Have you seen the countless claims from countless makers of thermal grease/paste? They are all the best…have the finest ingredients…nano-tubular, micro-metallic, thermally conductive secret sauce. Many claim customer/industry tests prove their claim, yet never seem to provide proof/links to verify their claims.
So I am currently searching for independent studies that can give some insight into this. Here is what I have found so far:
Has anybody tested… paste… you know, the tasty favorite snack of pre-schoolers everywhere? I’d try it but I’m gonna go and huff some freshly mimeographed tests…
Probably because he doesn't think the hot rodding efforts are worth the marginal gains, so nobody else should bother doing something they might enjoy doing anyway.
No, it's not that at all. Those strawmen sure are easier to knock down though, aren't they?
Show me a test that shows any change at all in light output between a copper MCPCB with really bad thermal paste and a copper MCPCB soldered to the pill. Show me. I would think you would want to know if these things are real too, why am I the silly one by asking for the proof that these things actually work?
I assume the laws of thermodynamics apply so increased thermal transfer rate means the heat gets from one surface to another more easily when the interfaces are more thermally conductive. How much does that affect flashlights is a legitimate question, your saying not much, if someone wants to test this and provide some data then no one will object.
As the links i posted above demonstrate don’t use cheese in place of thermal compound
In a synthetic test where you have a tiny 1cm x 1cm patch and pumping 200 watts through it, those thermal paste charts are probably perfectly true. But change that to 30 watts through a 16mm diameter MCPCB and you can't measure any difference between the worst and the best. The difference is less than the margin of error of the measuring equipment.
Now, how much time, effort, & money (this is still 'budget light forum', right?) are you willing to invest for zero gain?
This does not mean the bottom of the MCPCB & top of the pill do not need to be flat. This does not mean a hollow pill is just as good as a solid pill. This does not mean a non-direct aluminum MCPCB with a dielectric layer in the middle is as good as a direct-thermal copper MCPCB. Do the proper prep work, that's far from 'none of this stuff matters'. The stuff that makes a difference matters. The stuff that does not make more light come out does not matter.