Arctic Cooling MX-4 Thermal Compound

Arctic Cooling needs no introduction; they have been around forever it seems. They have been making coolers for both CPUs and graphics cards for as long as I can remember and also they’re the makers of one of my favorite thermal compounds, MX-2. The reasons behind why it is my favorite compound? Well, first off, it spreads very nice. There is no need for a special spatula or use of a credit card. Just put a blob in the middle of the die and spread it around by any means. Secondly, it takes no time to cure and has no conductive properties, a definite plus, especially if you apply too much material. In this case, what squeezes out the side will cause no harm; it just makes for a bit more cleanup later. The last reason I usually go for a tube of MX-2 is the availability and pricing.

I have seen better thermal compounds, especially since I get to try a few for free each year. I know the guy sitting at home doesn’t want to shell out $5-10, sometimes even more for a tube of paste, especially for a test like this one where that would require getting something like $50 worth of TIM just to see if it was even worth it in the first place. So I dug through a box I have filled with various tubes of compound and brought them to testing to compare with our latest submission to TweakTown’s labs.