Methodology for comparing thermal pastes.

[whoololon]

Whenever I look at comparisons of thermal pastes, I find that the testing methodology is always the same: apply the paste, mount the heatsink, take temperature readings at rest, take temperature readings under load, disassemble the heatsink, clean off the paste, and start over.

There is no indication of curing time, no degradation chart... that is, what matters is what is measured in the fifteen minutes that the test usually takes, with the compound freshly applied.

The closest thing to a test as I think it should be done, I mixed the data of applying liquid metal as TIM between the DIE and the IHS after removing the micro, and the paste between the IHS and the heatsink, alternating reapplications and replacements of both for three months. With the data mixed, it was of little use to me.

Do you know of any site where the pastes are tested in a more explicit manner?

Thanks in advance.

[krampak]

In this tomshardware article they say:

1x four-hour burn-in, followed by a break of at least two hours
4x one-hour measurement, with one-hour breaks
Total time at least 16 hours per thermal product and cooler

It's not days, but something is something... that is, it's from 2017 (although they compare a lot).