Thermal Grizzly - PhaseSheet PTM (50x40mm)- High Performance Thermal pad with Phase Change Material | Durable, not electrically Conductive | for CPU, GPU & Electronics Cooling

I've used Thermal Grizzly's graphene before; it was so impressive I knew I would never use Thermal paste again.However a laptop is a bit different from a desktop: it's going to flex, it's going to be at an angle. Also, the way laptop cooling systems attach to the motherboard don't allow for the amount mounting pressure most solutions require. The only solution that can accommodate this (relatively) reduced mounting pressure sure, and (even if small) frame flexing, is a Phase Change Pad.Regular paste quickly dries up due to "pumping," and never makes great contact, even when freshly applied. So, from the factory your laptop's cooler could be greatly improved with this product.My friend had been struggling with a 1 year old laptop that never worked right. This is an entry-mid level gaming laptop, minor power draw - not some monster with a 5090 graphics card. Since new he had problems with the CPU shooting up to 100 (or 110 according to HWINFO64) and throttling to a fraction of its advertised performance. This got worse over time: his CPU would thermal throttle just watching YouTube; putting the fans on max didn't even help (which indicates a thermal interface material contact problem). He tried using liquid metal in a desperate attempt to get it working: this is extremely risky, esp on a laptop... if just a tiny amount gets onto the motherboard your entire PC can get fried! Needless to say the liquid metal didn't work either.We decided a phase change pad was the only option left. There are other products for sale, but they don't list a brand/manufacturer; it is impossible to know the durability, thickness, thermal performance, and therefore value of these products. With Thermal Grizzly we knew we would be getting a top-of-the line product; it was worth paying a few dollars more and the no-name products: disassembling a laptop is not something you want to do more than once, be it immediately or a few months down the road, and regardless of whether you have an iGPU or a 5090, your laptop was expensive - you don't want to put some unknown product on the most important and sensitive component.The thermal grizzly pad in this size was big enough to do the CPU die and GPU die 2x. You can look up your die size if you are unsure, but the sizes are going to be very similar for most people. It is nice to have extra material, just for peace of mind - but applying this pad is very easy. Put it in the freezer for a few minutes. Peel off one of the plastic protectors, then apply just like a phone screen protector. The isn't so fragile and light weight that it will fall apart in your hands: you can adjust it etc without tearing. Even if you don't get a picture perfect application - the beauty of this product is that it forms to the exact thickness your PC requires.If one area of the CPU is getting slightly less pressure, and has a slightly larger gap between the cooler... liquid metal and paste cannot help you. This pad CAN.This totally fixed his PC - immediately. They say performance gets better over multiple cycles, but we saw a 10* drop immediately - and this is without having the fans at full blast.Long story short -- this little product fixed his laptop. It was unusable, now he is able to game for hours straight without problems. Like any gaming laptop is expected to do.Another spectacular product from Thermal Grizzly. I wouldn't use anything else.

If you're reading through reviews on this stuff, chances are you're looking to find out how it differs from standard thermal paste, and whether it's worth your time. Hopefully I can help you with that.Thermal Grizzly's Phase Change pads have many advantages over paste. Since I like to start reviews with the good, let's look at a few.Thermal paste dries out, and when it dries it loses its ability to conduct heat. It's a good practice to repaste every couple of years because of this. If you're the type of computer user who upgrades often, this probably won't apply to you since you're either getting rid of your old system before that paste dries, or you're constantly re-applying it anyway as you change cooling solutions or upgrade CPUs. On the other hand, if you like to run your systems as long as possible, these pads are for you--they DON'T dry out. Pretty nice stuff if you're going to be using them in a server or a system that won't see much in the way of regular maintenance.These pads also don't suffer from "pump out." Since your CPU and heat sink are usually made of different materials, they expand and contract at different rates. Over time, more and more paste gets pushed out until you've got areas with poor coverage. Phase change pads are solid at room temperature, and they turn into a sort of paste under high heat: your pads are expanding and contracting right along with your heatsink and CPU rather than being pushed out.I've repaired enough computers in my time to know that most of you don't apply thermal paste properly to begin with. Most folks fall into the "more is better" mindset and make a proper mess, like they're making a peanut butter sandwich. Others use far too little and have a lot of area uncovered. These pads take all the guesswork out of that by completely covering the die with a uniform layer.Also, if you're careful while removing your heat sink, you might be able to reuse the pad. It's solid at room temperature, remember, and it never dries out.If all that sounds good to you, here's how you use it.First, store the pad in the refrigerator until you're ready for it. It's solid enough at room temperature, but it'll rip less easily if it's cold. While the pad is chilling, remove your heatsink and clean off all that old paste. (Told you you use too much of it.) 99% rubbing alcohol works great for this. Take your pad out of the fridge, and line it up to your CPU surface. Use a Sharpie marker to mark off the length and width, then cut the pad to size.Now for the fun part: peel one side of plastic off the pad. Lay the exposed pad on your CPU, then press it down. Use your fingers to roll any air bubbles out of it. Then CAREFULLY... SLOWLY... peel the top plastic off. The pad is going to want to stick to the plastic more than it's going to want to stick to your CPU, so be patient with this. Once done, carefully install your heatsink (try not to slide it around, which might wrinkle the pad).Time to test temps, right? Well, no... not exactly. The pad needs a few hot/cold cycles in order to work its way into all the microscopic nooks and crannies. The general recommendation is to run a stress test for ten minutes, then power down the system to let things completely cool. Ten cycles like this is what most people recommend, but I've found four or five is enough. This is where Youtube reviewers tend to mess up, by the way: they'll slap on a pad, immediately run a stress test, then conclude the pads aren't as good as paste. Nothing could be further from the truth. Once cycled, you very likely will be getting lower temps than you would have gotten with tried-and-true paste.And you'll never have to apply it to that system again. That's my way of addressing the main disadvantage of the pads, which is that you could buy a tube of paste for what you're paying here. On the other hand, you're going to be applying that paste over and over again--and probably using too much of it anyway. (Don't worry, that's the last time I'll berate you for this.)The other downside is how meticulous you have to be about applying it. Just slow down and take your time. If the pad does rip, do your best to fix it and you should be fine.Highly recommended!

You had better believe it works! I cut it to size for my CPU chip, fastened my cooler to it, and fired up my PC. Unfortunately the cooler did not work, so my CPU started to quickly overheat (I use the AMD Ryzen Master monitoring utility which shows CPU temperature instantly). The temperature was way too high, but the case cooling provided a bit of minimal cooling. Had the thermal pad sheet not transferred the heat to the cooler -- which still had SOME residual radiant heat dissipation ability -- my CPU chip would have been fried.I have two minor issues. The first is cost. Fourteen bucks seems a bit steep. But then again, you get what you pay for. It works great, evenly spreading the conduction paste (the heat melts the sheet into a paste) between the CPU chip and the cooler.The second issue is adhesion. Yes, that's what we want, but since my cooler had failed, I needed to separate it from the CPU chip. When I tried lifting off the cooler, it pulled the CPU chip right off the motherboard, the adhesion was so strong. Again, this is proof of quality. But the problem then was separating the cooler from the chip with destroying the CPU chip. From asking ChatGPT I found that I needed my wife's hair blower. I had to heat the chip and cooler sufficiently to soften the Grizzly paste enough to twist the chip from the cooler; prying it off would warp or break the chip. A bit of a hassle but then again, you don't expect your cooler to fail, plus unlike regular thermal paste, the Grizzly PhaseSheet never has to be replaced, which is another huge plus.Needless to say, I bought another Thermal Grizzly PhaseSheet to use with my new cooler.