Thermal pads like Honeywell PTM7950 are typically praised for their performance in tightly-packed laptops and gaming consoles, but does using PTM7950 in a Desktop PC make sense? We’ve always associated desktop PCs with the flexibility of applying high-quality thermal paste, so we decided to put the PTM7950 to the test and find out if it can compete—or even outperform—traditional thermal compounds in a standard desktop setup.
Honeywell PTM7950 is a high-performance Phase Change Material (PCM) designed to minimise thermal resistance at thermal interfaces across a range of applications. Unlike traditional thermal pastes, this material changes state with heat, improving contact and lowering interface resistance. It’s especially known for long-term stability and not drying out over time, making it an appealing alternative for users who want set-and-forget cooling performance.
We conducted our tests using a Windows 11 Pro desktop PC with the following specifications:
Each thermal compound was applied identically, and Cinebench was used to stress test the CPU under identical conditions. We measured temperature, power consumption, and clock speeds to evaluate thermal performance.
The clock speed graph shows some variation among the compounds. The original thermal solution (red line) generally maintained higher average core clocks, with a noticeable increase around the 9-minute mark when the second Cinebench pass began.
Noctua NT-H2 (yellow) and Arctic MX-4 (purple) followed closely, with PTM7950 (pink) showing similar but slightly lower frequencies throughout most of the test. Differences between the aftermarket compounds were minor and remained within a close range for the duration of the test.
Based on our test results, PTM7950 in a desktop PC appears to perform very comparably to Arctic MX-4 and Noctua NT-H2. All four thermal compounds maintained stable performance throughout the test. The most noticeable difference was in temperature, where the original thermal solution consistently ran hotter than the aftermarket options. Differences in power consumption, clock speed, and CPU utilisation were comparatively minor. The three aftermarket compounds—Arctic MX-4, Noctua NT-H2, and Honeywell PTM7950—all demonstrated improved thermal behaviour over the factory-applied solution.
Among the aftermarket compounds, differences were relatively small. However, one notable characteristic of PTM7950 is its design focus on long-term reliability, with the material not expected to dry out over time as traditional thermal pastes might.
These findings reflect performance within one day of application and do not account for potential long-term changes. Further testing will help assess how each compound performs after extended use.
We plan to publish further results comparing Honeywell PTM7950 samples from different sources; please note we cannot verify the genuineness of any of these samples since they were not purchased directly from Honeywell or approved distributors. Additionally, we’ll revisit this desktop setup after two months of continuous use to see how the thermal compounds hold up over time.
Interested in purchasing your own sample of PTM7950? Here is a non-affiliated link to the listing we used for this testing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225680389112
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