Today, let's take a look at the Pano-Mounts PPTM7950 phase change thermal pads. Full disclosure: Pano-Mounts did send these over for me to try out and make this video about them.
UPDATE: Pano-Mounts sent me a revised material that is easier to install, so check out the related website article and YouTube video to see that in action.
The revised kit video on YouTube:
The original video on YouTube :
Check out the Pano-Mounts 40x40x0.2mm (2-Pack) kit:
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| Holding the Pano-Mounts PPTM7950 thermal pad packaging. |
The specific pads I received are the 40x40 mm size, with a thickness of 0.2 mm. They are rated at 8.5 watts per meter Kelvin for thermal conductivity. What makes these interesting compared to standard thermal paste is that they're made of a thermally conductive phase change material.
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| Graphic explaining how phase change thermal pads work. |
Essentially, this means that when the material reaches a certain temperature (around 45°C according to their information), it softens and becomes more liquid-like. This allows it to flow and potentially fill in the microscopic gaps between a CPU's heat spreader and the heatsink surface, which could lead to better thermal transfer compared to when it's mostly solid at room temperature. It's an interesting alternative to consider compared to traditional thermal paste.
What's in the package?
The package doesn't just come with the thermal pads; it also includes a few accessories. There's a small brush, likely for dusting off components before installation. You also get a small screwdriver and a set of plastic pry tools, which might be intended for phone repair or similar tasks, but I actually found them useful during the installation process. They also include wet and dry cleaning wipes.
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| Showing the included plastic tools. |
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| Holding the small yellow cleaning brush. |
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| Displaying the included wet/dry cleaning wipes. |
Installation Experience
The packaging itself has some basic information, but no detailed step-by-step instructions were included with the pads I received. I referred to their main installation guide on the Amazon product page. The steps are generally: clean the CPU and heatsink surfaces, measure and cut the phase change pad to the required size, peel off one protective film, apply it to the CPU, press it down, remove the second film, and then install the cooler.
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| Showing an installation guide graphic for the thermal pads. |
However, I found the actual installation process quite challenging. The pad has two protective plastic films, one harder and one softer, and getting the thermal material to cleanly separate from these films, especially near the small informational stickers on the film, proved difficult.
Attempt 1: Intel i7-6700
My first attempt was on an older system with an Intel i7-6700 CPU. This CPU has a standard rectangular/square heat spreader, which made cutting the pad to size relatively straightforward.
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| Removing air bubbles after applying the thermal material to the CPU's heat spreader. |
For this installation, I tried removing the softer plastic film first. I cut the pad to size, placed it onto the CPU, and tried to carefully peel away the remaining harder plastic layer.
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| Showing the custom cut piece of phase change material. |
Getting the material to fully release from the plastic backing was tricky. I noticed the area where the small sticker tabs are located was particularly problematic; the thermal material tended to stick to the plastic there and tear apart.
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| Close-up showing the thermal material partially stuck to the plastic film near the sticker area. |
If you can, try to cut your piece from an area of the pad that avoids these sticker sections, as it might make removing the film easier. While perfect coverage might not be strictly necessary since it's a phase change material designed to flow, getting it applied cleanly was harder than expected.
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| Cleaning the base of the heatsink used on the Intel build. |
Also, the heatsink on this older build has noticeable gaps between the heat pipes and the base plate, which might not be ideal for such a thin (0.2mm) pad, potentially leaving air gaps.
Attempt 2: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
Next, I tried installing a pad on my main system, which uses an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X. This proved even more challenging. The Ryzen heat spreader isn't a simple square or rectangle; it has cut-out sections, making it difficult to achieve full coverage with a square-cut pad.
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| Pointing at the irregular shape of the Ryzen 9 9900X heat spreader. |
This time, I removed the harder plastic film first and pressed the pad onto the CPU. Again, parts of it stuck well, but I had issues near the sticker area on the film, resulting in incomplete coverage and gaps.
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| The thermal pad being applied to the Ryzen CPU, showing some gaps in coverage. |
I tried using the included tools to scrape some excess material from the leftover pad piece and fill in the gaps, but the material didn't really want to stick to the CPU surface this way. It was difficult to improve the application significantly.
Performance Observations
Pano-Mounts suggests that the thermal performance improves over one or two days as the material goes through heat cycles. After letting both systems run for a few days, I did some temperature checks.
On the main Ryzen PC, running multiple applications including Prime95, OBS, video editors, etc., the CPU hit a maximum of nearly 83°C. This is a bit higher than my initial tests right after installation, but the workload was much heavier, so it's not a direct comparison.
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| The 9900x with Corsair TM30 thermal paste compared to the pad after a few days. |
Comparing tests running only Prime95 shortly after installation versus previous thermal paste under similar conditions, the phase change pad seemed to be around 2 degrees Celsius lower on average, but again, variables like ambient room temperature could play a role.
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| Comparing temperature readings from the Ryzen system days after install (left) vs. same day (right). |
On the older Intel i7-6700 system, the results were also decent. Comparing the phase change pad after a few days to whatever old thermal paste was on there (which hadn't been changed in years), there seemed to be a benefit. Running Prime95, the maximum temperature was around 58°C shortly after installing the pad to 56°C after a few days. This was also a few degrees cooler than the old paste.
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| Comparing temperature results for the Intel i7-6700: old paste (left) vs. phase change pad after a few days (right). |
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| Comparing temperatures on the Intel system right after install (left) vs. after 1-2 days (right), showing a drop from ~59C max to 56C max. |
It's hard to definitively say how much of a difference the pads make due to all the variables involved in testing. However, one potential advantage of these materials is their longevity; they shouldn't dry out like traditional thermal paste, which could be beneficial for systems you don't want to open often, like servers.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the Pano-Mounts PPTM7950 phase change thermal pads are an interesting concept. The installation was definitely challenging for me, particularly getting the material off the backing films cleanly and achieving full coverage on irregularly shaped CPUs like the Ryzen 9900X. You really need to be careful and patient during application. Plan what you are going to do!
Depending on your specific CPU, your heatsink's base flatness, and your skill with delicate applications, these could be a worthwhile experiment or a bit frustrating compared to thermal paste. If you're looking for a potentially long-lasting thermal interface material and enjoy tinkering, it might be a fun project to try.
Thanks again to Pano-Mounts for sending these over for me to test out. If you want to see the installation attempts and results visually, be sure to check out the full video!