[EOL] Arctic MX-5 is here!!Tests incoming! Completed. Now its MX-6 testing time!

[lexluthermiester]

The MX-2 took a while before drying a bit and settling down.

Not that I recall. AS-5 yes, but not MX-2.

 

[maxfly]

@maxfly Do you plan to repeat this test in a week or two to see if there is an extended burn-in time? The MX-5 looks like it's a long way from where the MX-2 was. The MX-2 took a while before drying a bit and settling down. Just wondering if the MX-5 is the same way.

Thanks for the results.

Hey Blaylock good to see you man!
Actually i think my assumption was correct. It just needed a bit of time to settle in for lack of a better term. I havent had any real time to run aida again(will do that this afternoon or tonight) but from what im seeing at idle, temps are excellent compared to pk3. Again these are just browsing, no load but im not seeing any variation between cores at all. Maybe a few degrees here and there but thats it.
Over the past week its been idling at 26 to 28c consistently with the same ambient. So much better than day one with far fewer hitches and jumps. I like what im seeing and will let you all know how the load temps look later today when i can spend some time in front of the screen.

 

[R-T-B]

See sig. All this paste nonsense is a great way to kill time.



This wrist strap sucker killed a hard drive with polarity difference, so I wouldn't discount that all so easily.

Also... any electronics assembly line looks like this, apparently.

View attachment 192817

They are good for assembly lines and if you do a lot of builds, but I typically just ground myself to my case and all is well. *knocks on wood*

 

[maxfly]

alright, just finished running aida64 cpu benchmark for 30 minutes and im impressed!
min temp was 49c
max was 55c
all cores stayed within a degree or two once the test got up to temp with core #2 staying at 53c and core #6 staying at 49c the rest were either 50c or 51c so almost the same as pk3 except for core#2. not bad at all. im going to do a remount this weekend at some point and see if i can account for core #2 and see if the early strangeness was an anamoly or if its just the way this stuff behaves until its had time to set in. ill also take some pics of the ihs and heatsink base to show everyone what kind of coverage i got using the MX-5 spatula method.
if i could find the time i would do a head to head with MX-4 but i dont see that happening anytime soon but i will try.
Anyhow, hurry up and get to work guys and gals! im looking forward to seeing what your impressions are!

 

[Vayra86]

They are good for assembly lines and if you do a lot of builds, but I typically just ground myself to my case and all is well. *knocks on wood*

Two knocks on wood might change that polarity again, I see you like living on the edge

But yeah...I have a wrist strap and forget it more often than not.

 

[jboydgolfer]

i finally got to use this new MX-5 i bought at release & i wasnt impressed. temps werent even on Par for normal TIM.
in my experience it was a dud release.

 

[LFaWolf]

OP has not updated with his test results yet. I am on the fence with the purchase until I see some numbers.

i finally got to use this new MX-5 i bought at release & i wasnt impressed. temps werent even on Par for normal TIM.
in my experience it was a dud release.

Perhaps your heatsink is not tightened or the applied TIM is not even? What makes you say that, any results you can share?

 

[AsRock]

I nearly got some but i ended up getting MX-4 and MX-5 worked out $6 more with not being a prime member.

MX-4 shipped for $12.

Amazon.com: ARCTIC MX-4 (8 Grams) - Thermal Compound Paste, Carbon Based High Performance, Heatsink Paste, Thermal Compound CPU for All Coolers, Thermal Interface Material: Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: ARCTIC MX-4 (8 Grams) - Thermal Compound Paste, Carbon Based High Performance, Heatsink Paste, Thermal Compound CPU for All Coolers, Thermal Interface Material: Computers & Accessories

www.amazon.com

I've always used toilet paper for cleaning the surfaces and it works fine.

Coffee filters so no fibers are left behind, like come on they like $1 for 50+

 

[lexluthermiester]

i finally got to use this new MX-5 i bought at release & i wasnt impressed. temps werent even on Par for normal TIM.
in my experience it was a dud release.

I think you did something wrong. Bought a tube for my shop and it tests out to be on par or a bit better than MX4 and Noctua's stuff.

 

[GerKNG]

just got my 4g syringe.

it's worse than my 1 year old GC Extreme.
but that's basically what i expected from arctic. dirt cheap crap.

 

[Vario]

Thermal paste is thermal paste. A lot of effort for a minimal degree difference between the best and worst pastes.

 

[phanbuey]

darn... i thought it woud be good...

o well.

 

[27MaD]

I'm bit surprised it comes with a spatula

idk my MX-4 came with a spatula, pretty useful tbh

 

[FreedomEclipse]

idk my MX-4 came with a spatula, pretty useful tbh

I think the 2018/19 batches started coming with spatulas. I remember ordering mine and it coming with one.

 

[8BitZ80]

Thermal paste is thermal paste. A lot of effort for a minimal degree difference between the best and worst pastes.

It comes down to the fact that thermal paste is such a bitch to test and verify. Some thermal paste manufacturers provide thermal conductivity values but they practically never correlate with real world cooling performance.

 

[nguyen]

It comes down to the fact that thermal paste is such a bitch to test and verify. Some thermal paste manufacturers provide thermal conductivity values but they practically never correlate with real world cooling performance.

Well thermal conductivity is only one part of the equation, it is the thermal resistance that is the key.
Thermal resistance = thermal paste thickness/thermal conductivity

Meaning the thinner that thermal paste can get squished (paste with finer particle), the lower thermal resistance. You can see that some low viscosity and low conductivity thermal paste can outperform high viscosity and high conductivity paste when applied to CPU with high mounting pressure.
However with low mounting pressure application like in Laptop, highly viscous and high conductivity paste is more desireable.

All in all I prefer high viscosity+high conductivity paste, they are more versatile and longer lasting than low viscosity paste.

 

[Blaylock]

I used up the last of my old MX-2 that I've had for a few years and made the switch to MX-4 a few months ago. I've noticed the MX-4 is much harder to remove from the CPU and Cooler. It's a lot more "sticky" and requires more alcohol than the older MX-2. Also, I finally pulled a CPU out of its socket the other day while removing the cooler. Normally I rotate the cooler back and forth a few times to break the seal but this was on an older AM2 socket and the cooler bracket prevented this. There is definitely a stronger bond between CPU and Cooler from MX-2 to Mx-4.

How is MX-5 comparatively?

 

[AsRock]

I used up the last of my old MX-2 that I've had for a few years and made the switch to MX-4 a few months ago. I've noticed the MX-4 is much harder to remove from the CPU and Cooler. It's a lot more "sticky" and requires more alcohol than the older MX-2. Also, I finally pulled a CPU out of its socket the other day while removing the cooler. Normally I rotate the cooler back and forth a few times to break the seal but this was on an older AM2 socket and the cooler bracket prevented this. There is definitely a stronger bond between CPU and Cooler from MX-2 to Mx-4.

How is MX-5 comparatively?

Your doing it wrong, warmth and twisty twisty

 

[Blaylock]

I normally do the twisty twisty. Just couldn't in that application.

 

[Edwired]

I have been using arctic mx-4 for a number of years now as I always get the 2019 version as it pretty easy to apply as the method I use it to spread the paste is using a very clean finger and do the cross/plus pattern on the die/ihs and anything left on the finger goes onto the heatsink so it have all the area covered. Once it done it should look flat on both die/ihs and heatsink. I always get the perfect contact for heat transfers.

 

[Falkentyne]

I put on some MX-5 on my Radeon r9-290X sapphire reference blower and the temps seem to be about 1C worse than Kryonaut/Kryonaut Extreme/Thermalright TFX (which all seem to be close to the same).
Not applying it to my 3090 FE since I don't think the paste is thick enough for a convex die. Maybe I'll throw some on my laptop GTX 1070 MXM card, but I have TFX on that (LM on the BGA CPU) and that's working well so I really don't feel like doing that right now.

 

[sam_86314]

Been using the MX-5 for a bit now. Not really a fan of the consistency. It's hard to apply a small amount, and it's more difficult to clean off.

I'll probably stick with MX-4 after I use up the 8g tube of MX-5 I got.

 

[AsRock]

Been using the MX-5 for a bit now. Not really a fan of the consistency. It's hard to apply a small amount, and it's more difficult to clean off.

I'll probably stick with MX-4 after I use up the 8g tube of MX-5 I got.

Yeah $13 for 8g shipped is hard to beat.

 

[Space Lynx]

based on everything I read here, looks like I got excited for nothing. I probably will just sell my mx-5 tube unopened at this point, I have always wanted to use the Noctua NT-H2, bit pricey but eh I'd rather support Noctua as I respect them as a company more than most others.

 

[8BitZ80]

Been using the MX-5 for a bit now. Not really a fan of the consistency. It's hard to apply a small amount, and it's more difficult to clean off.

I'll probably stick with MX-4 after I use up the 8g tube of MX-5 I got.

That's actually a good thing. Thinner pastes are easy to apply but they suffer more from the pump-out effect and need to be changed more regularly. I would imagine they made MX-5 thicker for a bit more longevity between applications.