- Review -

16.03.2013 Reliable PC Reviews

As you can see in our stock speed test the Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound was at the top of the chart. It performed just as well as any other compound, it even out performed the Prolimatech PK-1 and the Cooler Master Extreme Fusion x1 pastes. The NT-H1 was able to keep our Intel Core i5 3570k CPU at a cool 44 degrees Celsius under full load. At idle our CPU only ran at 33 degrees Celsius. [...] Coming into this review I wasn’t too sure what to expect from the Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound. I had always used Arctic MX-2 as my go to thermal paste, but I was definitely excited to see how the NT-H1 stacked up. Needless to say I, was quite surprised. It performed quite well against some other well known thermal compounds. Noctua may not be known for their thermal compounds, but their NT-H1 is definitely something to keep in mind next time you’re shopping around for thermal paste. Currently it’s priced at just $9.99 at Newegg and even comes with free shipping! That’s not a bad price to pay for peace of mind that you’re using a quality thermal paste on your CPU. After all, why spend several hundreds of dollars on a CPU but skimp on thermal compound? With the NT-H1 excelling in our consistency and smear tests, we definitely have to recommend it as the most easy to use compound that we tested. We had no trouble getting a consistent even coating in any of our tests.

"The Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound has ease of use that’s unrivaled and it performs wonderfully. When we really pushed it, it was able to keep our Intel 3570k at a mere 60 degrees Celsius, even when it was overclocked to 4.5GHz!" (Mike Lewis, Reliable PC Reviews)