Phobya HeGrease Extreme + CPU Cleaning Kit Review Today I'll be reviewing a sample of Phobya's latest combo; their HeGrease Extreme Thermal Compound and CPU Cleaning Kit (TIM Remover). I'd like to start by apologising for two things: The picture quality as they were all taken on a smartphone - lovely devices but not exactly industry-leading in shutter speed. The tardiness of the review itself. Unfortunately I've had a slight falling out with OCZ over their RMA service but I'll discuss this later. Now that's over with let's get on with the testing. The machine I'll be using today is my home machine: Intel Q9550 @ 3600MHz - 1.15V Asus Maximus Formula @ 422MHz FSB 4x2GB Kingston HyperX PC28500 @ 844MHz This is sat in a Corsair 800D with both panels removed; I'm doing so to eliminate any false results caused by heat build up in the case. The processor and motherboard are all cooled by a single water loop: D-Tek Fuzion Copper CPU Block EK S-Max Copper SB Block EK Asus 4 Copper NB Block XSPC Bay Reservoir Laing DDC-1 Pro + XSPC Top Swiftech MCR320 QP Res 360mm Radiator XSPC 3/8 Tubing This equipment is due to be replaced by some much higher-flow components so I'll be repeating this experiment on the new equipment to test their 'Extreme' claim. CPU Cleaning Kit I'll start out by testing the TIM cleaner: First, here's the CPU and the block still covered in the old MX-2. A quick apply of the cleaner and you see.. NOTHING! This cleaner is 100% translucent and dissipates extremely quickly meaning the only way you can tell if it's still on the block is by observing what happens to the TIM. Notice how it begins to muddy together, then all you need to do is give it one clean sweep with a clean towel.. ..and the surface is clean (mostly). One more application leaves a lovely shine: I'm not sure this was part of the intended usage scenarios but it leaves a lovely shine on the Chrome plate that holds the Fuzion Block So far I can't fault the 'Cleaning Kit'; prior to this I've preferred the 2-step Arctic cleaning + polishing liquids but the Phobya liquid achieves as good if not better results with much less pedantry in the application. Thumbs up so far! HeGrease Extreme Phobya have provided us with a 3.5g tube of HeGrease and an applicator. Traditionally I'm not one to use the plastering technique as previous tests have supported the pea-drop method, but as Phobya have provided it I'll be giving it a shot. This paste loves to clump up making the applicator method particularly slow; it either pastes over as thick as cement or just as you've got it perfect- is wiped clean by the sheer edge. After buttering the CPU for a while we get something close to an even spread. I'm still not sure how keen I am about this so the excess TIM is rubbed into the block using the applicator. Something it's much more adept at. There's not much shifting when you re-apply the block and it glues pretty well - even with the pressure of the loop tubing acting on it, it didn't shift position. Handy for those slightly trickier fittings. RESULTS All core temperature readings were taken using RealTemp 3.70, ambient was measured using a traditional non-toxic thermometer. All measurements are in °C. For the idle tests the machine was allowed to warm up for a period of 1-hour, results were then taken for a period of four hours while the machine sat in Windows. These results are then averaged for each core and as a set. For the load tests PRIME95v2511x64 is set to In-Place Large FFTs over all 4 cores and allowed to run for one hour before measurement is taken. This allows the coolant in the loop to heat up to a stable level, hopefully giving us a flat results. The measurements are then taken for 4 hours and averaged as above. MX-2 Idle: 43.32, 39.57, 38.53, 42.32 Amb: 20.50 - 20.75 Load: 61.84, 57.13, 58.41, 60.18 Amb: 20.75 - 21.50 Phobya Idle: 42.21, 38.20, 38.04, 40.87 Amb: 20.75 - 20.00 Load: 64.33, 57.71, 57.05, 59.56 Amb: 20.00 - 21.00 From the graph it may appear that there are mild differences between the two pastes, however if you hold these results against the ambient delta you'll see they practically level out, making these two thermal pastes homogeneous. My only concern was the higher temperatures seen in Core1 using the Phobya material, however I suspect this was due to the applicator not evenly distributing the TIM. Conclusion So without a doubt I'm a fan of the thermal cleaner, it shames the Arctic cleaner in terms of efficiency.. and that's all we want. A cleaner should remove the existing gunk and leave a shimmering polished surface- and this does. No messing about. With regards to the TIM however I'm still on the rails. The Phobya is clearly a thicker paste and as such should provide a denser transfer material, however it doesn't like to spread out. The MX-2 on the other hand is simple, drop a blob in the middle and re-bolt (carefully). Given we're in a tie situation it's going to have to come down to value and with the MX-2 at £1.03/g and the HeGrease at £1.81/g it's clearly the MX-2 who keeps the title. OCZ Addendum The initial delay in writing this review was due in-part to a critical fault with my OCZ RepaerX memory. This meant my RAM had to be replaced completely. (Un)Fortunately a 600W OCZ from a secondary rig had exploded and also needed to be returned, however the returns office is in The Netherlands and OCZ offer no collection services. Given that the PSU weighed 2.1Kg with no packaging this placed it into the more expensive bracket of deliveries, costing £37 total. Not great on a £55 power supply which only lasted 1.5 years.. but I digress. OCZ informed me that they no longer stock the RAM and instead would offer a refund of the American market price (93.66USD/59.16GBP). Our market still currently lists the ReaperX at ~140GBP. OCZ insisted this would allow me to buy appropriate RAM on our market, pointing at some bog-standard Geil RAM with simple heat shrouds. I informed OCZ that the nature of the machine required the extra cooling ability of their RAM's heatsinks, hence why I initially purchased it. This fell on deaf ears. So if you were wondering how on earth OCZ could support their lifetime warranty - they don't. As such I've kitted out the rig with some Kingston HyperX as it has the largest heatsinks among what's still reasonably available. Despite this I'm still seeing significantly increased RAM temperatures over the OCZ equipment making it clearly inferior in this scenario. As such I am no longer advocating the use of OCZ products. Crucial and Kingston are well known for giving like-for-like replacements, even on out-of-date products. From my personal experience; the last Crucial RAM they could not replace, they refunded at the original cost. Following this I will be completely shifting my support to them.
