The debate of the paste rages on! What makes one thermal paste better than another? Is it the little features in these so-very-essential products, or is it sheer performance? In my everlasting quest of the answer, I have come across Arctic Cooling's MX-2 thermal compound, which appears to be a promising contestant in the goop challenge.


MX-2 comes in a nicely designed blister package. It's the kind you have to fight with scissors, but this one didn't give me too much trouble. On the front, the package showcases the goop as well as some impressive features, including: non-conductive, non-curing, non-corrosive, and odorless. The electrical conductivity of other compounds like Arctic Silver 5 and Liquid Pro always unsettled me because it seems so easy for a little bit of goop to do a lot of damage. Also, because it doesn't need to cure, it will give you the best possible performance right off of the bat (and last at least 8 years, they say!), which is always a plus.

The back explains some of these features a little more, and shows some testing comparing MX-2 to AS5 and some other random compounds. It was a real relief to see that, on this chart, they cited a specific processor and its clock, as if to show that they actually did testing. Lately companies have been putting out all of these bogus looking graphs just to make their product look cool, so this is a nice genuine touch. Here is a full list of the features:



So, does your choice of goop really matter? Let's find out…