Arctic Silver 5 (aka Old Gray Beard) vs Arctic MX6 (aka Young and Hung) - The Big Show!

DWD1961 said:
The other 'part' of the paste was on the block. It never comes off equally on either the block or spreader. As stated above, I tried also spreading it with a credit card corner to corner and no difference in temps.

I literally tried every spread application I read about and the center rice sized grain proved, in my application, no better or worse than any of the others -- exact same temps.

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Lower right is how I do it.
 
kirbyrj said:
If you don't have your graphs centered at zero, it's a useless graph. The baseline isn't even consistent between idle, load, etc.

See #3 on this website...it's an old tool used in Lying with Statistics.
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I understand that but you can do your own math on the ambient temperature and then deduct that from the overall bar graphs, zero it out, if it makes you feel good. I stated specifically what the ambient temp was for all tests:

"I took a ambient reading using a laser probe about 2 feet from the computer on the table. It registered 21.8. I took several reading throughout the tests and they varied by 0.2 C."

784807_TempProbe.jpg
 
Just recently I noticed my idle temp at 66% pump speed and 50% Fan speed, as posted in the above graph, have climbed from, 35.4C to 40-41C. I know there are many reasons that can happen, like Pump slippage, etc. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm going to repaste the block again using MX6.

Max heat test produced the same temp variable +5-6C to max heat. Reading forums, I have seen acouple of other people saying the MX6 did the same, had increasing temps, after a a while (less than 6 months).

This is kind of an aside, but I also noticed my 6th core is mainly operating at a very low clock rate most of the time during the stress test.

3600Core6Lagging.png
 
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freeagentt said:
At ~650rpm my 58X3D is sitting at 28-29c
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Not the same animal, and what is sitting at 650RPM? My question was specifcally about the MX6 paste I used in the test and left it on, since it was "new" and thus "better." LOL

Actually, from what I have seen, the Noctua paste outperforms almost all others, including Arctic Silver 5 and MX anything. I'm gonna order some Noctua paste and re-paste. I'll check back and post results.
 
narsbars said:
I have an original tube of Arctic Silver, no number, just Arctic Silver.
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You are ancient. lol. I'm old enough to remember it. The thing is, so many forum posts say to stop using the "old" stuff for various erroneous reasons, such as it is thermally conductive -- its not. It's very slightly capacitive, but not conductive. MX6 was new and I'm glad I tested it, but now it's time to try the Noctua H1, which has been around for many years (Noctua H1). They also have the H2, which gives about 1.5 -2C better performance over the already better than Artic Silver 5 anything and Arctic Silver MX anything.
 
I've been testing mx-6 on one of my back up rigs for 5 or 6 months and have been running it on another rig for about 3 months. Temps haven't changed on either (I beat on them daily).
i9 9900kf w/Noctua u12a 34-36c @4.5, 700rpm idle/1200 max, test rig.
i7 13700k stock w/Thermalright PA/SE 36-39c idle, 800rpm idle/2000 max, second rig.

How are your fans, filters and grills looking? Do you have a flow meter?
I've never heard of high quality thermal paste degrading in such a way. And I've experimented with a whole lotta paste, good bad and ugly. In fact, the only time I've ever seen thermal paste degrade to the point that it was noticable was with a GPU running the original thermal cake from MSI back in the early 2000s.
I would be more concerned with the rest of your loop at this point.
 
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DWD1961 said:
Not the same animal, and what is sitting at 650RPM? My question was specifcally about the MX6 paste I used in the test and left it on, since it was "new" and thus "better." LOL

Actually, from what I have seen, the Noctua paste outperforms almost all others, including Arctic Silver 5 and MX anything. I'm gonna order some Noctua paste and re-paste. I'll check back and post results
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I understand that. I also have a 5600X and 5900X, and I used to have a 3600XT. My TY-143 is at 650rpm for idle. Don't get me wrong, I am not an AS5 or Cermique fanboy or anything. I have used quite a bit of SYY-157, TF7, TFX.

Sorry I didn't read the whole thread. I haven't tried MX6, and no real plans on it.
 
personally will never use AS5 again, i use to use it because everyone swore by it, but i already didn't like it because after a couple months it dries out and cements parts together. and i don't know if that may have been part of a problem i had but i had been running a custom loop for a couple years and maybe after it dried out i moved my computer and broke the seal?? idk but i started noticing temps higher than usual and just started looking around at new pastes being the tube of as5 i had at that point was ancient, so i dedided to go with the top rated paste at the time which was Gelid GC-Extreme and when i swapped it out my temps dropped like 6-7c and since then, every rig i've used it on and even one that was like 3-4 years old, when i broke the machine down the paste was just as tacky as the day i put it on. so basically it never dries out and you never have to worry about trying to yank a cooler off and risk bending/breaking pins, it's non conductive and performs way better to boot. personally will never go back to as5 that's obsolete technology at this point
 
narsbars said:
I have an original tube of Arctic Silver, no number, just Arctic Silver.
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lol I remember going through so many of those when they were all the rage lol now i just use noctua nt-h1 even though i own nothing else of noctua lol
 
d3athf1sh said:
personally will never use AS5 again, i use to use it because everyone swore by it, but i already didn't like it because after a couple months it dries out and cements parts together. and i don't know if that may have been part of a problem i had but i had been running a custom loop for a couple years and maybe after it dried out i moved my computer and broke the seal?? idk but i started noticing temps higher than usual and just started looking around at new pastes being the tube of as5 i had at that point was ancient, so i dedided to go with the top rated paste at the time which was Gelid GC-Extreme and when i swapped it out my temps dropped like 6-7c and since then, every rig i've used it on and even one that was like 3-4 years old, when i broke the machine down the paste was just as tacky as the day i put it on. so basically it never dries out and you never have to worry about trying to yank a cooler off and risk bending/breaking pins, it's non conductive and performs way better to boot. personally will never go back to as5 that's obsolete technology at this point
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Honestly no one should be using AS5 at this point. Even if you have a huge tube of it throw it away at this point and get something modern. People just stupid sometimes. I just spend $3k on a new computer forget spending another $10 on thermal paste when I have this 20 year old tube of paste still.
 
hititnquitit said:
I've been testing mx-6 on one of my back up rigs for 5 or 6 months and have been running it on another rig for about 3 months. Temps haven't changed on either (I beat on them daily).
i9 9900kf w/Noctua u12a 34-36c @4.5, 700rpm idle/1200 max, test rig.
i7 13700k stock w/Thermalright PA/SE 36-39c idle, 800rpm idle/2000 max, second rig.

How are your fans, filters and grills looking? Do you have a flow meter?
I've never heard of high quality thermal paste degrading in such a way. And I've experimented with a whole lotta paste, good bad and ugly. In fact, the only time I've ever seen thermal paste degrade to the point that it was noticable was with a GPU running the original thermal cake from MSI back in the early 2000s.
I would be more concerned with the rest of your loop at this point.
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Sure, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't the paste, since MX6 is new, and MX5 was, indeed, defective. After repasting with the Noctua, the temps are lower but not back where they were at idle before. The entire cooling system is the same, clean, and there is only one fan in the entire system. I'll have to start the system clean and let it sit idle for a while, then se what the temps are before I really know how to proceed. I'm starting to think the pump is slipping (max heat Prime 95 also higher than what was posted above). If so, I'll contact Enermax with my trouble shooting list and see if they concur and will send another out. If not, I'm going to go air. I already have one picked out.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BPFN2ZZ5/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_5?smid=A13LTTYIDBPN4K&psc=1

71DjADhKwrL._SL1500_.jpg
 
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d3athf1sh said:
personally will never use AS5 again, i use to use it because everyone swore by it, but i already didn't like it because after a couple months it dries out and cements parts together. and i don't know if that may have been part of a problem i had but i had been running a custom loop for a couple years and maybe after it dried out i moved my computer and broke the seal?? idk but i started noticing temps higher than usual and just started looking around at new pastes being the tube of as5 i had at that point was ancient, so i dedided to go with the top rated paste at the time which was Gelid GC-Extreme and when i swapped it out my temps dropped like 6-7c and since then, every rig i've used it on and even one that was like 3-4 years old, when i broke the machine down the paste was just as tacky as the day i put it on. so basically it never dries out and you never have to worry about trying to yank a cooler off and risk bending/breaking pins, it's non conductive and performs way better to boot. personally will never go back to as5 that's obsolete technology at this point
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It does seem 'chalky' but that's normal. If you take it on your fingers and rub it, it's still viscous feeling. I had it on an old Core i7 920 for 4 years with no problems, then swapped that board out, reapplied AC5, and then ran it for about 6 months. Then m y computer got stored for 6 years from 2013 - 19. Turned it back on and temps were the same as 2013.
 
DWD1961 said:
It does dry and that's how it is suppose to work. I had it on an old Core i7 920 for 4 years with no problems, then swappped that board out, reapplied AC5, and then ran it for about 6 months. Then m y computer got stored for 6 years from 2013 - 19. Turned it back on and temps were the same as 2013.
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you should give one of the new non-curing pastes a go. i would think wet mortar would conduct better than dry mortar. but say i'm wrong and you have to move the system and it gets jarred and said mortar joint breaks, at that point do you think you'll still be getting same performance with your dry grit?
 
d3athf1sh said:
you should give one of the new non-curing pastes a go. i would think wet mortar would conduct better than dry mortar. but say i'm wrong and you have to move the system and it gets jarred and said mortar joint breaks, at that point do you think you'll still be getting same performance with your dry grit?
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I dunno man, maybe a one off thing? Millions use and have used AC5 with never a problem. You replied to my old post while I was updated. I didn't actually mean it is "dry." More like chalky, but still retains a viscous consistency. It will sort of look dry, but it is still working. Maybe your heat plate came loose just a little?

Personally, I've tried over a half dozen pastes. AC5 has always performed well.
 
Idle temps are meaningless. It's like dyno tests on a car at idle speed!
You want to load the CPU to the absolute max for a long time and record the temperature preferably from the on die sensor and always use the same cpu across tests.
You also want to make sure that your cooling block can handle the max wattage the cpu is putting out as well.
 
cpufrost said:
Idle temps are meaningless. It's like dyno tests on a car at idle speed!
You want to load the CPU to the absolute max for a long time and record the temperature preferably from the on die sensor and always use the same cpu across tests.
You also want to make sure that your cooling block can handle the max wattage the cpu is putting out as well.
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So, if your idle temps are 65C, that's meaningless? Since my computer runs at lower clocks most of it's life, except gaming, I like to have my low clock/idle temps as low as possible.

always use the same cpu across tests.
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No. . .shit?

make sure that your cooling block can handle the max wattage the cpu is putting out as well.
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Why, as long as it can run any application a person uses? I mean, I don't sit around running Prime 95 at max heat all day.
 
I’ve got Ceramique on my X3D and FC140 right now with a single fan and it’s awesome :)
 
DWD1961 said:
So, if your idle temps are 65C, that's meaningless? Since my computer runs at lower clocks most of it's life, except gaming, I like to have my low clock/idle temps as low as possible.


No. . .shit?


Why, as long as it can run any application a person uses? I mean, I don't sit around running Prime 95 at max heat all day.
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Because it's a test and you *always* go for the max otherwise if you can exceed what you test in real world your test means nothing to prove reliability.

If your idle is 65C then there is an obvious problem with application or mounting of hardware.
Even no TIM won't produce results that bad unless the mating surfaces are poorly matched or software isn't truly idling cpu, et-al.
 
cpufrost said:
Because it's a test and you *always* go for the max otherwise if you can exceed what you test in real world your test means nothing to prove reliability.

If your idle is 65C then there is an obvious problem with application or mounting of hardware.
Even no TIM won't produce results that bad unless the mating surfaces are poorly matched or software isn't truly idling cpu, et-al.
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Why not just test both, like I did?
 
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I dunno if I posted back, but after applying Noctua NT-H1, idle temps are still higher than they were before using either AC5 or MX6, so it's not paste. It hovers around 40C idle now with pups and fan at silent RPM (RPM is above I think pump 66% an fan 50% or so). At this point I don't know what it is. Max heat using Prime 95, as in the above test, produced an average of 73C using HWiNFO64, which is the same monitoring software I used above. That's 1C or so worse than the original test using MX6 and AC5 but not statistically important.

So, for some reason, the idle is higher than it was initially. It hasn't gotten worse, either, so I'm kinda hedging out pump slippage (also because it's less than 4 months old (sure, could be a bad unit, but it's not continually getting worse, as in a defect in the pump would get worse). This is about where my original 3600 idled, but ion a different box etc.

I'm going to check the BIOS for any settings that might cause that. Any suggestions (I think I already researched that, but fuck if I can remember)?
 
Nice to see some love for the AS5!
It would have been cool to see results with the AS5 also after hardening, though I doubt there'd be any significant change in temperature.

I am about to upgrade my computer and I will take the CPU cooler off to use in my new build (Noctua DH-15, now worth 3 times the amount I paid for it in currency units - who would have thought?). It's an i5 6600K, installed with Arctic Silver 5 finger spread with outmost care using the finest of freezer plastic bags (with clear dense plastic, now probably considered contraband by the EU), and I haven't touched it since I installed it in late 2015.

My new build will be an ITX build (my first) so I am chasing efficiencies with this one. Really tempted to try the Noctua, but I already have two tubes of perfectly fine AS5 laying about... and what's really important: do the Noctua even last? Hmm :)
 
I checked all of my intake filters and they were clean, but what I didn't check was the radiator itself. I blew it out with some compressed air, and some dust did come out. Not a huge amount, but more than I would have liked. It looks like that pretty much did it. It's back to near normal now around 34-36C idle. However, I have a suspicion it was not that little bit of extra dust on the rad fins, but a Windows update. Anyway, all good now.
 
I have owned and operated a PC repair shop/service (drove to houses in the early days) for nearly two decades. I have used tons of pastes and I ultimately settled on Arctic Silver 5 because it has a high thermal conductivity, it's thick enough for my weird method of application (I literally bump the syringe against the CPU like a dot-matrix printer to spread "dots" of paste and then apply and rotate/slide the heatsink to spread and thin out the paste), and it holds up very well over time. Someone in this thread claimed that AS5 isn't suitable for high-TDP (180W+) builds which is why I'm replying: I used Arctic Silver 5 with my water-cooled FX-9590 (220W TDP) that ran compute loads at full blast for many years and only had to reapply it once. AS5 can take the heat. Also, the curing thing is a non-issue. AS5 works fine without waiting on curing. The difference between application and after cure time is negligible in my real-world tests.

I hate it when people speak authoritatively about things they don't actually know or understand. If you haven't tested something for yourself then you shouldn't be giving advice about it.
 
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My X5690 ES was a beast too, easily 250w with OC, I'm thinking more though, probably closer to 300w.. and I was using AS5. I wish all these new pastes were out back then,
 
narsbars said:
I have an original tube of Arctic Silver, no number, just Arctic Silver.
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Me too I have some as3 and creamique too and some epoxy and the cleaning kit. And 3 or 4 tubes of as5.

To the op did you wait the 48 hours and do heat cycles like the directions say on the as5 supposedly after the break in period it works it's best.
 
Lunas said:
Me too I have some as3 and creamique too and some epoxy and the cleaning kit. And 3 or 4 tubes of as5.

To the op did you wait the 48 hours and do heat cycles like the directions say on the as5 supposedly after the break in period it works it's best.
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I did. The AS5 that I used was already in my rig and burned in many times over several months.
 
I bought and used both MX 6 and AS5 in the past few months since I upgraded to a 5800x an h100i elite capellix.

In my case, the ol' tried and true performed better, AS5 all the way. I put MX 6 on it first, and it was fine. But I just... didnt like the "feel" of the temps when testing it. I felt they were too high.

Idle and lowest temps are near the same if not exactly the same, but extreme load under testing with p95 shows a 5c difference after ~10 minutes of testing and settles there.
First minute or so, they hold near neck and neck, but after that the MX6 slowly crawls up until it seems to settle ~5c higher.


However, nothing scientific about my temp readings and applications. I just did it by normal monitoring and "eye" application of materials, so there are bound to be variances from others doing the same.
As long as you arent going balls to the wall, you likely wont notice a difference, and I can say that my temps when gaming were roughly the same between the two - nothing gets a processor frying eggs like P95 on the max heat/power test, and I have yet to encounter anything that is similar in daily use over the years.
 
I just bought a new as5 small syringe and stuck in my drawer only to find.... a 5 year old mini syringe beside it. On top of that I couldn't recall where the new one landed. I tried squeezing a little out and both of them came out with near identical consistency that I said fuck it and just used whatever. I went around rearranging my builds after making the 7800x3d box and rebuilt the 5800x3d system and my old 7700k while I was at it so I can have a little emulator box setup near my kids play area on an old 37inch tv I use to watch kids shows with them.
 
I like SYY-157. Its pretty good, and cheap. A few C better than AS5. Can handle higher heat loads too.
 
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