MAINGEAR's EPIC T1000 Phase Change Thermal Interface Material Cools off the Lab - Final Thoughts
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By Sean Kalinich
Sean Kalinich
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Only a few weeks after we showed you the performance of the MAINGEAR Epic180 we have another product from MAINGEAR in the labs. This is their DIY thermal interface material called the MAINGEAR EPIC T1000 (yes it is a terminator reference). The EPIC T1000 is a phase change alloy that changes from a solid to a liquid when exposed to heat. This creates and flow that is capable of filling in any and all pores and lines in both the CPU heat spreader and the head of your cooler (whether it is water cooling, air or other). This, technically can beat even the smoothest thermal paste on the market in terms of fill and also should be able to outperform them in terms of thermal transfer as the head of your cooler and the CPU are almost soldered together for an even and continuous surface contact. So let’s take a look at what you get with this new DIY kit from MAINGEAR and also see if it really can improve performance.
Final Thoughts - The EPIC T1000 when combined with the EPIC 180 is a potent combination. We found that it gave us quite a boost in terms of stability and performance. After seeing the reduction we decided to push this Core i7 3960 and see what we could get. Our highest clock to date on this CPU has been 4.7GHz on the same P9X79 Deluxe that we are using here.
This time we were able to hit an all-time high of 4.9GHz with a voltage of 1.5v. Before this we were not able to run 1.5v into the CPU. Every time we tried we had a BSDO right after the login screen. We have always had to use 1.475v which has prevented us from hitting 4.8 and higher. We will say that our 4.9GHz OC was not completely stable, but with some tinkering we bet it will be.