Arctic MX-6 shelf life is just a couple months?

[Shou Miko]

I have a 20gram tube of MX-4 at work in my draw which was in use last year and is a couple of years old or more it works fine.

 

[:D:D]

Personally I had bad results with GD900, can see separation I hope in the pic posted before, bad paste from Gelid while 2 or 3 tubes before were good so I get why people are put off with a bad result. Similarly with Kingston micro SD cards, they are good cards but when I got scammed with fake ones it puts me off buying that brand. Something those companies should bear in mind IMO. Once bitten twice shy.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

@BoggledBeagle
was it F or P version?
would be surprised if it was a P (for cooler/rad use), and maybe try the (P) CO version,
as it has ball bearings/designed for continuous use, and should work better on a hot heatsink..

Arctic Bionix P120 - these fans have so soft frames, that you can deform them by ligtly pressing them in your hand, even when they are completely cold. The frames are made partly from rubber and are not meant to be mounted on any uneven surface, I wonder why Arctic decided to ship them with Freezer 34 cooler - they really do not work in that exhaust position.

 

[Waldorf]

weird, especially given their other coolers are usually push.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

They sold Freezer 34 in "esports duo" version with two fans.

 

[Vario]

I've used 20 year old Arctic Silver 5 and Arctic Silver Ceramique with reasonable results, it is a shame that all pastes aren't that stable.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

.... it is a shame that all pastes aren't that stable.

If you were an irresponsible worker mixing paste and you would find that you temporarily do not have one of 15 ingredients for making a paste, what would you do?

The paste itself is most likely not to blame...

 

[Fokker]

I have tube of MX-6 I got a few months back. No separation apparent in the tube and it came out fine. It's pretty thick (thicker than KPX), but spreads fine and works fine. Maintains a 33-35° C idle with a stock AMD cooler on a Ryzen 5 4600G. I haven't tested load yet due to some troubleshooting with PCIE bifurcation, but I expect it'll do fine.

 

[freeagent]

Maybe the new guy made it

 

[lexluthermiester]

Dude, you're being ignored

Cheers mate!

MX-6 is a garbage product.

Opinion NOT supported by merit that says much more about the author than it does the product being described.

Bye.

 

[95Viper]

This Guideline violating behavior stops now.
Stay on topic. The topic is: "Arctic MX-6 shelf life is just a couple months?"
Stop the insulting remarks.
Discuss the topic not each other!

Anymore and there will be points and possibly bans.

The forum has an ignore feature if you do not wish to interact with another member... use it.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

The Paste (when fresh) is fantastic. but i can't buy a new tube every two months and throw 6g away because it deteriorates faster than a 14900KS.

Like how it apparently deteriorates faster than my Ryzen 7 5800X-G.Skill TridentZ Neo combo. That reminds me of the white-stuff of around 20 years ago! The meme of the paste I used to use, was that it would disappear in months! Pull the heatsink off of a socket 462 Athlon, and it was gone!

But the Thermaltake TG-50 seems very consistent. I wouldn't be surprised if even the TG-30 is good, IIRC.

 

[Assimilator]

Guys, if you have problems with a product not performing as expected, RETURN THAT PRODUCT so that the manufacturer can test it and determine WHY it has failed, so that they can FIX IT. Posting endless threads complaining and slagging the manufacturer DOES NOT HELP ANYONE.

In Arctic's case particularly, their past actions have demonstrated that they stand by their products, are willing to admit when they're wrong, and are not in this business to screw anyone over. This is very different to almost every other company, even in the tech field (see e.g. NZXT's "our PCIe risers don't catch fire" saga) and as such Arctic deserves the opportunity to make things right. If they squander that opportunity, then you can shit on them all you want - but if you're not going to even give them a chance, then don't complain when they start treating their customers in exactly the same poor way as other companies do.

 

[Noci]

Guys, if you have problems with a product not performing as expected, RETURN THAT PRODUCT so that the manufacturer can test it and determine WHY it has failed, so that they can FIX IT. Posting endless threads complaining and slagging the manufacturer DOES NOT HELP ANYONE.

In Arctic's case particularly, their past actions have demonstrated that they stand by their products, are willing to admit when they're wrong, and are not in this business to screw anyone over. This is very different to almost every other company, even in the tech field (see e.g. NZXT's "our PCIe risers don't catch fire" saga) and as such Arctic deserves the opportunity to make things right. If they squander that opportunity, then you can shit on them all you want - but if you're not going to even give them a chance, then don't complain when they start treating their customers in exactly the same poor way as other companies do.

I fully agree with Assimilator, return or get a refund if you can.

But for the record, thermal paste is just a mixture of a liquid fase and solid particles where the liquid phase (mostly a silicon based oil) is for binding and viscosity whereas the solid particles are for heat conduction. Seggregation over time can be caused by multiple reasons, also it can differ from batch to batch but does not change or deteriorate the physics of the components.

So you don't have to throw it away, just empty the syringe in a very small glass jar or simular and mix the components once again untill you reach a nice smooth paste.
Then it should be perfectly useable as the components mixing ratio hasn't changed and it is actually within specs. A couple degrees of temperature difference must not be interpeted as a faillure, it is within the margin of error.

No need to make things more complicated as it is .

 

[Shrek]

One reason I prefer tubs to syringes, one can mix if needed.

 

[damric]

I was rebuilding a folding@home machine today and decided I would open up that same 8g tube of MX-6 that had the oil separation. I was going to take pictures of the oily mess and post them here.

Well that was weird, it seemed perfectly fine. So I used it. Perhaps the bit of oil I had before was anomaly that was just in one part of the tube. I have to mount some water blocks later this week and I'll go ahead and keep using this tube to see if any other weirdness comes out of it, but today it was just fine. Honestly I'm so frugal that I might have used it even if it did have some visible separation

 

[Space Lynx]

I was rebuilding a folding@home machine today and decided I would open up that same 8g tube of MX-6 that had the oil separation. I was going to take pictures of the oily mess and post them here.

Well that was weird, it seemed perfectly fine. So I used it. Perhaps the bit of oil I had before was anomaly that was just in one part of the tube. I have to mount some water blocks later this week and I'll go ahead and keep using this tube to see if any other weirdness comes out of it, but today it was just fine. Honestly I'm so frugal that I might have used it even if it did have some visible separation

nice. also ymmv, but I always squirt a little bit of the paste out before using it, any brand. I have done that since like 2003, just because it always felt logical to me. to get the fresher paste underneath the sealed area. maybe this is why I have never had any paste issues, like ever, with any paste brand. lol

 

[Paramount]

I bought 4g A MX4 since June 2012 and used it twice or something but i lost it
last month i found it and look like brand new lol i even test it and work flawlessly
also i have mx6 8g for around 9 months, i just check it is look good too ( store it in room temp 20 winter/ 29 summer )

 

[lexluthermiester]

One reason I prefer tubs to syringes, one can mix if needed.

Very good point. This can be a useful feature of such a distribution method.

 

[flamethrower1972]

i have three 8g tubes of MX-6 and they all deteriorate into silicone oil and gunk within a couple months (they are stored in an airtight bag). The first tube from February 2023 got very liquidy and seperates directly out of the tube and i have to push out 3-4cm of paste before it gets somewhat normal again. but it performs like toothpaste...
the second one which is from August was used on a 7800XT last week and it is no longer thick and dry while it spreads like warm butter.
and now the third one which was delivered last saturday. normal consistency and performs as expected or better said as good as the other ones when they were new.
i repasted the GPU three times and the results in the same test with fixed fan speed:
Edge/Hotspot
February 2023: 73°C/96°C
August 2023: 65°C/87°C
Last Friday: 61°C/70°C

Did anyone else observe similar issues?
The Paste (when fresh) is fantastic. but i can't buy a new tube every two months and throw 6g away because it deteriorates faster than a 14900KS.


View attachment 345589

I use Kryoknot IMO its the best.

 

[Divide Overflow]

My experience with a year and a half old MX-6 has been just fine. No evidence of pump out detected and paste consistency and temps remain just fine. Shelf life seems pretty good.

 

[Fokker]

Swapped processors in my project and found a 2g tube of MX-6 amongst the others from who knows when (didn't remember buying it). It was expected consistency and zero separation.

 

[GerKNG]

Well... 4th tube of MX6, massive pump out within a couple days.

Paste turned into soup again.
Repasted with TF7 which i found in the box of an old thermalright cooler from ~2 years ago.
First test with TF7: Temps are 3-4°C Lower than MX6 and the Hotspot delta is so far just ~8°C.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

Well... 4th tube of MX6, massive pump out within a couple days. Paste turned into soup again.

Where are the photos of this happening? If you post this sort of information, you should provide some evidence.

Regarding the TF7 photo: why are you applying so extremely thick layer? You applied 20-50X more paste than needed.

What was the reason you are repasting a card under warranty? Are you using an original cooler? Are you sure you are mounting it correctly?

 

[VT1185MF_Rosaria]

I think I know what's going on this thread now.

Yes, MX6 may have a separation issues that may be related to production problems at the OEM/factory that Arctic contracts to for the production of MX6. Returning the paste is necessary for Arctic and its paste OEM to determine the problem in that specific paste batch/formula.

But about the longevity issue when used as paste, I think MX6 is still unsuitable for higher temperature cycles due to insufficient viscosity of the compound used (as with MX5 and MX4 before it) although it is noticeably more viscous compared to its predecessors.

For GPU die and other direct die applications that experience faster and higher temperature fluctuations, it is more advisable to use pastes such as Thermalright TF7/8/X / Gelid GC Extreme / Phobya Nanogrease / Prolimatech PK-3 / Shinetsu X23-7921-5 or Phase change thermal interface material such as Honeywell PTM7950.

Pump out is also accelerated when people use stiffer thermal pads than the previous factory thermal pads. The user replaced pads may be of the same dimension but the stiffness of the pads create a gap to the Heatsink area and the GPU die, and exacerbates paste evaporation as a result.

Edit: the high mounting pressure on GPU heat sinks also takes care of excess paste. I would be more careful of paste application thickness on heat sinks with comparatively low mounting pressure, such as laptop heat sinks.