Indigo Xtreme Thermal Interface?

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w00tMkay

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 11, 2002
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Hi! I was researching thermal material at work today, and bumped into this site, with some pretty innovative ideas and was wondering if anyone has any personal experience with this product. It's promises seem pretty extreme, and i was just wondering if their science is legitimate/is this product worth it? 20$ for 2 applications seems STEEP!. This is information right from their site. I'm shocked if this product is so much better it doesn't make it into the "main stream" review roundups.

http://indigo-xtreme.com/

Quote:

Its innovative and patent-pending structure deploys a highly conductive Phase Change Metal Alloy (PCMA) into all the surface micro-asperities on your CPU lid and heat sink, resulting in the lowest resistance heat path of any thermal interface product available today.

High Thermal Performance
•Bulk thermal conductivity >20 W/mK
•Lowest overall thermal resistance of any TIM available today
•Superior performance right out of the gate
 
I did see that review, but it seems to be the only data on this TIM, there are several other sites that recycle the origonal sources charts, it seems too good to be true.
 
yeah right whatever but $20 per mount and the stupid installation instructions, don't know if its worth the hassle and the price. the name sounds like some viagra type shit sold in catalogs.
 
Seems like a nice idea, but I don't like the idea of over heating your CPU to get it to flow out and the price, when you can get something like Coollaboratory, that does not need the high heat to flow out and I get about 10 apps (on CPU) and another 2 on my video card with one tube and its cheaper.
 
Lollipop said:
...but the installation could be harmful to the CPU.
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Harmfull ??? says who ? Have you ever used it ? I have. And it is worth every penny imo.

Fafeifa said:
yeah right whatever but $20 per mount and the stupid installation instructions, don't know if its worth the hassle and the price. the name sounds like some viagra type shit sold in catalogs.
Click to expand...

That's wrong, it's ~$10 per mount.... and it's both worth the hassle and the price - IF you follow the instructions 100%. If you don't follow the instructions you will almost for sure end up wasting your money.

BlueFireIce said:
Seems like a nice idea, but I don't like the idea of over heating your CPU to get it to flow out and the price, when you can get something like Coollaboratory, that does not need the high heat to flow out and I get about 10 apps (on CPU) and another 2 on my video card with one tube and its cheaper.
Click to expand...

Have used both Liquid Pro and Liquid Metal Pad, to date Liquid Pro is one of the best tim's I ever have used, almost on par with Indigo Xtreme.
Liquid Metal Pad is not worth the money imo, tricky to install and is a hell to remove it again. I ended up relapping my CPU :)

And burn in of heatpastes is pretty normal, I have always done it - no matter if it is/was recommended or not.
One of the TIM's I wouldn't buy is AS5 - AS5 is really not worth the money.

Another test of Indigo Xtreme + Coollaboratory Liquid Pro @ http://translate.google.com/transla...i-bune-paste-termice-metal-vs-carbon-vs-oxizi
 
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Indigo extreme is THE BEST out there...though the cost also conveys that.

and even an hour at 90C would not harm your CPU...
 
Wumpus13 said:
and even an hour at 90C would not harm your CPU...
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you are an idiot just hyping a product without knowing why.

indigo TIM is not a magical protectant for your CPU that magicly allows it to run hotter without damage. 90C is still 90C and it is still too hot for your CPU no matter what TIM you use.

you can argue that it is more efficient at transfering heat from a CPU than another product, but you can not argue that it has any effect on the maximum operating temperature of a CPU.
 
I think he's talking about his experience. 90C for a long time has never harmed his cpu so he doesn't believe it's harmful. Two to three "personal processors"is a really bad test quantity to make that call.
 
I just thought I'd relay my experiences, since I've used the Indigo XS.

First use: Followed the instructions to the letter, but still got poor reflow because the flexible plastic "frame" (that remains around the metal after you remove the top and bottom "liners") was being interfered with by the retention bars of my Noctua (NH-C12P SE14) cooler. I thought I had pressed the adhesive part down firmly enough that the fact that the part extending out was being bent up (slightly) wouldn't matter — it did matter. Make sure that the overhanging plastic of the frame is not being interfered with by anything.

Second use: I carefully trimmed the aforementioned frame – (leaving the top and bottom liner intact) – so that it would fit within the braces of my heatsink retainer, cleaned the old ETI off (see below), and re-applied a new one. This time, I got the temperature graph "profile" I was expecting — (high temps for 6 or 7 minutes, followed by a slight drop for a minute, then an eventual leveling).

When all was said and done, I got a drop of about 4-6° vs. Noctua NT-H1 paste under load, but was still running too hot for my liking — (I suspect it may be my processor may be running too hot altogether).

I imagine someone with a non-defective CPU would have good results — (probably better than anything short of Coollaboratory Liquid Pro, which I understand to be a pain to remove).

I should note that removing the first application, contrary to other reports, wasn't difficult at all; simply peel up all four corners of the flexible plastic "frame" and all but a couple of tiny specks – (easily removable with the included "Thermal Surface Cleaner") – comes up as one piece.

Also, I should state that I first spoke with Intel about the possibility of permanent damage from running the CPU at 90+°C for what seems like an eternity (5-8 minutes) and they told me that there was no possibility of doing permanent harm to my i7 4790K at that temperature as it's maximum Tj is 100°C and that is supposed to be sustainable for up to 60 minutes (although I wouldn't recommend it!)
 
I love this stuff. Used it to cool my LGA1366 Xeons. It is not at all hard to apply, but you need to be extra careful with heatsink assembly as it requires quite a bit of pressure.
It fails to reflow with Asetek's AiO liquid coolinng kits, like krakens's and corsair H's, but it is the perfect partner for high mounting pressure coolers.

TIM are overrated, and it would make ZERO difference for a lower power chip a 4790k whether you are using Ceramique or Indigo Extreme as TIM, as long as your cooling solution can prevent your CPU from thermal throttle.
For 200-250w CPUs the $10/use of indigo extreme may actually represent the best temp/buck, as prices tend to run very high for the lowered temps when you use anything above a Hyper 212 EVO.
 
My main concern with all the solder like TIM's is that they damage the block/heatsink, only way to get it clean is to lap it affecting the resale value of both your CPU (if you applied it to the IHS) and the block/HS
 
Cat1yst said:
My main concern with all the solder like TIM's is that they damage the block/heatsink, only way to get it clean is to lap it affecting the resale value of both your CPU (if you applied it to the IHS) and the block/HS
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Indigo does not damage your block/cpu, so no resale value is lost. it simply peels off, unlike liquid metal stuff that gunks.

also indigo comes with cleaning kit, no lapping is needed, the whole idea of indigo is to create a metal interface that fills each crack and nook of the surface, hence it puts the lapping concept behind.
 
When I built my first water loop about eighteen months ago, I picked up some Indigo Extreme to go with it as I figured, meh, even if I muck it up, $20 isn't going to make me cry if it doesn't work.

The installation process was terrifying.

I understand conceptually that damaging the CPU during the process is super-unlikely ( I work in IT as an Enterprise Architect so I get it) but I was still very apprehensive. Ultimately, I couldn't get it right. Tried with both pieces in the package, still didn't do it right.

I openly admit that it was user error, but at the end of the day it wasn't worth it to me so I opted for some thermal paste.
 
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