Review on 🔌 ARCTIC MX 4 2019 Enhanced Performance and Durability for Industrial Electrical Applications by Michael Welborn

I replaced the old OEM thermal paste on my late 2010 Lenovo ThinkStation S20 with this one. I've tried the "5 point" method and the "pea sized ball" method (using a slightly larger ball due to the larger chipset/IHS on the old hexacore Xeon W3680 processor). I did before and after measurements and noted the ambient temperature with the BIOS set to "normal" fan control. I found: 1) Using the "pea sphere" method outperformed the "5 point" method on my Xeon2) At an ambient temperature of 80ºF (with a difference of 0.5ºF) the core temperature was equal or slightly higher (+1 -2ºC) with MX-4, but with much lower fan speeds (200-600 rpm lower on the CPU fan). The BIOS seemed to aim for an average temperature of 72 C, with the cores ranging between 68 and 76 C. One more note, I bought this to replace an Arctic Silver 5 bulb that I've been using for years. It's a little easier to use. I found that AS5 was not "shelf stable" and was disconnected, requiring either remixing or removing the first bit before use. It also left stringy marks. MX-4 appears to be much more consistent and easier to apply accurately.