In my experience GD900 works rather well and is quite sticky.
Besides GD900 and way price-ier there's GD900-1 and then GD007 …
:-)
If you want to use liquid metal, conductonaut is the best option.
If you want regular thermal paste, I use MX-4 because it’s one of the best but also has other advantages like being cheap for a large tube, being easy to clean off, having low viscosity, etc.
Other thermal pastes that are good include NT-H1, kryonaut, IC diamond.
Thanks for the answers. I may try better GD pastes one day.
Frankly, I forgot that the first light I’m going to try has a brass pill. So I think liquid metal is an option?
Though if I go this way, my pick will be galinstan as it’s way cheaper than the other options.
But for alu this doesn’t work.
GD-900 that I have is only marginally worse than MX-4. Definitely the difference is not worth the investment.
If I were to switch, I would probably go with Gelid GC-Extreme because it:
- is nearly the top performer
- which maximizes the improvement over GD900
- doesn’t have problem with drying
- is not very thick
- is alu-safe
It is expensive though.
All non-liquid-metal thermal pastes are fine on aluminum, never had problems with MX-4 drying out, it’s been in my PC for like 5 years now and temps are the same.
On he other side, I had/have problems with MX-2, after few months it's completely dry? AS-5 was similar, dry after few months.
Why do you need such thermal pastes and extremes? This led gets the maximum output at low currents around 4.5A
I can’t wait to get mine!
Kryonaut is also known for drying up.
That’s exactly my question. 
We can discuss what is better and what is worse. But is the difference going to be 0.1, 1 or 10% with this LED? Anybody bold enough to make a guess or curious enough to try?
Meh, looking at the surface areas of LED board and shelf, this is like 100 times larger than the thermal slug of the LED.
And as long as there’s just a thin layer in between, so preferably with screws or other wise pressed down firmly, it will be fine.
Many tests have shown this.
The drying up seems like the biggest problem though.
Once the grease is dry, it will do a poor job.
So frankly, i think you could maybe better use silicone grease than thermal gunk that will dry up.
When you cool an LED more it gets its maximum output at higher currents and also outputs more lumens/lux.
Some quick calcs.
If the 980 lumens peak from Led4Power’s test is accurate we can expect almost 300cd/mm^2 out of this emitter.
I read that conductonaut affects bare aluminum not sure if this would be the best option for an aluminum flashlight.
Look here:
Yes I know it can’t be used on aluminum.
Holy cow, am I impressed with this LED. Just dropped one in a run of the mill Convoy C8. I need to adjust the reflector but this thing came alive. Wow. Just glad you guys are around or I would never have known the possibilities of this LED. Now I need to figure out what to put it in next.
so, anyone has real figure about DD driver and low drain cell( ncr18650B, ncr18650GA, samsung 35e)
i am planning to put it to emisar D1s, what is the throw i can expect? half a mile?
I actually have one of those. I curious as to who makes a good spacer for this LED. I had to super glue one in place to hold it as close to center on a C8. It’s OK but could be better. Any ideas? Maybe the 3535 spacer modded. Hoping someone makes one.
I've been successful in glueing the typical 5050 plastic spacer of a Convoy S2+ around a 3535 emitter over its MCPCB. Just be frugal with the glue and/or clean any remainings around the emitter with an alcohol soaked cotton swab while you retain the spacer properly centered.
To my knowledge, there’s no spacer available yet. Did you see djozz’s makeshift spacer in the first post? He cut notches in a 3535 spacer to fit the 3030. Not perfect, but might be a better option than glueing.
Osram KW CSLPM1.TG (2mm2) is available now:
https://led4power.com/product-category/leds1/osram/
Kills XP-G2 in throw, while having 1500lm+ output, which is great for factory undomed 2mm2 LED with pure white tint. Vf is ridiculously low, 3V@3A,3.13V@5A,3.3V@8,5A.
Wait a minute.
I just received https://led4power.com/product/new-osram-kw-cslnm1-tg-1mm2-throw-king-bare/ to drive it on 3.6А in my 1405. I haven’t put it in yet.
What is this new led? Is the surface brightness higher? How can both be throw kings? Throw king can only be the one with the highest brightness.
Please if you can point me to a test or info, so I can see which one is the real king, because my 1405 is an ultradedicated thrower and only surface brightness matters.