Mx-4 or AS5

Sgt Tackleberry · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:14

Hi,

Over the week I am going to drain my water loop and give it flash to make sure everything is going well and put my 6950 under water as well!.
I've been using AS5 for my CPU and temps idle are 25-30'c fully loaded 50'c but should I change and use mx-4 or keep using AS5 for my CPU and gpu?.

Thanks
Sgt T.

w3bbo · 21 Apr 2011 at 22:02

AS5 is slightly capacitive and can affect circuits if it comes into contact with them whereas mx-4 is not so is slightly safer (if you are a bit clumsy).

AS5 is still a damn fine paste but MX4 has surpassed as5s cooling capacity. The new kid on the block though is IC Diamond. This stuff is really good and worth looking at.

That said, 50c load temps @ 4ghz are very good so I wouldn't worry about it.

Surveyor · 21 Apr 2011 at 23:00

MX4.

Safer to use.

No curing time.

I've read that IC Diamond is a bugger to spread.

w3bbo · 21 Apr 2011 at 23:04

Thats because you don't spread IC diamond

Surveyor · 21 Apr 2011 at 23:22

w3bbo said:
Thats because you don't spread IC diamond

We live and learn.

SouthEastBlue · 21 Apr 2011 at 23:44

Arctic silver 5 is an old paste... I'm not sure why anyone bothers buying it over the better non conductive instant use thermal pastes anymore.

WingZero30 · 21 Apr 2011 at 23:47

Both the MX-4 and IC Diamond are top pastes with IC Diamond having the edge :cool:

lrlcr · 22 Apr 2011 at 01:01

IC diamond... good stuff but a pig to use.

The hard to spread is irrelevant, the hard to get out the tube is more annoying...

hyperst · 22 Apr 2011 at 01:42

I see there is a 7 carat one and a 24 carat (IC Diamond), which are people using?

Kaeo · 22 Apr 2011 at 07:06

They're the same thing, the 24 carat just has more in the tube. o.o

Jokester · 22 Apr 2011 at 07:13

From testing I've done AS5 is just as good if not better than Diamond if you spread the AS5 first to as thin a layer as you can get using a credit card. Obviously only works properly if your IHS and block are flat so you need to check if you are getting good contact between the two.

Operation · 22 Apr 2011 at 08:16

I use MX3. Have used AS5 before with no issues though. If you stick to decent TIM, the difference between them will barely be noticeable.

Sgt Tackleberry · 22 Apr 2011 at 08:51

thanks guys for the reply looks like i mite stick AS5 then

.
What should i use for the gpu block? AS5 or mx-4?.

Thanks

OLDPHART · 22 Apr 2011 at 08:57

Uesd all 3 of the MX range, MX2 was good, MX3 better but a pig to spread, MX4 just the job.

WingZero30 · 22 Apr 2011 at 09:02

OLDPHART said:
Uesd all 3 of the MX range, MX2 was good, MX3 better but a pig to spread, MX4 just the job.

Yeah. MX-4 spreads out very easily.

RizlaKing · 22 Apr 2011 at 12:03

Just got some mx4 and already i have more even temps across cores and has lowered temps by a few degrees used to use tuniq tx1 i think it was, never used as5.

Frozennova · 22 Apr 2011 at 12:07

Another vote for IC Diamond, just let the pressure spread it, I also noticed a small drop after re-torquing the block mounting after the rig had been running a few hours and the paste had become a little more viscous.

I vaguely remember the IC rep saying they let the paste warm up on a radiator or something during the winter to make it more useable.