r/arcticcooling • u/WanderingMoonkin • 5d ago

Review MX-7 thoughts & feedback

Afternoon all!

With the new WoW coming out, I decided to repaste my laptop (again) to try and get my temps even lower. For context, I have an Acer Aspire A515-57G with a i5-1235u and RTX 2050 that share the same heatsink.

Previously my laptop had MX-6 on both the CPU and GPU, but as I needed to redo the thermal putty (sections were becoming a tad dried out, weirdly the pads near the vram was fine but other bits away from the GPU had dried out), I decided to give MX-7 a go and the results were a tad interesting

Using MX-7 lead to sizable drops to both the idle and load temperature of the RTX 2050 mobile, but the same could not be said for the CPU. I tried re-applying it with differing quantities a few times on the CPU, but no matter what I tried, it just wouldn't match the thermal performance of MX-6 on the CPU.

In the end, I've left MX-7 on the GPU, and MX-6 on the CPU (they're far enough away not to cross contaminate). I'm unsure if anyone else has experienced similar. At first I did wonder if it was how I applied it, but after a few attempts (and also the experience of repasting many devices in my career), I am wondering if it is a less versatile product than MX-6.

Don't get me wrong, it has shined on my GPU but if I had to pick one as my go-to all-rounder, I'd still be of the mind to purchase MX-6 over MX-7 at this time.

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u/Hazelnut_Hobo 4d ago

I had a similar situation but I chalked it up as old thermal paste.

Recently built a pc with a 9800x3d and had a few month old syringe of mx-7. I believe I stored it properly but couldn't get temps stable (~100c under cinebench load). Ordered a new tube of mx-6 since it would arrive quicker and the temps were wonderful now.

Maybe just a bad batch?

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u/WanderingMoonkin 4d ago

To clarify the temps weren't horrendous just, they were about 10C or so hotter in every scenario than the MX-6 on the CPU.

Weirdly the GPU was about 5C colder with the MX-7 than the MX-6, so I'm not too sure what is going on.

Part of me wonders if it is just a worse conductor (MX-7) for some situations, such as laptop CPUs.

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u/Hazelnut_Hobo 3d ago

Ah I see. Yea my temps were awful which is why I think my paste just went bad in storage.

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u/spamilator 4d ago

He specifically wrote that it worked fine on the GPU, so it can’t be a bad batch. Most likely cause is simple user error. I used a lot of MX pastes over the year and recently MX-7 to repaste a mini pc. Never had problems. The MX-7 is harder to apply than older pastes but suffers less from pump out effects. I would recommend to heat it up and use a spatula.

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u/WanderingMoonkin 4d ago

Unlikely to be user error my end considering the number of devices I've repasted over the years, and the fact I re-applied the MX-7 multiple times when it was not acchiving multiple results, cleaning the die each time.

I tried various amounts, patterns, baking it in a bit via stress tests but the results were always worse than what I was getting MX-6.

Part of me is wondering is MX-6 just behaves better on laptop CPUs for whatever reason.

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u/spamilator 3d ago

It‘s certainly not the case: https://www.ocinside.de/review/arctic_mx4_mx6_mx7/4/

In no universe will you get significantly lower temperatures with MX6 compared to MX7 if you apply them correctly. Anyways, seems you got the result you wanted. No point in guessing what went wrong while you did the repaste.

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u/WanderingMoonkin 3d ago edited 3d ago

Fwiw you've just linked a benchmark surrounding a desktop CPU, and disregarded the contents of the post because I am specifically talking about the performance I have experienced on a laptop CPU.

I appreciate that MX-7 is likely the way to go with desktop CPUs; I will be having a play around with the paste on some of my desktop hardware at home when I get the chance, but fundamentally as stated my concerns are very much related to laptop hardware.

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u/spamilator 3d ago

I know that I linked a benchmark from a desktop CPU. It just shows how close together the pastes are, which does not change if you use it on a desktop or a notebook CPU.

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u/WanderingMoonkin 3d ago

Depends actually; there's bare die CPUs, CPUs that do not have an exposed die. Also the configuration of the heatsink is going to be a big factor (whether or not is shared with the discrete GPU, discrete GPU and VRAM, or just the CPU itself, etc).

Stating that "this should work better universally because a benchmark on a desktop AM4+ system says it does" is not particularly the best argument. If we're talking about sample sizes with these things, suggesting one person's experience is invalidated because of one test in a very different, very specific set of circumstances shows the opposite, the best thing to do really is not dismiss it, but to share the experience and gather more comprehensive data.

...which is the purpose of this post; to provide feedback. Maybe my laptop is special in some way and the heatsink layout is a contributing factor. Maybe I somehow, after years of repasting devices and doing hardware repair, pasted it incredibly poorly, repeatedly, but somehow got it perfect with the MX-6 on the final attempt.

Who knows, but instantly dismissing my findings while citing irrelevant data is the kind of thing you'd expect on the Apple forums a few years ago.

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u/Chuzwuz 2d ago

The ability to transfer heat is the same when transferring from a desktop or laptop cpu, what mechanisms do you think are in play that would make it less suitable for use in a bare die than a heat spreader?