ARCTIC MX-4 (20g) Thermal Compound Review

If you’re in the market for thermal compound you’ve got a ton of choices out there. It’s hard to make a decision isn’t it? Today for review I’ve got the newest thermal compound from ARCTIC called MX-4 and I’ve that it’s pretty good stuff. So read on…

 

Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

ARCTIC MX-4 (20g)

Thermal Compound for All Coolers

The ARCTIC MX-4 is a new thermal compound that guarantees exceptional heat dissipation from components and maintains the needed stability to push your computer system to its maximum. The ARCTIC MX-4 continues to be overclocker’s ultimate choice when choosing thermal compound.

Exceptional Performance

The ARCTIC MX-4 is composed of carbon micro-particles that lead to an extremely high thermal conductivity. It guarantees quick and efficient dissipation of heat from the CPU or GPU.

Safe and Easy Application

The ARCTIC MX-4 is a metal-free and non-electrically conductive compound that eliminates the risks of short circuit and provides protection to your computer. Application is very easy as the consistency is just ideal for application on chips.

Great Value

With the competitive pricing of the ARCTIC MX-4, the performance of the ARCTIC MX-4 is the best thermal compound on the market.

Specs:

Thermal Conductivity (W/mk): 8.5

Viscosity (poise): 870

Density (g/cm³): 2.5

Dimensions (Packaging): 20g: 182 L x 35 W x 20 H mm

Net Weight: 20g

MSRP: $29.95

Price: $22.95 (from Amazon at time of review)

 

A Better Look at Things:

The tube I got for review is the industrial size, it’s big, it’s 20 grams of MX-4 thermal compound. It should last me for a very long time.

 

The MX-4 comes in a handy syringe that makes application easier.

The compound is easy to spread; I have to say it’s like the consistency of a thinned peanut butter. I guess that’s the best way to describe it, but it is very easy to spread.

  

 

Installation, Testing and Comparison:

For testing I used it with my Corei5 750 CPU and a SilenX Effizio EFZ-92HA3 CPU Cooler.

I’ve been using Noctua NT-H1 for quite a while so that’s what I’m using for the comparison to the ARCTIC MX-4.

Concerning prices for these, that small tube of Noctua is 1.4ml and sells for about $8.30 on average where the large tube of MX-4 is 20g and sells for about $23. It’s hard to make a real price comparison as one is measurement is in volume and one is in weight. To do the conversion process it takes a bit of work as you need to know the gravity densities of each of them essentially and factor all of that in.

The gravity of NT-H1 is 2.49 g/cm³ which you would multiply by the volume of 1.4ml and that should give you the gram weight of 3.49 for one tube of NT-H1. Then we can figure out the prices per gram which would be about $2.40 per gram for NT-H1 and then it would be about $1.15 per gram for the MX-4. If I’m doing this correctly, which I think I am, the MX-4 comes out to be less expensive in the end.

So match class is over, let’s get back to testing.

Ambient room temperature during testing was 23.5C (+ / – .3C).

I used Orthos Stress Prime to get 100% load on all four cores and I used CoreTemp to log and record the temperatures. I then averaged them out to get one number that you see in the chart below.

As you can see the MX-4 actually does better than the NT-H1, yes it’s only one degree but it’s still better right?

 

Summary and Comments:

In the world of thermal matters, one degree can make or break a system. You’ve got plenty of choices when it comes to thermal compounds these days and you want the one that’s going to give you best results and I think that’s ARCTIC MX-4.

Yes it’s only one degree, in the end I don’t think you could go wrong with either of these thermal compounds really. The ARCTIC MX-4 and the Noctua NT-H1 are very much evenly matched honestly.

 

 

Pros:

+Works well

+Easy to apply

+Good value for the money

 

Cons:

-None