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

Very interesting report. Even if you don't care about any of these pastes it's worth bookmarking.

AFAIK Dow Corning is what's stock on Intel heatsinks or it was for many years. Stable paste, performs similarly throughout its lifetime. Also used in aviation.

80-watt Hamster · May 23, 2022

Shrek said:
What do the military use?

They have no idea. The contractors building whatever it is that has paste in it will use whatever compound allows them to meet spec at the lowest cost possible.

In general, using mil-spec as any kind of yardstick is a bad idea. If you want to know why, ask someone who's served. (Full disclosure, I've done the asking, not the serving.)

bobbybluz · May 23, 2022

I have some mobo/CPU swap tests to do later next week. One box has an Arctic LF II 240 w/4 Silverstone FM121's in push/pull at full speed (110cfm each). It currently has an Asus ROG Maximus VIII Hero/7700K in it. The other has an Asus ROG Maximus Hero XI WiFi/9900K coooled by an Arctic LF II 360 w/6 EverFlow R121225BU's (OEM version of the FM121) in push/pull. I also have several 150cfm Delta FFB1212EH-PWM's to play with on hand as well. No side panels will be used on the cases during testing.

I have several different tubes of thermal pastes in my inventory. I happen to have two 4 gram tubes of SYY-157 that haven't been opened yet that I'm going to try out. The test board/CPU combo is a new ASRock Z690 Steel Legend WiFi and the CPU is a new Alder Lake i5-12600K. Since the two test cases have the radiators & fans mounted externally (something Arctic says they think should be done more often with hot running CPU's) swapping the mobo/CPU with a NVMe drive running a fresh install of Win 11 Enterprise is the easiest way to go. I'll be shooting for 5.2GHz on the P-cores and highly suspect the 360 with Delta fans at full speed will give the best results overall. HWINFO will be what I measure the temps with.

I have some MX-5, MX-4, Gelid GC Extreme and AS5 I want to compare against the SYY-157 after I find out which AIO/fan combo gives the lowest temps. Personally I've had the best results with the Gelid over the years. I want to see what combo performs best against my Cosmos II with a Z690 Steel Legend WiFi/12700K @5.2GHz cooled by a LF II 280 mounted externally with 4 Silver Stone 140mm FHP-141's at full speed (171cfm each) in push/pull using Gelid Extreme. It works great now but when I first built it 6 months ago using a LF II 240, MX-4 and the stock Arctic fans mounted internally I had some thermal throttling issues under load even with the side panels off.

Mussels · May 23, 2022

Shrek said:
What do the military use?

They adopt the "Don't ask don't tell" policy (they'd use products that dont need thermal paste in teh first place)

Shrek · May 23, 2022

MachineLearning said:
Dow Corning TC-5xxx (-5022 example)

http://www.audentia-gestion.fr/Farnell-PDF/1339822.pdf

"TC-5022 is formulated with advanced silicone fluid that interacts with thermally conductive filler particles to form a highly stable matrix that helps to prevent pump-out and other common failure mechanisms."

I guess pump-out is real.

Mussels · May 23, 2022

Shrek said:
"TC-5022 is formulated with advanced silicone fluid that interacts with thermally conductive filler particles to form a highly stable matrix that helps to prevent pump-out and other common failure mechanisms."

I guess pump-out is real.

Pump out is absolutely real - we're just using products already designed to fix it (Tight contact with immobile flat surfaces, and we've had decades of thermal pastes used in PC's to improve the formulas)

Shrek · May 23, 2022

Mussels said:
Pump out is absolutely real

I never had a doubt, but some here might.

lexluthermiester · May 23, 2022

mclaren85 said:
However it is been speculated that noctuas are notorious for it's pump out effect.

Pump out effect has yet to be proven in all use case scenarios. However, they do dry out and lose some of their effective cooling ability.

freeagent said:
NTH1 is total shit..

I wouldn't go that far as my own testing showed it was a good performer. It's not the worse, but it's not the best either and as mentioned above, it does dry out.

Mussels said:
Pump out is absolutely real - we're just using products already designed to fix it (Tight contact with immobile flat surfaces, and we've had decades of thermal pastes used in PC's to improve the formulas)

Shrek said:
I never had a doubt, but some here might.

Greatly doubt. Highly subjective situation. I've been working in this industry for decades and have worked on tens of thousands of machines and have never seen definitive evidence of it. Not once.

maxfly · May 23, 2022

Somewhere out there is a meme of Andy and runny pump out... hehehe.

mclaren85 · May 23, 2022

MachineLearning said:
AFAIK Dow Corning is what's stock on Intel heatsinks or it was for many years

What a great information. Thanks for sharing with us..
I think stock pastes aren't the best, as they are built for everyone, not just overclockers

cvaldes · May 23, 2022

Shrek said:
What do the military use?

What does it matter?

Military devices undergo a far greater range of conditions than a consumer PC including traveling at high altitudes (above 50,000 ft. and below zero temperatures) as well as higher ambient temperatures and extremes of air pressure, humidity, radiation, etc.

Your typical consumer PC enjoys a cushy comfortable existence in the same general range of conditions that humans comfortably tolerate. My house's indoor temperature ranges from 60-80 °F (16-27 °C) throughout the year.

My gaming PCs don't need the same thermal compound as the missile guidance package of an ICBM or a military satellite's CPU. Heck, even the automotive electronics in my Toyota are subject to a far wider range of operating environmental conditions than my PCs.

In any case, what the military uses was probably formulated in 1989 and comes in 5-gallon buckets or 50-gallon drums.

Shrek · May 23, 2022

maxfly said:
Somewhere out there is a meme of Andy and runny pump out... hehehe.

mclaren85 · May 24, 2022

lexluthermiester said:
My vote is MX-5.

Will you still prefer MX-5 over MX-4? (Without taking into consideration the price)

lexluthermiester · May 24, 2022

mclaren85 said:
Will you still prefer MX-5 over MX-4? (Without taking into consideration the price)

I've used both, MX-5 performs a little better, so yes. The comments about it be overly "sticky" are an exaggeration. Yes, it is a bit tacky, but nothing more than many other TIMs.

mclaren85 · May 24, 2022

Has anyone used Halnziye paste? It looks like a generic brand but some claims it is performs very well.

lexluthermiester · May 24, 2022

mclaren85 said:
Has anyone used Halnziye paste? It looks like a generic brand but some claims it is performs very well.

How much? If it's cheap, try it. At the very least, it'll do the job...

mclaren85 · May 24, 2022

It is about 5-6 $.
Btw, I've just bought Thermal Grizzly Aeronout from amazon.

ThrashZone · May 24, 2022

mclaren85 said:
Will you still prefer MX-5 over MX-4? (Without taking into consideration the price)

Hi,
Last I looked mx-5 price was dropped on amazon to about 8.us so looks like arctic is dumping stock instead of recalling it since eol.

lexluthermiester · May 24, 2022

ThrashZone said:
Last I looked mx-5 price was dropped on amazon to about 8

It's always been $8.99, price hasn't changed...

https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-MX-5-Conductivity-Non-Conductive-Non-capacitive/dp/B08T5TZ5JL

ThrashZone said:
us so looks like arctic is dumping stock instead of recalling it since eol.

Quit with the disinformation.

ThrashZone · May 24, 2022

lexluthermiester said:
It's always been $8.99, price hasn't changed...

https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-MX-5-Conductivity-Non-Conductive-Non-capacitive/dp/B08T5TZ5JL

Quit with the disinformation.

Hi,
Saw it off the dudes link he posted to arctic website about eol and buy from amazon link there

It showed 33% off at that time down to under 8.us so arctic posting disinformation links to amazon is all so talk to them about the issue you accuse

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08T6D1S73/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=arctic.de-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B08T6D1S73&linkId=938c4513337ee3daa0678abd70f20832&th=1

Now third party has it for sell for 35.us :laugh:

lexluthermiester · May 24, 2022

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Saw it off the dudes link he posted to arctic website about eol and buy from amazon link there

It showed 33% off at that time down to under 8.us so arctic posting disinformation links to amazon is all so talk to them about the issue you accuse

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08T6D1S73/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=arctic.de-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B08T6D1S73&linkId=938c4513337ee3daa0678abd70f20832&th=1

Now third party has it for sell for 35.us

My link is from the Amazon Arctic store direct. Third party sellers are just scalping.

System Name	AMDWeapon
Processor	Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard	X670E MSI Tomahawk WiFi
Cooling	Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 ARGB with Silverstone Air Blazer 2200rpm fans
Memory	G-Skill Trident Z Neo RGB 6000 CL30 32GB@EXPO
Video Card(s)	Powercolor 7900 GRE Red Devil
Storage	Samsung 870 QVO 1TB x 2, Lexar 256 GB, TeamGroup MP44L 2TB, Crucial T700 1TB, Seagate Firecuda 2TB
Display(s)	32" LG UltraGear GN600-B
Case	Montech 903 MAX AIR
Audio Device(s)	Steel Series Arctis Nova Pro Wireless
Power Supply	MSI MPG AGF 850 watt gold
Mouse	Glorious Model D l Pad GameSir G7 SE
Keyboard	Redragon Vara K551P
Software	Windows 11 Pro 24H2
Benchmark Scores	Some points. More than your setup!

System Name	AlderLake
Processor	Intel i7 12700K P-Cores @ 5Ghz
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Master
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12A 2 fans + Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Extreme + 5 case fans
Memory	32GB DDR5 Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 6000MT/s CL36
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 2070 Super Gaming X Trio
Storage	Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Evo 500GB + 850 Pro 512GB + 860 Evo 1TB x2
Display(s)	23.8" Dell S2417DG 165Hz G-Sync 1440p
Case	Be quiet! Silent Base 600 - Window
Audio Device(s)	Panasonic SA-PMX94 / Realtek onboard + B&O speaker system / Harman Kardon Go + Play / Logitech G533
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 750W
Mouse	Logitech MX Anywhere 2 Laser wireless
Keyboard	RAPOO E9270P Black 5GHz wireless
Software	Windows 11
Benchmark Scores	Cinebench R23 (Single Core) 1936 @ stock Cinebench R23 (Multi Core) 23006 @ stock

System Name	MSI-MEG
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Motherboard	MSI MEG X570S ACE MAX
Cooling	AMD Wraith Prism + Thermal Grizzly
Memory	32 GB
Video Card(s)	MSI Suprim X RTX 3080
Storage	500 GB MSI Spatium nvme + 500 GB WD nvme + 2 TB Seagate HDD + 2 TB Seagate HDD
Display(s)	27" LG 144HZ 2K ULTRAGEAR
Case	MSI MPG Velox Airflow 100P
Audio Device(s)	Altec Lansing
Power Supply	Seasonic 750W 80+ Gold
Mouse	HP OMEN REACTOR
Keyboard	Corsair K68
Software	Windows10 LTSC 64 bit

System Name	CyberPowerPC ET8070
Processor	Intel Core i5-10400F
Motherboard	Gigabyte B460M DS3H AC-Y1
Memory	2 x Crucial Ballistix 8GB DDR4-3000
Video Card(s)	MSI Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super
Storage	Boot: Intel OPTANE SSD P1600X Series 118GB M.2 PCIE
Display(s)	Dell P2416D (2560 x 1440)
Power Supply	EVGA 500W1 (modified to have two bridge rectifiers)
Software	Windows 11 Home

System Name	Desktop // Laptop
Processor	R9 5900X (VRM-B2) @ 180W/160A/140A \| Mfg Wk03/2022 // i7-13620H 90W-50W \| Mfg Wk25/2024
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro V2 // Dell 006JN2
Cooling	Thermalright PA120 w/ 3x P12, MX-6 // Stock (4x heatpipes, 2x Elepeak radial fans) w/ MX-6 GPU & CPU
Memory	2x16GB Ballistix 8Gbit Rev.E @ 3800C15, 1:1 FCLK // 2x16GB Kingston Fury Impact H16A @ 4800C36
Video Card(s)	PowerColor Red Devil 6600XT @ C2800MHz/M2300MHz (Samsung), 216W, MX-6 TP-3 // RTX 4060 Mobile (70W)
Storage	SK Hynix Gold P31 1TB, TeamGroup MP33 Pro 2TB, Seagate Ironwolf HDD 4TB // Patriot VP4300 Lite 2TB
Display(s)	1x Gigabyte M27Q, 1x MSI Optix G274, 1x Dell E152FPg // Dell AUO30A5
Case	Phanteks P500A (non-digital) w/ 4x 140mm Arctic P14 PWM PST CO fans // Dell Inspiron Plus 7630
Audio Device(s)	FiiO E10K-TC (USB) -> Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro (80ohm)
Power Supply	Super Flower Leadex III Gold 750W // Lite-On 130W
Mouse	Logitech G203
Keyboard	Kingston HyperX Core RGB
Software	W10 Pro // W11 Pro
Benchmark Scores	https://hwbot.org/user/machinelearning/ https://hwbot.org/team/warp9_systems/

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

Blaeza

P4-630

mclaren85

Shrek

MachineLearning

80-watt Hamster

bobbybluz

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

Shrek

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

Shrek

lexluthermiester

maxfly

mclaren85

cvaldes

Shrek

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System Name	Office
Processor	Ryzen 5600G
Motherboard	ASUS B450M-A II
Cooling	be quiet! Shadow Rock LP
Memory	16GB Patriot Viper Steel DDR4-3200
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte RX 5600 XT
Storage	PNY CS1030 250GB, Crucial MX500 2TB
Display(s)	Dell S2719DGF
Case	Fractal Define 7 Compact
Power Supply	EVGA 550 G3
Mouse	Logitech M705 Marthon
Keyboard	Logitech G410
Software	Windows 10 Pro 22H2

System Name	"The black one in the dining room" / "The Latest One"
Processor	Intel Xeon E5 2699 V4 22c/44t / i7 14700K @5.8GHz
Motherboard	Asus X99 Deluxe / ASRock Z790 Steel Legend WiFi
Cooling	Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 w/4 Silverstone FM121 fans / Arctic LF II 280 w Silverstone FHP141's
Memory	64GB G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 2400 (8x8) / 96GB G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5 6400
Video Card(s)	EVGA RTX 1080 Ti FTW3 / Asus Tuff OC 4090 24GB
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo Plus, 1TB Samsung 860, 4 Western Digital 2TB / 2TB Solidigm P44 Pro & more.
Display(s)	43" Samsung 8000 series 4K / 65" Hisense U8N 4K
Case	Modded Corsair Carbide 500R / Modded Corsair Graphite 780 T
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar Essence STX/ Asus Xonar Essence STX II
Power Supply	Corsair AX1200i / Seasonic Prime GX-1300
Mouse	Logitech Performance MX, Microsoft Intellimouse Optical 3.0
Keyboard	Logitech K750 Solar, Logitech K800
Software	Win 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 IoT / Win 11 Enterprise IoT LTSC 24H2
Benchmark Scores	https://www.passmark.com/baselines/V11/display.php?id=202122048229

System Name	Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor	Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard	Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling	Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory	2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage	2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s)	Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) \| Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) \| Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case	Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G560 \| Corsair Void pro RGB \|Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply	Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse	Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores	Nyooom.

System Name	DadsBadAss
Processor	I7 13700k w/ HEATKILLER IV PRO Copper Nickel
Motherboard	MSI Z790 Tomahawk Wifi DDR4
Cooling	BarrowCH Boxfish 200mm-HWLabs SR2 420/GTX&GTS 360-BP Dual D5 MOD TOP- 2x Koolance PMP 450S
Memory	4x8gb HyperX Predator RGB DDR4 4000
Video Card(s)	Asrock 6800xt PG D w/ Byski A-AR6900XT-X
Storage	WD SN850x 1TB NVME M.2/Adata XPG SX8200 PRO 1TB NVMe M.2
Display(s)	Acer XG270HU
Case	ThermalTake X71 w/5 Noctua NF-A14 2000 IP67 PWM/3 Noctua NF-F12 2000 IP67 PWM/3 CorsairML120 Pro RGB
Audio Device(s)	Klipsch Promedia 2.1
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus PX-850 w/CableMod PRO ModMesh RT-Series Black/Blue
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Black Aluminun Mechanical Clicky Thing With Blue LEDs, hows that for a name?!
Software	Win11pro

System Name	daily driver Mac mini M2 Pro
Processor	Apple proprietary M2 Pro (6 p-cores, 4 e-cores)
Motherboard	Apple proprietary
Cooling	Apple proprietary
Memory	Apple proprietary 16GB LPDDR5 unified memory
Video Card(s)	Apple proprietary M2 Pro (16-core GPU)
Storage	Apple proprietary onboard 512GB SSD + various external HDDs
Display(s)	LG UltraFine 27UL850W (4K@60Hz IPS)
Case	Apple proprietary
Audio Device(s)	Apple proprietary
Power Supply	Apple proprietary
Mouse	Apple Magic Trackpad 2
Keyboard	Keychron K1 tenkeyless (Gateron Reds)
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S (hosted on a different PC)
Software	macOS Sonoma 14.7
Benchmark Scores	(My Windows daily driver is a Beelink Mini S12 Pro. I'm not interested in benchmarking.)

System Name	Ghetto Rigs z490\|x99\|Acer 17 Nitro 7840hs/ 5600c40-2x16/ 4060/ 1tb acer stock m.2/ 4tb sn850x
Processor	10900k w/Optimus Foundation \| 5930k w/Black Noctua D15
Motherboard	z490 Maximus XII Apex \| x99 Sabertooth
Cooling	oCool D5 res-combo/280 GTX/ Optimus Foundation/ gpu water block \| Blk D15
Memory	Trident-Z Royal 4000c16 2x16gb \| Trident-Z 3200c14 4x8gb
Video Card(s)	Titan Xp-water \| evga 980ti gaming-w/ air
Storage	970evo+500gb & sn850x 4tb \| 860 pro 256gb \| Acer m.2 1tb/ sn850x 4tb\| Many2.5" sata's ssd 3.5hdd's
Display(s)	1-AOC G2460PG 24"G-Sync 144Hz/ 2nd 1-ASUS VG248QE 24"/ 3rd LG 43" series
Case	D450 \| Cherry Entertainment center on Test bench
Audio Device(s)	Built in Realtek x2 with 2-Insignia 2.0 sound bars & 1-LG sound bar
Power Supply	EVGA 1000P2 with APC AX1500 \| 850P2 with CyberPower-GX1325U
Mouse	Redragon 901 Perdition x3
Keyboard	G710+x3
Software	Win-7 pro x3 and win-10 & 11pro x3
Benchmark Scores	Are in the benchmark section