Tuesday, May 6th 2025

Arctic Cooling Unveils "MX Authenticity Check" System - Notices Increase of Counterfeit Thermal Pastes
Arctic Cooling's various thermal paste products have existed as favorite mainstays for PC builders—be it hobbyists, professionals, or influencers. Unfortunately, the disappointing presence of low-grade knock-off units has soured largely good impressions of modern MX-4 and MX-6 lines. Earlier today, Tom's Hardware put a spotlight on the Swiss-founded firm's brand-new "MX Authenticity Check" system. Worried customers can check the provenance of recently purchased Arctic thermal pastes (with updated packaging); via a QR code-based checker—the real deal will ensure "safety with genuine Arctic quality." The company's latest announcement outlined/reiterated the importance of a truly effective solution: "thermal paste plays a central role in any PC build that relies on effective cooling, as it ensures optimal heat transfer from the processor to the heat sink." In further correspondence—beyond an initial introductory email—an Arctic representative disclosed that this fresh anti-piracy strategy was rolled out in response to an uptick in counterfeit products appearing across markets. Their MX Authenticity checking program is easy to use, and authentication takes "just a few seconds." Tom's Hardware summarized this process: "in brief, when you receive your new thermal paste from Arctic or one of the many retailers that carry these compounds, you first check the seal, scratch it to reveal a QR code, scan it with your mobile, and then verify it online."
Sources:
Tom's Hardware, Arctic.de
14 Comments on Arctic Cooling Unveils "MX Authenticity Check" System - Notices Increase of Counterfeit Thermal Pastes
MX-6 still migrates, MX-5 was bust, and I've had and have heard of MX-4 separating w/in mere months of purchase.
(Edit: Of course someone was going to register that URL!)
Gamers Nexus video at thermal grizzly recently showed me some deviation in the same product. Thermal grizzly also mentioned they are working on laser markings on their products. I think the issue is more the production out of house. I doubt arctic will get that problem solved with that solution. they should get their own production.
Who's wasting time counterfeiting this!?
question is if it's for profit, or to make the company looks bad in consumer eyes.
I have disassembled an Xbox with Ceramique and it was as good as day one. On the contrary, most other brands tend to dry up, especially on GPUs.
Arctic Silver 3 had those issues but it was also fixed, long ago, with AS5. Looking at performance, seems to be mostly comparable to recent paste - even after all these years - except it costs a bit more.
I see the problem when i unscratch it, I'll have problem returning the package.
Once open thermal paste is waste and can hardly be sold on the second hand market.
Noctua NH-T1 is a bad paste, but it delivery the same bad performance in a long term. I assume the user also changes the paste every 6 months or less regularly. I think these days I would check first what igorslab forum recommends. I think they recommend these days thermal putty and something else for the core.
Those smaller sheets of thermal paper with 0.8 / 1 / 1.2 mm width, copper and such, ....
I'm quite sure I read too often to not use thermal paste on graphic cards.
On my notebooks in the past i used the noctua one. I think a mobile Nvidia 660m GTX has less thermal waste power as most modern desktop graphic cards. You may check youtube and the gamers nexus video with thermal grizzly which was posted in past 0-3 weeks.
Roman explains well the different qualities of thermal paste.
Cheap garbage with an expensive sticker will make a big profit. Thermal paste is far more expensive as those little packages of glue. I talk about the kilogramm price.
I do unterstand Igorslab Igor talk a bit more after watching the gamers nexus video. There is lots of money in thermal paste. And lots of ways to sell cheap garbage.
-- I want to say it again. My mx-6 from Arctic from amazon.de sold from "Sold by: ARCTIC GmbH" in june 2023 - was the biggest garbage I ever had after a few hours. I saw the difference to my usual, outdated noctua nh-t1, quite fast. The noctua one performs not very well for these days, there are much better thermal interface mediums on the markets.
a.arctic.de
Which now redirects to:
x.arctic.de