ARCTIC COOLING MX-4 Thermal Compound Review

Thermal Compounds by stefan @ 2010-08-24

The MX-4 thermal compound from ARCTIC COOLING is their latest product released to the masses, in this article it is compared to MX-3 and MX-2. The MX-4 claims to improve performance, easier to apply and retains a good price/performance balance. Time to put their claims to the test.

Introduction

Introduction

The MX-4 thermal compound from ARCTIC COOLING is their latest product released to the masses, in this article it is compared to MX-3 and MX-2. The MX-4 claims to improve performance, easier to apply and retains a good price/performance balance. Time to put their claims to the test.

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I want to thank ARCTIC COOLING for making a review of their MX-4 Thermal Compound possible.

About ARCTIC COOLING

“Who we are?

ARCTIC COOLING is a privately owned company founded in 2001 with headquarters in Switzerland, offices in Hong Kong and the USA and production facilities in Asia. The ARCTIC COOLING team consists of international highly educated people with business, technical and communicational skills. The attitude to work is based on Swiss principles of innovative spirit and high standards of workmanship for which it is recognized internationally. This striving for excellence is integrated in all processes as a matter of course. ARCTIC COOLING´s core competencies are multifarious including systematic noise reduction,copper and aluminum heatsink development, customization of thermal solutions, as well as designing quiet fans. More recently quiet and cool PC Cases and Power Supplies have been developed.

What we do?

ARCTIC COOLING is a leader in creating thermal cooling solutions for personal computer systems that enable CPU (Central Processing Unit), GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) and PC case cooling whilst reducing the noise level. Increased heat generated by modern computer systems has overwhelmed most existing cooler manufacturers in their efforts to keep pace with the demands in terms of noise level and cooling. The noise pollution caused by today´s IT systems has increased, severely affecting productivity in open office environments. ARCTIC COOLING has been working closely with globally recognized companies such as Inno3D, ECS, Galaxy, Sapphire, Powercolor and ATI. Through these partnerships ARCTIC COOLING has been able to adapt to the changing market requirements and has quickly developed the optimal solutions. ARCTIC COOLING combines the Swiss art of engineering to realize innovative cooling ideas. Thanks to the low labor cost in Asia, ARCTIC COOLING has consistently produced innovative solutions which lead the market in price / performance. Cooling solutions are created from the demand of our customers. Due to the continuous product development at ARCTIC COOLING the demands of end-users will always be satisfied. As a result of the head-start ARCTIC COOLING has in knowing end-user´s requirements, manufacturing possibilities and ARCTIC COOLING´s strong R&D, ARCTIC´s products will continue to be market leaders in cooling solutions and provide assemblers, computer hardware distributors and IT-technicians with innovative, virtually silent, cost-effective cooling solutions for CPU, GPU and PC-case worldwide.

Our Vision

Providing thermal solutions optimized to reduce noise for our global customer base.

ARCTIC COOLING GmbH was founded in 2001. The initial start-up with a registered share capital of 20´000 CHF began with sales in Switzerland and Germany. In May 2003 ARCTIC COOLING GmbH transformed from a limited liability Company (GmbH) into a corporation company (ARCTIC COOLING Switzerland AG) with a registered share capital of 100´000 CHF.

ARCTIC COOLING (HK) Ltd. was founded in 2002 to be close to the mainland manufacturing facilities.

ARCTIC COOLING Inc. was founded in 2005 in New York City to support customers in North and South America. In spring 2007 the company ARCTIC COOLING Inc. moved to California where it has a local warehouse”

Features, Specifications

Features:

Easy to apply
Optimal thermal conductivity
Low thermal resistance
Electrically non-conductive
Non-capacitive/non-curing/non-corrosive/non-bleeding

Detailed features:

Non-Metallic Thermal Compound

The ARCTIC MX-4 is a metal-free and non-electrical conductive which eliminates any risks of causing short circuit, adding more protection to the CPU and VGA cards.

Unmatched Performance

The ARCTIC MX-4’s consistency is engineered for simplicity of application, superior thermal conductivity and high durability. With its new formula, the ARCTIC MX-4 guarantees exceptional heat dissipation from the components and supports the stability needed to push your system to its limit.

Durability

Non-curing and no bleeding means longer service life of the compound. In contrast to metal and silicon compounds, the ARCTIC MX-4 does not show decreasing performance over time. It does not need to be reapplied and has a durability of at least 8 years.

Application

CPU, GPU, power semiconductor components

Specifications:

Thermal Conductivity: 8.5W/mK
Viscosity: 870 poise
Density: 2.5 g/cm3
Net weight: 4g

A Closer Look

A Closer Look

The MX-4 will be compared in this review with the previous generation thermal compounds from ARCTIC COOLING, the MX-2 and MX-3; all of them come in similar packaging:

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The newest revision of the ARCTIC COOLING thermal compound comes in blister packaging; this way, the thermal compound syringe along some brief features can be seen right from the outside:

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On the back, we can see a comparison chart from some tests done in-house, the features explained in detail, but also the specifications and some warnings regarding the product and its use:

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The MX-4 syringe has the ARCTIC COOLING theme all over it, with the big model name on one of the sides:

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On the opposite side, we can see the company’s web address, but also some circles left out, for us to see how much paste is left in the syringe:

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Performance and Application Tests

Test Setup & Methodology

CPU : Intel I5 750 Retail
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P SE2
Motherboard : ECS P55H-AK
RAM : G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM
Video : ATI RADEON 4890 1GB with custom cooling
Power Supply : Cooler Master 850W
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200.10

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The paste was carefully applied on the CPU; compared to the MX-3, it is much easier to apply.

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After each thermal paste was applied, the contact between the CPU and the CPU cooler plate was checked; also, the temperature was steady at all times in the room, at about 24.6 degrees Celsius.

Before starting each 30 minute test with OCCT 3.1.0, the computer was left in IDLE mode for about another 30 minutes.

Performance Results

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(Detailed Temperature Charts: MX-2 , MX-3, MX-4)

Spread Tests

The manufacturer told me that the MX-4 mixes the advantages of the previously launched MX-2 and MX-3, with better thermal conductivity and not as sticky as the MX-3. I have done also a spread test to confirm it:

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From the second photo, with the thermal compounds spread with a ruler, we can see that the MX-4 spreads as good as the MX-2, the MX-3 being the last, because it is the hardest to apply of all.

Conclusive Thoughts

Conclusive Thoughts

The MX-4 thermal compound from ARCTIC COOLING is definitely an improvement since the last generation when it comes down to application as it’s easier to spread, unfortunately in my tests the performance difference was negligible.

If you’re in need of a new thermal goop you can’t go wrong with the MX-4, but it’s not worth the investment if you already own a high quality compound. There’s only so much performance that can be extracted from tweaking a thermal compound. The main improvement of the MX-4 is that the made the application a lot easier compared to the previous MX-3 paste.

Some of the product’s features are worth recommending, being non-conductive is a definite plus, they also guarantee that the thermal compound doesn’t need to be reapplied every few months, in fact, they claim 8 years before its performance starts to degrade, an impressive claim, but hard for us to verify.

Price wise there’s been no change, around €5 for 4 gram, which makes it an affordable paste, not the cheapest, not the most expensive either.

We look forward to testing more compounds in the future to help our readers make an informed buying decision. Thank you for reading.

I would like to thank again ARCTIC COOLING for making this test possible.