a.) This means no power limits on Intel’s i7-13700K, and AMD’s default power limits on AMD’s Ryzen 7 7700X. Modern CPUs, whether Intel or AMD, are difficult to cool in intensive workloads. In the past reaching 95C+ on a desktop CPU might have been a cause for concern – but with today’s processors, it is considered normal operation. Similar behavior has been present in laptops for years due to cooling limitations in tight spaces. Interestingly, when burning the MSI Kombustor card (this is what we will see in the most demanding games) the picture is somewhat different - the temperature on the graphics accelerator chip drops by 3C and the memory is parity. At the default PPT of 105W, the most intensive loads can be difficult to cool and result in the CPU running at TJMax with anything less than the strongest coolers. DeepCool’s LT720 and EKWB’s EK Elite coolers are the only two I’ve tested (yet) which can handle that much heat. As such, we’ll be looking at two metrics in this situation where coolers run with the CPU reaching TJMax (95c): Noise levels and watts cooled.

I slightly shopped out the fugly lines that Thermalright prints on their otherwise wonderful 12th Gen Correction frame. I couldn't stand looking at them. LOL. Personally I love Liquid Metal (because is quite stable despite its crazy heat transfer) but I don't think is smart to do that in the most expensive GPU in the current state of the market. Also the cooler is copper based so it would require multiple applications until it stops "drying" out.The results in this scenario are much like the previous ones, with Thermalright’s Frozen Notte performing on par with Iceberg Thermal’s IceSLEET X7 Dual in both thermal performance and total noise levels. 75W PPT In any field, “best” always depends on several categories – which we’ll get to later – but everyone can agree that for thermal paste the “best” one needs to be able to maintain the lowest CPU temperature possible.

As you can see from the data, Kooling Monster KOLD-01 beats out the next leading thermal paste by close to a full degree and the lowest-performing thermal paste by more than 4 degrees. Thermal compounds might always be compared and debated over, but the simple fact remains: PC system building needs thermal compounds to effectively dissipate thermal loads. Without them, our beloved gaming and content-producing machines would struggle to keep components cool during heated frag sessions, heavy workstation computations, or just simply browsing the web.

A whole lot of cooling for $50. But fan noise will be an issue for some.

I also received some Streacom TX13 a while ago which works great on everything and spreads much better than most other TIMs. We’ll start by first looking at performance with no power limits enforced whatsoever. There are “only” ten comparison coolers shown here, so I’ve included some of the testing results I have submitted to Tom’s Hardware to give a better idea on how Thermalright’s Frozen Notte compares to other coolers. These results are directly comparable because they were performed using the same system, by the same person (me!).