Question What thermal paste should I buy?

Oct 16, 2022
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Hello, I want to know which thermal paste is better if the arctic mx-4 or the maxtor ctg8, or do you recommend another one?
 

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
I tested literally dozens of thermal pastes for the site about a year ago. There's not much difference between traditional pastes overall - maybe 2-3C between any of them. Liquid metal starts to see bigger improvements but it is costly by comparison per gram and if you get any on your motherboard or hardware, you can cause permanent damage due to electrical conductivity and shorting.

Just Google Tom's Hardware Thermal Paste 2021 or 2022: https://www.tomshardware.com/best-picks/best-thermal-paste
 

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
Arctic MX-4 is a good universal paste. Works fine on direct die like you find in GPUs, and works well on more rough surfaces like direct heatpipe tower coolers.

If you have really smooth nickel plated coolers, then Noctua's NT-H1 or Thermal Grizzly's Hydronaut will perform a bit better as they lean towards the premium segment and are more closely formulated for well polished surfaces.