Details
The Alphacool Eisschicht Ultra Soft Thermal Pad 3W/mk 50x50x3mm is a white thermal pad, 3 mm thick, with a thermal conductivity of 3 W/mK, one pad per pack. It is not electrically conductive and can be cut to size with a pair of scissors.
Properties
- Size
- 50 x 50 x 3 mm
- Thermal conductivity
- 3 W/mK
- Electrically conductive
- No
- Color
- White
- Pieces in the pack
- 1
Against standard thermal pads
Alphacool calls the Ultra soft Eisschicht the next step in terms of thermal pads. Due to their outstanding properties, it says, they can almost be compared directly to thermal paste. This is because the sheet molds itself and clings much better to components, which Alphacool says contributes to excellent cooling performance and benefits heat transfer.
Is that better than standard thermal pads? The material acts similar to a thermal paste. Normal pads are only pressed together by the contact pressure, while the components under them are not all equally high. With different heights there can be areas that stay uneven, making the pads less effective. With the ultra soft sheet this problem doesn't exist, because the material distributes itself. It thus prevents the highest components from being subjected to increased contact pressure by the cooler.
Standard pads are quite stiff, so they can also cause too much pressure on components. In the worst cases this can cause the PCB to bend and even break. Here any excess material can spread out rather than cause problems, due to the soft consistency. That is why Alphacool calls the pad not only performance oriented, but also safer.
It cannot dry out
But this is not the only advantage Alphacool names. Moreover, the special material cannot dry out. Usually the silicone in thermal pads bleeds out over time. This makes them hard, and from a certain point their performance drops rapidly. Alphacool says this is not the case here: the pads can be used over a much longer period of time without significantly losing performance.
A thermal pad with fabric
The heat conducting material has a consistency similar to a viscous heat conducting paste. A special fabric is embedded so that it remains stable and can be used as a pad. Alphacool says this ensures a perfect distribution of the material if the element to be cooled has an uneven shape. Examples include voltage transformers (voltage converters), VRam and similar electronic components of all kinds that require cooling.
Cutting to size
Cutting is no problem. To cut the pad you should definitely leave the foil on. So it can easily be cut with scissors, just as easy as cutting paper. The cut edges remain perfectly clean and do not fray.
Where Alphacool uses it
Alphacool says the Ultra Soft Thermal Pads are superior to the usual thermal pads in many respects. They are also used with all new Eisblock Aurora graphic cards coolers from Alphacool, its GPU water blocks. More pads of this thickness are in our 3 mm and thicker thermal pads section.
Download the data sheet for this pad from Alphacool as a PDF.
