Arctic MX-6 shelf life is just a couple months?

[GerKNG]

well this thread has convinced me I need to stop being a cheap ass and just buy a Frostsheet or TG Kryosheet and be done with paste forever.

The whole industry changed.
Back in the days cheap stuff was often a cost optimized version of the expensive thing.
Now you can pick between expensive, unsatisfying mid range for way too much money and cheap trash.
I want to try the kryosheet as well but i saw a bunch of people claiming that it often causes high hotspot deltas and it breaks very fast.

 

[GoldenTiger]

i think they hit the mark with MX4, what's that old saying "if it isn't broke don't try to fix it".

This. I'm still on an old, but perfect, tube of mx4.

 

[Space Lynx]

The whole industry changed.
Back in the days cheap stuff was often a cost optimized version of the expensive thing.
Now you can pick between expensive, unsatisfying mid range for way too much money and cheap trash.
I want to try the kryosheet as well but i saw a bunch of people claiming that it often causes high hotspot deltas and it breaks very fast.

I didn't know that about kryosheet, hmm I need to do more research

Well, this is frustrating. Maybe I will go back to Noctua pastes, Noctua always treated me well customer service wise, so I feel like I owe them.

 

[mechtech]

Got me concerned about the 1 tube of mx6 I bought and never opened. Had good luck with mx4 for a very long time.

Next time maybe I will try out some Honeywell stuff.

Thermal Management

Honeywell’s Heat Spreaders and Thermal Interface Materials are designed to meet the critical needs of electronics industry.

advancedmaterials.honeywell.com

 

[Keullo-e]

Kinda inderesting, they screwed up with MX-5 and MX-6 should've been what MX-5 was supposed to be, but they screwed up again?

I'll continue using MX-4 since that has always worked for me, both the older and newer versions.

edit: typo

 

[DaemonForce]

I used to use some Thermaltake/Koolance solution before moving on to Arctic Silver 5 for about 20 years and now I'm using MX-4. Haven't experienced this issue but I remember the screeching abouty MX-5. It could be a similar issue going on. Guys, this is why reviews matter. Not just the good ones but read tf out of the critical ones. I have learned more from 5 minutes of reading critical comments than you find in the hour and pages of praises that can be summaried as "lol, did the job fine" and similar. It's really difficult to find anything about MX-6 other than mentions like "MX-5 discontinued, this is fine."

I know that we tend to get really involved in whatever dumb stuff we do with silicon and it's easy to forget that bad batches are more of a normal thing in the real world, not just with chips.

 

[Garlic]

Now days I just buy a sheet of PTM7950 and call it a day, it works, it doesn't degrade as fast as paste, and has better performance

 

[Waldorf]

@GerKNG
seems to be more connected to large qts/multi packs,
as i never had a single issue with multiple MX5/6 (all of the smallest size), even when using opened ones, stored for +6 month.

same with fans, only those coming in 5 packs started having bearing noise (dust) after 1-2y, incl the 3 replacements i got, as they shipped a 5 pack (removed 2),
all others i bought as "single" units, and are working fine, most now longer than the bad batch + replacements together,
and im using arctic fans since 2002 for +20 builds..

many ppl forget stuff is being made and stored in large amounts, just because i ordered today,
doesnt mean the product was made yesterday...

 

[Chrispy_]

I'm not sure why you guys are so concerned about brands/qualities of pastes.

Thermal performance is quite literally down to how "wet" a paste is. Plenty of roundups and group-tests show that water-based or low-viscosity pastes are the best performers in the short term, but they also dry up the fastest.

I wish someone would do a test like THG's "90-thermal-pastes-tested-2024" but over a 1 year span. I don't have anything other than anecdotal data, but the temperature delta I see between 1-2 year old systems using identical hardware and a variety of different pastes is basically zero. As mentioned above, I use whatever paste I can find lying around from a recent cooler purchase and occasionally the cheapest, oldest, most generic white silicone goop you'll ever find. Any differences in performance after a fresh application have completely vanished after a year, perhaps much sooner.

Unless you're repasting your CPU/GPU regularly at least twice a year, I honestly don't think it matters what paste you use.

 

[Waldorf]

@Chrispy_
tell that to the 3 cpus i pulled out of its socket trying to remove the cooler
(ignoring i didnt think of running it for a while (if possible) to warm up the paste)

while i do look at reviews for perf (as in lower temps), for customer rigs i prefer
if it dries out less, making cooler removal usually a bit easier.

 

[Chrispy_]

@Chrispy_
tell that to the 3 cpus i pulled out of its socket trying to remove the cooler
(ignoring i didnt think of running it for a while (if possible) to warm up the paste)

while i do look at reviews for perf (as in lower temps), for customer rigs i prefer
if it dries out less, making cooler removal usually a bit easier.

Yeah, that is something I've seen plenty of times on AM4. 20-30 CPUs come out, sometimes needing pin-repair :\ Thermal paste that's turned into dried glue - the worst offender appears to be the pre-applied paste on AMD stock coolers!

From my experience, warming the paste cement does nothing. I'm often attempting to remove a cooler because the fan has died and the CPU was shut down from thermal throttling minutes beforehand. It doesn't matter, once the paste is dry it doesn't change viscosity because there's no fluid left to heat up...

It's one of the reasons I have not problems using the (initially inferior) white silicone goop. When it eventually dries up, after 3-5 years, it's dried to a powder that isn't adhesive, IME.

 

[Waldorf]

@Chrispy_
try, then again until 2y ago i was usually swapping/upgrading hw 1-2 times per year,
and used working on my rig to repaste block, so it usually wasn't dry yet.

i might go back to using LM, as long as it is applied 2-3 times within a few month prior to long term use,
(as some of the materials get absorbed by HS and cooler) it doesn't dry out.

 

[Shrek]

I have some small tubs of GD900 that don't seem to be seperating at all and I've had then a few years.

 

[mechtech]

Kinda inderesting, they screwed up with MX-5 and MX-6 should've what MX-5 was supposed to be, but they screwed up again?

I'll continue using MX-4 since that has always worked for me, both the older and newer versions.

Well the question is..........was it a QAQC screw-up or was it counterfeiting that ruined 5 and maybe 6?

I'm not sure why you guys are so concerned about brands/qualities of pastes.

Unless you're repasting your CPU/GPU regularly at least twice a year, I honestly don't think it matters what paste you use.

I repaste once..........at about year 6...........when I am ready to hand down my PC.

 

[cvaldes]

Well the question is..........was it a QAQC screw-up or was it counterfeiting that ruined 5 and maybe 6?

The manufacturer Arctic removed MX-5 from the market themselves claiming QC problems with the supplier. Presumably they went back to test various batches of MX-5 and confirmed the findings of inconsistent product themselves.

Remember that MX-5 issues did not manifest in samples from fresh batches. They only developed after the product had sat around for some time.

Counterfeiting doesn't make any sense. If someone was actively doing that, they would pick MX-4 which is Arctic's most widely used thermal compound. But there aren't any widespread stories/allegations of counterfeit MX-4.

As to the fate of MX-6, it's too early to tell since the manufacturer has made no statement about the fitness of this particular product.

 

[Keullo-e]

Well the question is..........was it a QAQC screw-up or was it counterfeiting that ruined 5 and maybe 6?

Totally forgot that there was counterfeit ones, I thought that all of MX-5 was crap. I had one tube and used it before I read about its issues

 

[Veseleil]

Counterfeiting doesn't make any sense. If someone was actively doing that, they would pick MX-4 which is Arctic's most widely used thermal compound. But there aren't any widespread stories/allegations of counterfeit MX-4.

I can confirm my terrible performing MX-6 tube came directly from the Arctic.

As to the fate of MX-6, it's too early to tell since the manufacturer has made no statement about the fitness of this particular product.

Maybe we should do something in that direction? Apart from finding terrible pump out and temps on 2 GPUs, 2 CPUs already, now in less than 2 months of a fresh application (5800X3D) my temps skyrocketed (+30C difference, I'm not kidding), and I need to intervene before firing up any games, probably tomorrow. I had enough of this BS, I'd backhand slap the whoever is responsible for shipping such a garbage product within the 250EUR worth order. Shame on you Arctic, I will never recommend any of your products to anyone again. This deserves a proper hate thread if anything.

 

[cvaldes]

I can confirm my terrible performing MX-6 tube came directly from the Arctic.

Maybe we should do something in that direction? Apart from finding terrible pump out and temps on 2 GPUs, 2 CPUs already, now in less than 2 months of a fresh application (5800X3D) my temps skyrocketed (+30C difference, I'm not kidding), and I need to intervene before firing up any games, probably tomorrow. I had enough of this BS, I'd backhand slap the whoever is responsible for shipping such a garbage product within the 250EUR worth order. Shame on you Arctic, I will never recommend any of your products to anyone again. This deserves a proper hate thread if anything.

Well as a consumer in a (nominally) free market economy, you have the option of giving your money to someone else.

The problem with these sort of QC inconsistencies can't just be solved by sending someone a new tube of thermal compound free of charge.

TRUST IS EARNED and Arctic is squandering a lot of goodwill by letting these incidents pile up.

As I mentioned earlier in this discussion, I stopped buying MX-6 and switched back to a competitor's product.

All companies have products and services that don't work as well as they hoped. That's what happens when humans do things. The key is how these companies respond and how they behave in the future. Remember, this is not specific to the PC hardware industry. It is pertinent to all industries since the beginning of human civilization.

 

[Arco]

I really hope they get their shit together, I'm going to PTM7950 for my laptops at least. My MX-6 is fine and it has been sitting for a few months as of now.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Shame on you Arctic, I will never recommend any of your products to anyone again.

TRUST IS EARNED and Arctic is squandering a lot of goodwill by letting these incidents pile up.

Nonsense. Like everyone else, manufacturing difficulties are a thing. EVERY time there has been a problem with their products, Arctic Cooling makes every effort to solve the problem and take care of their customers properly.

Let's not make mountains out of mole-hills, eh?

This deserves a proper hate thread if anything.

No, it doesn't. Making a complaint about a problem is one thing, getting needlessly hateful is another.

 

[freeagent]

I never bought from that company, so I guess I dont know what I am missing. The only thing that they made that I was interested in was GPU coolers, but at the time they were nearly impossible for me to get.

 

[sLowEnd]

I've not observed any separation with my tube of MX-6. Consistency is uniform.

It's just a shame that I quickly experienced pump out with it when applied to my GPU, so I'm hesitant to use it anything else again.

 

[Keullo-e]

I never bought from that company, so I guess I dont know what I am missing. The only thing that they made that I was interested in was GPU coolers, but at the time they were nearly impossible for me to get.

These days their AIOs have great bang for the buck.

 

[lexluthermiester]

These days their AIOs have great bang for the buck.

They really do! Thermalright, Arctic Cooling and ID Cooling are the top three brands I look to for AIO's with great value for money/performance. Interestingly, all three make excellent TIM's. Thermalright's TF7 and ID Cooling's Frost X25 are both excellent performing TIM's and despite the issues discussed in this thread, Arctic Cooling's MX4 & MX6 are both excellent performers as well.

 

[cvaldes]

I never bought from that company, so I guess I dont know what I am missing. The only thing that they made that I was interested in was GPU coolers, but at the time they were nearly impossible for me to get.

Arctic AIOs are frequently called out as a great value for this product type. I am the satisfied owner of several Liquid Freezers and for this reason I started buying Arctic fans to supplant my usual Noctuas. Arctic has a thin 140mm fan that works well in tight confines.

So their problems with their thermal compounds are rather disappointing to me. The reality is that all of these companies are stronger in some product categories than others and Arctic isn't impressing on the thermal paste side. Curiously their older MX-4 paste continues to be very reliable so the inconsistency of their newer pastes might be caused by something in the formulation that is causing their suppliers to have more QC issues. It's not like Arctic just recently got into the thermal paste business.

Luckily for us, there are plenty of other thermal paste manufacturers and most pastes have very similar performance anyhow, at least when freshly applied.