 has particles up to 0.09 microns larger, and ceramique is around 0.02 microns smaller. Obviously the materials are totally different as well so particle size isn't everything.
 
System Specs

Cooler Master HAF 932 Case
Phenom II X4 965 @ 3400MHz, 1.4V
Prolimatech Megahalems
2x 5870s

Pre-IC7
Compound: Arctic Silver 5
Abient Temp: 77
Idle Temp: 35
Load Temp: 49.5

08daa20f.jpg


IC7
Ambient Temp: 77
Idle Temp: 34
Load Temp: 47.8

546931ef.jpg


Temperatures were reduced by ~1.7°C
 
Test set up: Ambient was 81F (~27.2C). CPU and heat sink was lapped. The heat sink was a Xigmatek S963 with a Scythe Slipstream 100CFM 120mm. Intel E2180 @3.3Ghz with 1.5v (according to CPUZ) SpeedStep/EIST was Disabled.

AS 5 cured for ~ 1 year. System running 24 hrs. System was shut down only for about 5-10 minutes a week for updates.

Temps with Arctic Silver 5:
Idle: 38C
Load: 68C

Temps with IC Diamond:
Idle: 38C
Load: 66C

Results: IC Diamond was 2C cooler under load. There was no difference in idle temperatures.
 
Pre-IC7
Compound: Rosewill RCX-TC060, Thermal conductivity > 9.24W/mk
Abient Temp: 28.8c
Idle Temp: 41.0c
Load Temp: 51.0c

IC7
Ambient Temp: 28.8c
Idle Temp: 40.0c
Load Temp: 49.0c

Test was ran on a Phenom II 3x720 with 4th core unlocked at 3.0 ghz. Prior to any recording the inexpensive rosewill ($17.99) 90mm cooler fins were cleaned.
While the results are specific to the processor and not the cores which typically run 10-11 degrees cooler another inconsistancy arose affecting my results.
Both the chipset and PWM temperatures dropped, about 2 degrees each which led me to believe I had somehow altered the results. I therefore ran the test over a period of 3 days and all results remained consistant. I can't explain the change in chipset or pwm readings as I disturbed nothing which should have affected them.
Also the cooler uses a single rocker latch system which doesn't enable 50lbs of pressure, at best I would describe the fit as firm, I think my wife said that. Thanks for letting me participate.
PS didn't do the GPU as I don't have any thermal tape for the memory chips.
 
Thanks people for taking the time to test - I have added a Observational Request to the intro so please take note

Observational Request - I would appreciate any observations on wear and tear from polishing on any laser etched lettering. Nobody has has complained for the last couple of years and this has not been my experience but a few isolated incidents of late have drawn our attention. Some thermal compounds are are by nature identical with polishing compounds, ceramic or oxide particles suspended in a fluid. I have anecdotal reports of compounds like Arctic Alumina which is a ceramic having the same kind of effect and believe it to be a non issue however being the manufacturer we would be remiss if we did not check it out.

Our position on it is that abrasives in order to work have to "move" and in the normal course of application and removal it is a non issue. When it becomes an issue seems to be in case of people doing frequent multiple installs and removals, perhaps overworking the compound such as what a reviewer would do when running multiple tests causing wear and tear most likely what you would see with most other compounds although with diamond it probably would happen faster. In any event depending on feedback we would put up an advisory on our site not to overwork the paste on installation and removal.

This is one reason we do these giveaways is to investigate things like this and improve use and application of our product.

 
Well i have my E8600 i used for the test in my hand as ive installed my new cpu, i can see no sign of abrasion on it at all other than the factory finish. Its been installed 3 times once with IC Diamond.
Seems how my results wer more than likely effected by the issues i found with my old cooler would you like me to retest, but fresh application VS fresh application.
 



Thanks for the feedback much appreciated.

By all means, the more data the better, we always appreciate more test data

Andrew