Artic Cooling MX-2

lemode · Nov 14, 2009

I was wondering if any of you use/have used this thermal compound and if you notice or know for a fact that it lowers your cpu temp by (bare minimum) 5 degrees and that this compound doesn’t need to cure.

I have like 10 tubes of Artic Silver laying around as well as 3 tubes of Noctura’s compound and whatever has come with my stock Intel coolers. Should I just stick to artic silver or should I give MX-2 a try?

Soylent Joe · Nov 14, 2009

I'm fairly certain the MX-2 beats anything else right off the bat, but it's so think and difficult to apply that I'd just stick with the AS.

Kantastic · Nov 14, 2009

Give it a shot, a lot of people here use it and would recommend it. If you've got money look for some MX-3, it's supposedly better by 1-2 degrees.

MKmods · Nov 14, 2009

I dont notice much dif between MX-2, MX-3, AS 5 or Ceramique.. I would use what you have laying around.

Kursah · Nov 14, 2009

I say use up what you have, I used to go for the best TIM hype...now I use what I have...which is still MX-2, got a good deal on a couple tubes. Can't complain, I've used many different brands and types, they get the job done with my OC'd rig and it's cooling, no complaints from me on any that I've used in all honesty.

[Ion] · Nov 14, 2009

Don't buy any MX-2 if you already have other thermal paste, I tested out MX-2, OCZ FreeZe, and AS5 on my friend's computer, the MX-2 was about 1C cooler than the FreeZe, which was 2C cooler than the AS5. The MX-2 was also much harder to spread than the already-thick FreeZe and the AS5

lemode · Nov 14, 2009

[Ion] said:
The MX-2 was also much harder to spread than the already-thick FreeZe and the AS5

i've heard that. i guess i will just stick with what i know.

*edit* i actually liked the OCZ FreeZe more than AS maybe i will just pick that up and give some of my stash to co-workers.

Kantastic · Nov 14, 2009

[Ion] said:
Don't buy any MX-2 if you already have other thermal paste, I tested out MX-2, OCZ FreeZe, and AS5 on my friend's computer, the MX-2 was about 1C cooler than the FreeZe, which was 2C cooler than the AS5. The MX-2 was also much harder to spread than the already-thick FreeZe and the AS5

I never spread my paste anymore, I put a dot in the middle and let my heatsink do the job. It's worked fine on various occasions.

MKmods · Nov 14, 2009

Olin at Benchmark reviews had a very good comparison of Tim's
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=138&Itemid=1

Disparia · Nov 14, 2009

^ Experienced and agree.

I like MX-2 as it's non-conductive and does a great job, but it will turn into a thick paste if you try to spread it. I do a dab or line of it and let it spread itself from the heatsink pressure.

zyklon · Nov 14, 2009

Kantastic said:
I never spread my paste anymore, I put a dot in the middle and let my heatsink do the job. It's worked fine on various occasions.

ye it works better like that for me with the mx2, arctic recommends that method too. i highly recommend this thermal paste!

lemode · Nov 14, 2009

Kantastic said:
I never spread my paste anymore, I put a dot in the middle and let my heatsink do the job. It's worked fine on various occasions.

I’ve never spread paste around on any CPU I’ve ever owned. The way I learned back in 97 was just to put a little bit in the middle of the processor and let the heat sink spread it out. So that’s how I’ve always done it.

suraswami · Nov 14, 2009

MKmods said:
I dont notice much dif between MX-2, MX-3, AS 5 or Ceramique.. I would use what you have laying around.

I agree with MK here. I have tried MX-2 and now went back to AS-5, reason computer using MX-2 over a period of one year slowly raises in temps, where as AS-5 maintains the temps respective of the season and especially in Winter it runs the coolest

Just my observation.

:toast:

WarEagleAU · Nov 14, 2009

Not sure what you and MK are doing wrong Suraswami, but I have yet to have that happen with me on any of the MX-2 Ive used. It used to be the best. Now you have Gelid, Diamond, MX-3, etc. I personally use diamond and that stuff is thick. So thick you need to set it in warm water for a few minutes to make it pliable. Best stuff I used though. I don't like AS5 for its electrical conductivity, but it was good stuff in its time. However, if you have 20 tubes of grease stick with that.

MKmods · Nov 14, 2009

WarEagleAU said:
Not sure what you and MK are doing wrong Suraswami,

I would never complain about MX-2 (I really like it and use it and MX-3 depending on which one I grab from my shelf)

My post/advice was use whatever you got. (the premium TIMs are all really close)

System Name	Suck it
Processor	i7 860 @ 3.5GHz
Motherboard	eVGA p55 FTW
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12P SE 2
Memory	4gb Corsair Dominator @ 1600
Video Card(s)	X2 Supercharged 570's
Storage	1 80gb Intel SSD/2 128gb Mushkin IO SSDs raid 0/1 500gb WD Caviar Black/2tb WD Caviar Black
Display(s)	ASUS MT276HE 27"
Case	Coolermaster HAF 932
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Ultra X4 1050W
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)

System Name	Haz0
Processor	i7-2700K
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3
Cooling	Chicken Stock
Memory	16GB G.Skill Ripshits X 1600MHz
Video Card(s)	Sapphire 5850
Storage	Kingston 128GB SSD + WD Black 640GB + 2x 1.5TB
Display(s)	24" Acer G245HQ + 19" Lenovo L194
Case	Antec NSK-4482 Orangified
Audio Device(s)	X-Fi XtremeGamer
Power Supply	Corsair TX750W
Software	Windows 7: Electric Boogaloo

System Name	Dust Collector
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
Motherboard	Asus B550I Aorus Pro WiFi AX
Cooling	Alpenfohn Black Ridge V2 w/ Noctua NF-A9x14
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 3200MHz/CL16
Video Card(s)	Power Color Red Dragon RX 5700 XT
Storage	Samsung EVO+ 500GB NVMe
Display(s)	Dell S2721DGF
Case	Dan Case A4
Power Supply	Corsair SF600 Platinum
Mouse	Logitech G603
Keyboard	Logitech G613

System Name	Crossflow III
Processor	AMD 965 (4.04Ghz)
Motherboard	Asus Crosshair III
Cooling	Air
Memory	4 gigs Mushkin 7-7-7-20@1T
Video Card(s)	single 9800GT
Storage	Raptor 150's in Raid0
Display(s)	LG Flatron 24"
Case	Custom
Audio Device(s)	AuzenTech X-Raider W/OP637
Power Supply	Custom modded Corsair 750HX
Software	Win 7 64/Solaris Utility
Benchmark Scores	3DMark06--21963 so far

System Name	Kursah's Gaming Rig 2018 (2022 Upgrade) - Ryzen+ Edition \| Gaming Laptop (Lenovo Legion 5i Pro 2022)
Processor	R7 5800X @ Stock \| i7 12700H @ Stock
Motherboard	Asus ROG Strix X370-F Gaming BIOS 6203\| Legion 5i Pro NM-E231
Cooling	Noctua NH-U14S Push-Pull + NT-H1 \| Stock Cooling
Memory	TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32GB (2x16) DDR4 4000 @ 3600 18-20-20-42 1.35v \| 32GB DDR5 4800 (2x16)
Video Card(s)	Palit GeForce RTX 4070 JetStream 12GB \| CPU-based Intel Iris XE + RTX 3070 8GB 150W
Storage	4TB SP UD90 NVME, 960GB SATA SSD, 2TB HDD \| 1TB Samsung OEM NVME SSD + 4TB Crucial P3 Plus NVME SSD
Display(s)	Acer 28" 4K VG280K x2 \| 16" 2560x1600 built-in
Case	Corsair 600C - Stock Fans on Low \| Stock Metal/Plastic
Audio Device(s)	Aune T1 mk1 > AKG K553 Pro + JVC HA-RX 700 (Equalizer APO + PeaceUI) \| Bluetooth Earbuds (BX29)
Power Supply	EVGA 750G2 Modular + APC Back-UPS Pro 1500 \| 300W OEM (heavy use) or Lenovo Legion C135W GAN (light)
Mouse	Logitech G502 \| Logitech M330
Keyboard	HyperX Alloy Core RGB \| Built in Keyboard (Lenovo laptop KB FTW)
Software	Windows 11 Pro x64 \| Windows 11 Home x64

Artic Cooling MX-2

lemode

Soylent Joe

Kantastic

MKmods

Case Mod Guru

Kursah

Super Moderator

[Ion]

WCG Team Assistant

lemode

Kantastic

MKmods

Case Mod Guru

Disparia

zyklon

lemode

suraswami

WarEagleAU

Bird of Prey

MKmods

Case Mod Guru

System Name	Niedersachsen / Ribe / Minsk
Processor	i3 3240 / i7-3520M / 4x Opteron 6376 @ 2.86GHz
Motherboard	BIOSTAR H61M / HP Q77 / Supermicro H8QG7
Cooling	Stock / Stock / 4x 1U G34
Memory	1x8GB / 2x4GB / 4x4GB
Video Card(s)	GTX260 / Intel HD 4000 / nVidia GT310
Storage	80GB Intel SSD / 256GB Intel SSD / 2x 60GB SSD (RAID1)
Display(s)	Dell 3007 + HP 2245w / 12.1" 1366x768 / None
Case	Antec NSK3480 / HP / Supermicro 1U
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Enermax 500W / HP 130W / Supermicro Gold 1400W
Keyboard	IBM Model M
Software	Windows 7 (Niedersachsen/Ribe) / Linux Mint 17.2 (Minsk)

Processor	Intel i5-6600
Motherboard	ASRock H170M-ITX
Cooling	Cooler Master Geminii S524
Memory	G.Skill DDR4-2133 16GB (8GB x 2)
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte R9-380X 4GB
Storage	Samsung 950 EVO 250GB (mSATA)
Display(s)	LG 29UM69G-B 2560x1080 IPS
Case	Lian Li PC-Q25
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC892
Power Supply	Seasonic SS-460FL2
Mouse	Logitech G700s
Keyboard	Logitech G110
Software	Windows 10 Pro

System Name	---
Processor	FX 8350 @ 4.00 Ghz with 1.28v
Motherboard	Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 v4.0, Hacked Bios F4.x
Cooling	Silenx 4 pipe Tower cooler + 2 x Cougar 120mm fan, 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200 mm Red LED fan
Memory	Kingston HyperX DDR3 1866 16GB + Patriot Memory DDR3 1866 16GB
Video Card(s)	Asus R9 290 OC @ GPU - 1050, MEM - 1300
Storage	Inland 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD for OS, WDC Black - 2TB + 1TB Storage, Inland 480GB SSD - Games
Display(s)	3 x 1080P LCDs - Acer 25" + Acer 23" + HP 23"
Case	AeroCool XPredator X3
Audio Device(s)	Built-in Realtek
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000 Modular
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

System Name	Pandemic 2020
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 "Gen 2" 2600X
Motherboard	AsRock X470 Killer Promontory
Cooling	CoolerMaster 240 RGB Master Cooler (Newegg Eggxpert)
Memory	32 GB Geil EVO Portenza DDR4 3200 MHz
Video Card(s)	ASUS Radeon RX 580 DirectX 12 DUAL-RX580-O8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video C
Storage	WD 250 M.2, Corsair P500 M.2, OCZ Trion 500, WD Black 1TB, Assorted others.
Display(s)	ASUS MG24UQ Gaming Monitor - 23.6" 4K UHD (3840x2160) , IPS, Adaptive Sync, DisplayWidget
Case	Fractal Define R6 C
Audio Device(s)	Realtek 5.1 Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair RMX 850 Platinum PSU (Newegg Eggxpert)
Mouse	Razer Death Adder
Keyboard	Corsair K95 Mechanical & Corsair K65 Wired, Wireless, Bluetooth)
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64