There are only a limited amount of manufacturers in the market right now that produce and offer quality products. Noctua as a brand stands out from the crowd and produces one of the best cooling solutions in the whole market, the hardware that we require to keep our stuff cool.
I was really impressed by the fans, which
Noctua recently launched the all-new second generation of their thermal paste NT-H2, which is the successor to NT-H1. Noctua has assured consumers that the NT-H2 will bring better performance in cooling on the table compared to the already amazing NT-H1. Noctua has launched the NT-H2 in 3.5g(grams) and 10g packing & both packages include NA-CW1 cleaning wipes. Noctua has also launched the NA-SCW1, which is comprised of 20 NA-CW1 cleaning wipes. NA-CW1 wipes help cleaning the previously installed thermal compound in a quick and efficient way.
Noctua sent us their NT-H2 thermal pastes for review along with NA-SCW1 Cleaning wipes & NT-H1 thermal pastes for comparison. I have used NT-H1 in all of my PC cooler reviews previously and I am satisfied with its results. You can put an order directly from their official link. Now lets put it into testing and start the review.
| Products | Pricing |
| Noctua NT-H2 3.5g | 12.90 EUR/USD |
| Noctua NT-H2 10g | 24.90 EUR /USD |
| Noctua NT-H1 3.5g | 7.90 EUR/USD |
| Noctua NT-H1 10g | 14.90 EUR/USD |
| Noctua NA-SCW1 | 7.90 EUR/USD |
Specifications
| Weight | 3.5g / 10g |
| Volume | 1.2ml / 3.6ml |
| Density | 2.81 g/cm³ |
| Color | Grey |
| Accessories | 3 / 10 NA-CW1 cleaning wipes |
| Recommended storage time (before use) | up to 3 years |
| Recommended usage time (on the CPU) | up to 5 years |
| Recommended storage temperature | room temperature |
| Operating temperature | -50 to 200°C |
Unboxing & Closer Look
On the top side of the box, Noctua has mentioned that this box contains 20x cleaning wipes. Size of each cleaning wipe is 15 x 12 CM, which is a sufficient size to clean the CPU’s IHS and cooler’s base.
On the back side of the box, We can see there are users instructions printed. It states that NA-SCW1 is made in Taiwan. There are few safety guidelines printed on the bottom of the box. there are two QR codes on the top, which user can scan to watch the video regarding the instructions of using the NA-SCW1 wipes on the Noctua’s youtube channel.
Noctua has made two different packings for NT-H2, one being the regular 3.5g and the other one for 10g. There is not much difference in boxes, whole layout is nearly identical except for the size of the box. On the front side of the box NT-H2 is written in vertical manner and features of the paste are mentioned on the front side as well. You can see brand name and logo printed on the bottom right side of the box. Packing is as premium as packing of the coolers offered by Noctua.
The backside of the box mentions the specification of NT-H2 & Scope of delivery.
You can see that it is made in Taiwan. Noctua printed the features of NT-H2 in English and German language. On the bottom, Safety precautions are written.
Unboxing the packaging reveals the paste itself tucked in the middle of the cardboard box, It suggests that Usage instructions are mentioned on the backside of the box. Packaging felt really premium while opening the box.
The inner container has NT-H2 3.5gm Noctua Thermal Paste printed at the left side. The 10gm packing will have the same layout except that 3.5gm will be replaced by 10gm. The mobile tags are printed on the right side. Scan them for the video instructions at their official youtube channel.
On the
The 3.5g NT-H2 comes with 3 sachets of NA-CW1 cleaning wipes in the package.
The 10g NT-H2 comes with 10 sachets of NA-CW1 cleaning wipes.
Testing & Methodology
Following configuration is used to test the thermal performance of the Noctua thermal pastes:
I have used
- AMD Ryzen 1700 @ 4.0GHz – 1.370V
- ASUS ROG
CROSSHAIR VI - G.Skill Trident Z DDR4 16GB @ 2933Mhz
- Corsair Vengeance RED LED 16GB @ 2666MHz
- Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4
- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 – Windforce OC
- Samsung 960 Evo 500GB
I have used Aida 64 Extreme’s System Stability Test with CPU, FPU, System Memory & Cache checked. Before running the test, I closed every application and let the system sit idle for a while so that I can record temperatures in a proper manner. I ran the test 3 times for 20 minutes on each run. I left system at idle state for 10 minutes between each test run. I recorded the temperatures using HWinfo. I have taken both idle and under load temperatures. The ambient temperature of the room was recorded to be 28 degrees while running the tests.
Results
The following graph shows the result of the average of all runs I ran with both thermal pastes. The ambient temperature of the room was set to be the same while running the tests. Noctua’s NT-H2 showed better results while running the tests. As you can see in the graph, the maximum temperature with NT-H1 was recorded to be 67.5°C. While with NT-H2, The maximum temperature was recorded to be 64.36°C.
The difference is clear as you can see in the results. With different CPU chips, you will get different results. The idle temperatures are not necessary for these tests, but I have included both idle and load to show you the difference directly. With NT-H1, my CPU idled around 41.62 degrees. With NT-H2, my CPU idled around 38.96.
Now the results here clearly show that Noctua has delivered an amazing
Conclusion
Noctua launched the second generation of their Noctua NT-H1 previously, Which is already
The NT-H2 has
Noctua has priced the NT-H2 3.5g for $12.9 and 10g for $24.9. But is the price tag justified for the second generation of Noctua’s thermal compounds? Based on our results, I have observed improvements over NT-H1. The difference of 3.14 degrees
In the end, I would recommend this Thermal paste to enthusiasts. As its going to show a good amount of difference in terms of cooling.
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