Arctic Cooling MX-3 Users?

lettuce

lettuce

lettuce

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15 Oct 2007
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Bedfordshire, UK.
I applied some MX-3 to my i7 920 build today, and must say it was a real pain applying the stuf to my CPU.

I have always used the method of placing a blob on the middle of the CPU (MX-2, Arctic Silver 5, Akasa AK) , then getting a bit of climfilm and stretching it over my fore finger, and spreading the thermal paste over the cpu until there is a fine level film across the whole of the CPU.

Tried doing this method with the MX-3, it would just not want to stay of the CPU and kept coming off on the cilmfilm, no matter how many times i tried, in the end i did manage to get it spead across the whole of the cpu surface in some fashion, but it was far from even, i probably ended up adding a bit too much just to get it to stay on the cpu and not my climfilm finger :confused:

Has anyone else had problems applying MX-3?
 
I use cling film on the end of my finger, I found MX3 to be really good to apply, it has a totally different consistency to other TIM's I have used, it was almost like a soft blutak but without the stickiness!!!

I just put a blob on the center, and then squashed it down, and then just kept spreading it from the center until I had the entire IHS covered.

When any of it comes off, just squash it down onto the blob, and it comes off the cling film.

Once you get it spread out, just gently slide your finger over the top of it to spread it out, trying to keep on the TIM surface at all times..

It's hard to explain, I will take some pics of the way I did it the next time I remove my cooler which should be soon..
 
Yeah thats what i had to do in the end, just press down on it to spread it out, but all the other thermal paste's i have used you could just spread it on like butter, but this stuff just kept coming of again on my climflim finger. Maybe it was cos the cpu was cold and my finger warm??
 
I found that it was a lot easier to work with than any other TIM, when I first put it onto the IHS, I thought that it had went off or something, because it kept sticking like you said, but after it got warmed up from my finger, it softened right up, and I just kept working it from the center outwards until the IHS was completely covered, then I lightly rubbed it with my finger until it felt even all over..

With other thermal compounds, I usually get them all over the place, but I found that this stuff only went where I wanted it to, it takes a little longer than other TIM's to apply, but it knocked a full 5c off my load temps compared to AS5..

I think it is great stuff tbh.
 
Small thin line down the middle and a few dots either side, it is all that is needed. Everytime I do this when I remove the heatsink you can see that it evenly spreads across the entire CPU anyway
 
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