ARCTIC Introduces New MX-5 Thermal Compound | TechPowerUp
 
ARCTIC, one of the leading manufacturers of low-noise PC coolers and components, officially launches its MX-5 thermal paste today. The newly developed, high-performance paste comes with an ideal set of thermal properties, guaranteeing reliable heat dissipation over long periods of time. ARCTIC MX-5 is available now in variants ranging from 2 to 50 grams, with and without a spatula.

Like all thermal pastes from ARCTIC, MX-5 is completely metal-free. Because MX-5 is neither conductive nor capacitive, it is particularly safe to use: the possibility of short circuits, corrosion damage or discharges is eliminated.
 
Regardless of the application method, applying MX-5 is very easy thanks to its low viscosity. The paste can be evenly distributed across the CPU in an extremely thin film via contact pressure from the heat sink. Combined with high thermal conductivity, this results in very low thermal resistance, which can contribute to improved service life and processor performance

MX-5 uses carbon microparticles as a filler to smooth out small imperfections on heatsinks and heatspreaders, improving heat transfer from the component to the heat sink. It is suitable for use on all CPUs and GPUs, whether they are in PCs, laptops or consoles. MX-5 is also recommended for integrated circuits with high waste heat and for power semiconductor devices.
 
The MX-5 is available now at Amazon with a starting price of $5.89 USD.
 
Personally if the performance is better then I can justify the price. 
 
 
 

I wonder what it's thermal conductivity is.  It's a bit worrisome when they don't state that out of the gate while MX-4 is 8.5 W/mK.

kougar

ty_ger07
I doubt that it is actually metal-free. Why do they say that stuff? Aluminum oxide, zinc, and tin don't count as metal?

Because some brands are, in fact, metal free  I thought the metal blends were generally higher performance though. Apparently MX-4 also uses a carbon microparticle mix, so I wonder what actually changed. 

According to their (M)SDS, Arctic's MX-4 thermal paste is greater than 50% aluminum oxide.
 
I think they say whatever they want as marketing words.  Like how Ceramique isn't made of ceramic.
 

 
Perhaps the 5-10% diamond is the "carbon microparticle mix" they are advertising.

Alumina is aluminum oxide.

Aluminium oxide is a chemical compound of aluminium and oxygen with the chemical formula Al2O3. It is the most commonly occurring of several aluminium oxides, and specifically identified as aluminium(III) oxide. It is commonly called alumina and may also be called aloxide, aloxite, or alundum depending on particular forms or applications.

 

the_Scarlet_one
Ceramique is made of alumina/aluminum oxide as well, meaning it is made of ceramic material.

Yes, Ceramique (brand name) is made of aluminum oxide.  This was pointed out in the Gamers Nexus thermal compound video interviewing Der8auer.
 

 
^^ @ 4:31 (but the whole video is good)
 
 
Is aluminum oxide not metal?  Ooof... That sounds like a question for a chemist.  I think that that answer may be subjective and based somewhat on opinion.  I mean, it is made from aluminum.  It's a compound of aluminum and oxygen.  But, is the compound as a whole no longer classified as a metal?  That's semantics.  That's like asking if rust is metal.
 
I'll ask this instead: Is a compound of aluminum and oxygen more properly classified as a metal, or more properly classified as non-metallic carbon?  It's some interesting marketing to classify it as non-metallic carbon.
 
 
 
I think the important thing in this discussion is that all of the popular conventional pastes are made of roughly the same materials and perform roughly the same.  I think marketing is what makes them come up with these weird loop-hole chemical composition claims so that consumers will think that they should buy it and see if they will see interesting results with this fancy new relabeled paste.  If this is "non-metallic", then all similar pastes should also be classified as non-metallic.  To market this as a vastly different "non-metallic" paste in comparison to all the other similar "metallic" pastes is disingenuous.

ty_ger07
According to their (M)SDS, Arctic's MX-4 thermal paste is greater than 50% aluminum oxide.
 

Oof... okay, yeah that's metal but in a crystalline form. They're really skirting the definition on that claim though. 

I tested MX-4 and the meter show well over 1 megaohm so its safe if it touches circuits.
 
MX-4 seems to last so long my water cooler will dry out before the CPU grease fails.
 

It's probably easiest to think of Alumina as a kind of Ceramic.