Arctic halts troublesome MX-5 thermal paste; MX-6 successor spotted at almost three times the price
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Pictus
Shin-Etsu 7921 here and I like it a lot, not expensive and high performance.
It is dry, not sticky and very dense, more so than TFF/ZT-GX, I had to heat the heatsink to properly apply a thin film with plastic card.
valentyn0
GET MX-4, it's actually better than MX-5...
Astyanax
no it isn't.
anticupidon
For me it was a valid point to get my hardware re-pasted (is this a correct verb?), as I used the new MX-5 on all gear.
Got one syringe of Prolimatech TIM from work.
XenthorX
Exactly my experience as well.
BLEH!
Used MX-2 or something in the past and never had any issues with it. Have some MX-5 somewhere, but so rare I rebuild it's not normally needed...
bemaniac
First go ripped a processor out of a socket and it broke the processor (yay for home insurance accidental cover) 2nd time a month later it ripped the socket out of the board and I claimed on the board under warranty which was refused but the retailer gave me sympathy and refunded me fully which was a nice gift.
I have since just used only old-school AS-5 I get locally and Thermal Grizzly when I can be bothered to order in.
Yes MX-5 was so superglue-like it took the whole socket off a ROG X570 motherboard when twist-pulling the cooler off!
WhiteLightning
Moderator
yeah thermal grizzly is very good, i use it as well on my cpu and gpu. no degradation either. It does need some work to put it on there though. liquid metal crazy stuff.
GeniusPr0
Well now we get conductonaut extreme soon as derbauer showed, pretty crazy that LM can be improved...
ViperXtreme
My MX-5 after almost a year didn't seem to have any issues, ive recently repalced my AIO cold plate and saw the paste is jsut the same as it was before.
My Kryonaut hardened after several months on my 5800X, maybe because i'm on non ACU tropical country wherein it can hit 80C from time to time in which kryonaut doesn't like
stryfe2010
I have two tubes of mx5 with spatula and have never had a problem. I repasted my og xbox, 1060 6gb (which ran fine for 4yrs before I sold it), my daughters ps4 and my I7-7700.
sykozis
In my experience, MX-4 is better than MX-5....and there are reviews showing MX-4 being 1-2C better than MX-5.
MX-4 is definitely better at leaving processors in their sockets.....
Neo Cyrus
MX-4 is good enough compared to the top tier pastes, and it rarely ever needs to be replaced. If that's the best that's available, that's fine IMO.
I remember what a nightmare AS5 was, whenever it'd hit the 200 hours to "cure" to become supposedly better, for me it'd always dry up and flake up and need repasting, increasing my temps by as much as 20C. But if you insist on getting that 1C better temps to compete with the absolute top tier, get something like Mastergel Maker, or a Thermal Grizzly product. Though for whatever reason neither are readily available in Canada and the prices are outrageous, so someone on this forum pointed me to Thermagic ZF-EX on Ali Express which is apparently the same thing as some high end stuff that Thermalright makes.
It looks and feels exactly like Mastergel Maker (though it does have a higher rated thermal conducitivity of 14.6w/mk), but instead of outrageous prices, I got them for $5.18 USD a piece (2 grams) in 2021 from an Ali Express seller. The prices are a bit higher now, and I can't link the seller I used (because he doesn't sell thermal compound anymore), but if you don't mind waiting like a month+, it's worth considering. Just don't use the search term Thermagic, for some reason that gives no results, while ZF-EX does.
I'll note that this type of paste such as MGM and ZF-EX that are a giant pain in the ass to apply (it's like a clay that refuses to stick to metal), don't seem to need reapplication. I don't recall reapplying it on my 3900X and when I removed it to install a 5800X3D it was like day 1.
Astyanax
I might be confused with mx2 or something, I was seeing many reports one of them would turn to liquid and pump out on gpu's readily.
stryfe2010
Just ordered a tube of MX-6 from Amazon. I'm going to re-paste my cpu and see if works better than 4 or 5. I'll post again after Monday and share my results
brogadget
my experiance: I got a small syringe of 1g TG, I think it was hydronaut together witch AC Kryos CPU waterblock. Instantly threw away the TG, it was just crap much to strong and dense.
I had some spare 4 or 5 years old syringes from Silverstone which I applied, works perfectly. Together with GPU upgrade in near future, I will apply liquid metal to CPU again, after surrounding socket with plasti dip. But never TG again....
tsunami231
I still have 8oz mx4 syringe barely use and and unopen 8oz NT-H1 that came with my D14 also AS5 but that has maybe 1 repaste left but i been pretty much using MX-4 on cpu and gpu repastes for decades, i hear Thermal Grizzly and or liquid metal paste are pain to work with but shave the few degrees off that, i just make cpu/gpu x and squiggly line inbetween mount the cooler to the cpu/gpu, my cpu dont got past 63c under full load which almost nothing will do that short something like prime95 or aida cpu stress. and gpus always ran few degree cooler after repaste. and i never seen any pump out from it nor was dry even if i took off 5+ years later, why change when what you have works.
maybe i should repaste my E8400 system my dad has before i put all back together seeing evga 450gts just bit the dust and being rma'ed, though i might keep that card i get back use one my other cards. seeing it will carry lifetime warranty like original card, not that it will mater much if evga is done with gpus
Tyler Dalton
I used to use Kryonaut, it seemed a bit inconsistent so I swapped to Kingpin KPX, been very happy with it so far even if you do have to spread it.
