Today, we’re reviewing Alphacool’s thermal paste range, featuring the two latest models Rise and Apex as well as older models Subzero and Silver. These are high-performance, relatively affordable thermal pastes.
These thermal pastes are available at €8.98 and €15.98 for the Rise and Apex models in 4g. And €14.98 and €12.98 for the Silver and Subzero models in 30g and 3.5g.
Thanks to Alphacool for supplying these thermal pastes for our tests.
[nextpage title=”Alphacool’s thermal paste range:”]
Alphacool’s new Rise and Apex thermal pastes are supplied in cardboard and plastic packaging. Here, the visual style reflects the new Alphacool product range. Subzero thermal paste is still packaged in the old Alphacool graphic style. Silver just comes in a plastic pouch.
Inside the packaging, we have the thermal paste tube, without instructions or spatula, except for the Subzero, which comes with a spatula.
For the thermal paste tube, we have a black label with the name of the paste and the brand on the back. No visual on the paste level, which is a shame, but the label can be removed quite easily, so it’s not a big problem.
As for the specifications of these thermal pastes, we’re talking about thermal conductivities ranging from 1.7 W/m.K for the silver to 17 W/m.K for the Apex. The most interesting model in terms of performance/price ratio is the Rise at 6 W/m.K. The thermal pastes are fairly fluid, especially the Subzero, which is very liquid. Silver, on the other hand, is very thick, bordering on plaster, with many particles.
Here are the tables of the different thermal pastes tested on our configuration.
[nextpage title=”The test configuration:”]
Here’s the configuration that will be used for the test:
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Tachyon (BIOS Z790 Tachyon X6V)
- Processor: INTEL CORE I5 13900K
- Memory : 2x16gb SK Hynix A die
- Graphics card: Gainward RTX 4090 Phantom Alphacool Core
- Cooling system: Watercool Heatkiller IV PRO MO-RA3 420
- SSD: Western Digital SN850 500gb
- Power supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W
- Operating system: Windows 11 64-bit (version 21H2)
- Display: Millenium MD34-PRO V2
Cooling is provided by a Watercool MO-RA3 420 radiator with nine Arctic P14 fans. The pump used is a Watercool D5 PWM mounted on a Watercool Heakiller tube D5 200mm reservoir. The whole system is controlled by an Aquacomputer Octo and an Aquacomputer high flow USB flowmeter.
[nextpage title=”New protocols:”]
Our new thermal paste test protocol is very new. It’s based on an Intel RaptorLake platform with an I5-13900K and a Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Tachyon on the CPU side. Tests are carried out under the same conditions with a Heatkiller IV waterblock at constant pressure.
Protocol for CPU measurements :
The I5-13600KF is set to 300W load on cinebench R23. Pcore is at 5500MHz, Ecore at 3900MHz and cache at 4500MHz.
Thermal pastes are applied crosswise on the CPU, the method that works best with all thermal pastes on the market. The waterblock is mounted and tightened to the screw stop, allowing the springs to apply the correct pressure.
Next, a cinebench R23 stress test is run to bring the thermal paste up to temperature with 10min of heavy load. Care is taken to ensure the same water temperature between each benchmark.
Each thermal paste is applied three times (excluding liquid metal) with one R23 cinebench per application. The minimum delta T° value between water and CPU is recorded from these nine measurements.
[nextpage title=”Results:”]
Let’s move on to the results and impressions of these Alphacool thermal pastes. Let’s start with the application of the pastes. The Rise, Apex and Subzero are easy to apply crosswise, and the paste spreads easily. Silver, on the other hand, is impossible to apply correctly, as the particles create a gap and the viscosity prevents the thermal paste from spreading properly. Given the solid particles in the thermal paste, we only made a single application to avoid damaging the CPU or waterblock.
Results on CPU:
As you can see, the Alphacool Apex performs very well on CPUs, as does the Rise. The Subzero lags behind and the Silver is out of the running, with temperatures reaching 100°C. In terms of GPU use, the APEX is not the most optimal, and the more fluid Rise should be preferred.
Measurements were taken with water between 30°C and 31°C and a flow rate of 150 L/h. Here are details of the best measurements over 3 readings per thermal paste.
On Cinebench R20, the gaps are narrowing, with the Apex remaining at the top of the ranking, but the Rise managing to keep its performance close to that of the Artic MX-4 and KFA² TG-002.
Measurements were taken with water between 28°C and 29.5°C and a flow rate of 150 L/h. Here are details of the best measurements over 3 readings per thermal paste.
Please note that due to a lack of thermal paste, the Kingpin Cooling KPX and Noctua NT-H2 could not be retested with the new protocol.
[nextpage title=”Conclusion:”]
We’ve come to the end of this test. With its Apex and Rise, Alphacool offers an interesting new range of thermal pastes. Where the Apex is very effective on CPUs but not very suitable for GPUs, we have the Rise to adapt to all situations. Subzero is very effective on GPUs thanks to its fluidity. As for Silver, we can’t recommend it given its composition, which can be dangerous for certain components, and its very poor performance.
As a reminder, these thermal pastes are available at €8.98 and €15.98 for the Rise and Apex models in 4g. And €14.98 and €12.98 for the Silver and Subzero models in 30g and 3.5g
Alphacool Rise
We liked :
- CPU performance
- Viscosity (ideal on GPU)
- Price
We would have liked :
- Nothing
Alphacool Apex
We liked :
- CPU performance
We would have liked :
- Better viscosity
- Less particles
Alphacool Subzero
We liked :
- Viscosity (ideal on GPU)
We would have liked :
- Better performance
- A more attractive price
Alphacool Silver
We liked :
- Price
We would have liked :
- Better viscosity
- Less particles
- Better performance
