Arctic Cooling MX-4 Thermal Compound

MX-4 and The Competition

Since we got the sample of MX-4 as a pre-released product, there is no packaging. My sample of MX-4 arrived in a plain brown box with some paper packing inside. Arctic Cooling does seem to have a design and artwork concept already, as they did take the time to have sticker made for the four gram tubes for our testing. Nothing out of the ordinary here, they kept the same syringe and press on cap design we are already used to.

You saw the list of specs for them all, and here is the competition with the MX-4 sitting front and center.

I wanted to do a small "spread-ability" test for all of the TIMs in the lineup. I know I can't be the only guy out there who likes the ability of putting a "dob" of material on a die and just spreading it thinly with a finger tip. As you can see, I tried to squeeze out equal amounts of TIM for each on the list.

Taking a few of the spatulas I received from Gelid over the years, I took the spatula to each "dob" of the TIM. The coarseness of the paper is not unlike a milled heatsink, so it shows very similar results as if it was applied to a heatsink or IHS. You can see that the NT-H1, the PK-2 and the MX-2 in the middle along with the GC-2 spread well with even the spatula. The other four are what I would say are those that have limited "spread-ability" and will most likely end up with more material on the spreader than on the surface.

This is the other half of the torture testing. I will be using the new Cooler Master V6 GT to do the cooling, while our TECC brings on the pain from underneath.