Applied the PTM today to my 13700k, on Corsair H100i Platinum SE, did not do any cleaning to keep the tests fair, room temperature steady at 28.3 degrees C, +- 0.2 C.
Conclusion first, at least from the initial test, disappointing.
Make sure you order extra, as it's rather easy to deform the cut strip when trying to remove the plastic film. For my CPU, I measured ~38mmx28mm for the IHS, and cut the strip to size, cleaned the old paste with 99% IPA and applied the PTM. Tightened up the cold-plate assembly until the screws locked up.
To verify the claims, I ran CineBench R23 multi core for 10 minutes, and took reading at the ~9:30 mark, as well as after the test ended, for the final score. Ran hwinfo64 for CPU stats (min/max/avg) and icue for cooler stats (coolant temp primarily). My CPU is locked to 200w PL1/PL2 for thermal/power reasons.
Before After
After applying the PTM, my max temperatures went up by 1C, and scores down by 400 points, which can be attributed to run to run variance. Note the lower average temperature numbers for After is because I started hwinfo64 before I started the CineBench run. What is likely not a statistical error is the coolant temperature, as that tends to rise more steadily and does not spike due to high heat capacity. After applying the PTM, the coolant temp went down by 1C, while the CPU ran as hot as before (or hotter). This implies worse heat transference from the CPU to the coolant, and one of the variables being the thermal interface material (TIM), kind of disappointing. I was using Noctua NT-H1 on it before, and there's no apparent improvement on this initial test. Some users say that the benefits are seen long term as the PTM changes phase and fills the voids. I can try running the tests in another month, but not expecting much. PTM apparently is more useful for direct die cooling (GPUs, mobile CPUs), which could still be valid, but not interested in testing that theory.
damn, let me know how's the perf, and was it melted or even soft?
No, arrived as a slightly rigid sheet of plastic.