Arctic Cooling MX-4 Thermal Paste Review

1. Introduction2. A Closer Look3. Testing Methodology and Performance4. Closing Thoughts5. View All Pages

The Arctic Cooling MX-4 paste is supplied in almost identical packaging to its predecessor, consisting of a sealed plastic packet.  This allows us to see the tube of thermal paste and displays various features and specifications of the product.

This similarity is also present with the syringe in which the MX-4 is supplied, the only difference being the use of the new Arctic logo and the substitution of a ‘3' for a ‘4' in the product name!  This is no bad thing, though.  The syringe is designed very well and allows us a decent level of control over the application of the paste.  Arctic Cooling have thoughtfully included four circles on the side of the tube which give us an idea of how much paste there is left inside.

Compared to the MX-3, the MX-4 paste is less viscous which allows us greater control over the amount of paste we apply and also makes it a little easier to spread. To illustrate the difference between the two pastes, we've recorded a video of the spreading of each paste.

As you can see, the MX-4 paste (right) spreads more readily than the MX-3 (left).  The magnitude of this isn't very obvious from the video but we assure you it's much easier to get it spread evenly.  This should be advantageous for users who prefer to spread the paste themselves and should allow the paste to cover a larger area for those users who prefer the spot method where the paste spreads out under the pressure of the CPU cooler's block when screwed down.

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