So, after 10 years on an i7-860 based system, in mid 2019, I purchased a new computer with the new at that time, Ryzen 9 3900X. When ordering this machine from a boutique, I chose a thermal compound upgrade for the thermal compound between the 3900X and the Cooler Master ML120L AIO cooler that the boutique used. The upgraded compound turned out to be this Cooler Master MasterGel Maker product.
Fast forward to 2021, and for no good reason other than "Fear of Missing Out", I was able to get a 5950X and replaced my 3900X. So I purchased the same Cooler Master MasterGel Maker product from Amazon when doing my CPU upgrade.
So Cooler Master has a video on Youtube showing how to use the applicator to apply thin "stripes" of compound across the surface of the CPU heat spreader as opposed to the pea size glob that you hope gets spread out evenly as you ratchet your HSF or pump onto your CPU. This looked like a better way to cover the heat spreader evenly and it looked stupid simple.
Well, when I applied the compound as shown in the Cooler Master video, my experience was not quite as precise or graceful. I chalk this up to being naturally inept and I did not pull the motherboard out of the system since I had enough clearance to do the application of compound in the PC chassis. All said and done though, I did not get any compound on components and even though it took me 2 attempts to reseat my ML120L block, this product appears to work.
So my only real benchmark to see if this stuff is "working" is that before removing my 3900X, I used the CPU-Z utility's bult in bench tab and ran a cpu stress test on all 24 threads of the 3900X for about 15 minutes. I had the Asus Armory Crate app up and just watched CPU temps. It sat around 60 C.
Note that 3900X and 5950X are TDP rated 105W CPU's even though 5950X has 4 more cores and 8 more threads. So after swapping in the 5950X, I performed the same Stress test with CPU-Z's bench tab albeit upping the thread count to 32 from 24. Again, after 15 minutes I sat around the same 60 C temperature range.
Now granted, I do not know how CPU-Z 's Stress utility compares to Aida64 or Cinebench or even real multithread workloads, however, after about a week and a half now on the 5950X, the machine is stable, and as far as "fan noise" and temps and overall just listening to how hard the AIO cooler is working throughout the day while using the PC, it seems just like it did with the 3900X.
I am typically working remotely 5 days a week and use my PC to remote desktop into other machines. So it is typically on 8 hours a day doing low stress tasks. After hours, I play games on it and it doesn't "sound" like it is working harder when on the 3900X.
So in the end, is it the MasterGel Maker that made the difference? Or am I just not working the system hard enough to stress my AIO cooler. My take away is that I am on par with what the 3900X was when I initially got the system in 2019.
Lastly, the aforementioned AIO cooler is only a 120mm cooler and I perform no overclocking and I also have PBO disabled. I do have DDR4-3000 memory with the XMP profile enabled but honestly, I am not stressing this machine enough to justify the 5950X nor the 3900X I upgraded from.
I do plan to use more of this compound as I intend to put the 3900X into my son's B350 based motherboard upgrading from his Ryzen 5 2600. Maybe I will post an update when I perform that upgrade.
For now though, I do recommend this product.
| Brand | Cooler Master |
|---|---|
| Series | HTK-002-U1-GP |
| Item model number | HTK-002-U1-GP |
| Item Weight | 1.27 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 3 x 0.5 x 5 inches |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 3 x 0.5 x 5 inches |
| Color | High Performance Thermal |
| Manufacturer | Cooler Master USA, Inc. |
| ASIN | B0009PTBZ6 |
| Country of Origin | China |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | September 15, 2006 |
