OCZ Freeze Extreme Thermal Compound Review

Packaging


OCZ Freeze came to us in retail packaging which was very similar to how some RAM is packed nowadays. Meanwhile, the back of the package shows a short description of OCZ Freeze, some caution marks, product specifications and a UPC code.


The 3 gram tube of OCZ Freeze Extreme is securely sealed in a hard, see-through plastic cover that protects its contents quite well. Unfortunately, getting into one of these clamshell packages is next to impossible without the use of a good scissor but it can prevent theft at a retail store level.


The OCZ Freeze tube is a syringe filled with 3 grams of TIM, which is supposedly enough to apply onto a surface of 60cm². This tube is somewhat smaller than their older Ultra 5+, but it contains the same amount of thermal compound. What we've noticed also, is that the OCZ Freeze labelling is right-hand oriented while the Ultra 5+ is left-hand oriented. This is a weird little detail, but the lefties among us will know what I'm talking about.


Usage Characteristics

After having used many different thermal compounds, I have come to realize that every manufacturer requests their compound to be applied in a certain way. In the case of the OCZ Freeze, OCZ provides you with a page on their website, which gives you a detailed description of how to use your new thermal compound.

Here is an excerpt:

“The presence of an Integrated Heatspreader (IHS) on the CPU greatly facilitates the application of the thermal compound. Place a small amount of Freeze (roughly the size of a grain of rice) on the center of the IHS. Lower the CPU cooler directly down onto the CPU to minimize smearing, and push it gently into place. It may appear that only a fraction of the heat spreader has paste installed, the cooler will squeeze the paste out to the appropriate width over time. If necessary, the CPU cooler can be wiggled slightly to facilitate the initial spreading of the thermal compound.”


Even though this OCZ thermal compound is neither silver nor metal based, it has a very light grey color like many other pastes out there. It comes out of the tube easily and its consistency makes it very spreadable over your CPU/GPU. The consistency of OCZ Freeze is a bit thicker than MX-2 but a lot more fluid than AS-5, which in turn makes it really easy to work with in case you wish to spread it out with your fingers or a small spatula.

Due to the huge pressure of modern heatsinks, the thermal compound will spread out easily and equally over your CPU. When you take your heatsink off and look at the base of the cooler, you will see that the paste worked the way it was supposed to; the thermal compound is basically squeezed to the outside edges of your chip, from underneath the base, due to the pressure.

Cleaning up OCZ Freeze when you are changing your heatsink or processor is a breeze. Where MX-2 stayed rather fluid over the period of time that we have used it, OCZ Freeze became a bit dryer than it was when it came out of the tube. This dryness does not affect temperatures; it only makes the cleaning part a lot more pleasurable.


Another positive point is that since OCZ Freeze does not contain metal particles, it is NOT electrically conductive so it won't cause you any shorts if you happen to spill some onto places where it should not be. In addition, it does not need a curing or settling time, which is great because now we do not have to wait anymore before we see our temperatures dropping by significant amounts.