MX-6 vs NT-H2 to paste everything?

[SergNMerp]

Right, so, I'm in a bit of a conundrum here and can't decide which to get; from all the info I've been able to gather, the NT-H2 is minisculey better than the MX-6, but then a couple people here n there say the MX-6 is slightly better; most of these reviews and comparisons I've seen were either BS youtube reviews (tells you nothing useful till the end, and when you get to the end you still barely have any info or they just tell you either one is good) or with older pastes, like the MX-4 vs the NT-H1.

Anyways, I'd like to repaste just about everything I have, with intent with not just performance but longetivity, hence why I'm staying away from Grizzly. I do plan on getting some PTM7950 in the future, but I need paste very soon and preferrably under $15.

What I plan on using the paste for is, well, firstly, a Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the new Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360, yes I know it comes with a small tube of MX-6 but I still need paste for the other stuff, right now for a couple of Xeon E5-2690 v4's that will be paired with a couple of Noctua NH-U9S's in the near future (used in a barebones Dell Precision T7910 I just got off of ebay), right now only one cpu will be paired with my previous cooler, the be quiet Shadow Rock 3 White, and then less importantly, my laptop, an HP Victus 15 something something, with a Ryzen 5 5600H and a GTX 1650 (Repasting 'coz during both the 3DMark Time Spy stress test & benchmark done an hour ago, temps easily reached above 90c), and then even less importantly, my MSI 6650 XT Mech 2X (does anyone know if repasting the gpu will void the eligibility for Micro Center's GPU Trade-In program? I doubt it but I also don't know), and some old-ish workstation GPU (not purchased yet, most likely will be a Quadro K2200, will def need a repasting when I do get one though).

The GPU & Laptop repastings can hold off a bit, just something I might wanna do at some point in the near future. 

I did purchase a tube of NT-H1 when I upgraded to the 7900X back in late February, but it's somehow dissapeared and in my search for it I've come across a tube of old MX-2, some Hydronaut, and a tube of some unknown paste, probably what came with my Shadow Rock 3. As for what I've currently got on my 7900X, it's nothing because I purchased a Corsair Link H150i last week but due to cpu temps reaching over 90c easily, I returned it, currently waiting for amazon to process the return so I can then purchase the Arctic LF3 alongside the paste and some intake fans (3x NF-P14s redux-1500 fans).

So, uh, yeah. Which one? Performance & Longetivity.

Edited April 2 by SergNMerp
added in some context for the dual E5-2690 v4's & change of E5-2690 v4 cooler model

[RevGAM]

18 hours ago, SergNMerp said:

I do plan on getting some PTM7950 in the future, but I need paste very soon and preferrably under $15.

LTT sells the pad version (really just paste on a plastic sheet) for that. 

18 hours ago, SergNMerp said:

hence why I'm staying away from Grizzly

Huh??

18 hours ago, SergNMerp said:

So, uh, yeah. Which one? Performance & Longetivity.

Most TIMs are within less than 2 degrees of each other. I'm not sure what your beef with YT reviews is other than their format and lack of details but Tom's Hardware has a great comparison article of pastes. Stick to the top 20 or 30 and you'll probably be fine as long as you don't find a significant number of complaints. I've seen some indications that MX-4 may be more reliable, but a bit hotter, than MX-6.

Personally, I've not had trouble with Noctua NH-T1, and TR TF-7, but Alphacool Silver is absolute garbage even though it's shiny. SYY-157 is supposed to be great, and PTM7950 is even better. Some of the Grizzly stuff is supposed to be, too, but quite pricey. 

[SergNMerp]

Yeah I know LTT sells the pad, but as I need a bigger pad for all these uses I can't pay that price right now, nor can I wait for the shipping from canada.

As for the grizzly thing, I've heard a lot about their stuff drying out after like 6 months to 10 months; high performance n all but not good for longetivity/maintenance free purposes (though, I usually repaste cpus every other pc cleaning)

and that last bunch of info you told me is exactly my point about yt reviews n whoever talking about pastes; I want one product of the 2 I listed as an answer, not 20+ different ones, not to mention you've said almost nothing about the only 2 pastes I mentioned, only others.

at this point I might as well flip a coin, or just risk MX-6 since it's half the price.

[Failure 101]

1 hour ago, SergNMerp said:

Yeah I know LTT sells the pad, but as I need a bigger pad for all these uses I can't pay that price right now, nor can I wait for the shipping from canada.

As for the grizzly thing, I've heard a lot about their stuff drying out after like 6 months to 10 months; high performance n all but not good for longetivity/maintenance free purposes (though, I usually repaste cpus every other pc cleaning)

and that last bunch of info you told me is exactly my point about yt reviews n whoever talking about pastes; I want one product of the 2 I listed as an answer, not 20+ different ones, not to mention you've said almost nothing about the only 2 pastes I mentioned, only others.

at this point I might as well flip a coin, or just risk MX-6 since it's half the price.

honestly just get MX-6 it's fine

[RevGAM]

1 hour ago, SergNMerp said:

and that last bunch of info you told me is exactly my point about yt reviews n whoever talking about pastes; I want one product of the 2 I listed as an answer, not 20+ different ones, not to mention you've said almost nothing about the only 2 pastes I mentioned, only others.

That's because it literally doesn't make much difference except for delidding a CPU, in which case pump-out is apparently a bigger problem. Thus, go for whichever is more affordable. 

[SergNMerp]

mh, alrighty theno

slightly related, this tube of MX-2 seems to be perfectly fine and after using it to test the 7910 stuff, works perfectly fine, keeps the processors cool even though both heatsinks aren't even mounted to the board, just sitting on top lol (one heatsink is an amd stock cooler and the shadow rock 3's lga 2011-3 kit screws are slightly too short to thread into the mobo)

but regardless, MX-6 it is, unless I somehow come across that tube of NT-H1

[-rascal-]

8 hours ago, SergNMerp said:

Yeah I know LTT sells the pad, but as I need a bigger pad for all these uses I can't pay that price right now, nor can I wait for the shipping from canada.

As for the grizzly thing, I've heard a lot about their stuff drying out after like 6 months to 10 months; high performance n all but not good for longetivity/maintenance free purposes (though, I usually repaste cpus every other pc cleaning)

and that last bunch of info you told me is exactly my point about yt reviews n whoever talking about pastes; I want one product of the 2 I listed as an answer, not 20+ different ones, not to mention you've said almost nothing about the only 2 pastes I mentioned, only others.

at this point I might as well flip a coin, or just risk MX-6 since it's half the price.

 

I've been using Thermal Grizzly's Kryonaut Extreme my water-cooling build for ~3 years now.

I haven't had issues with drying out...that said, I do semi-annual maintenance on my loop, so old paste is cleaned off a new paste it put on every 6 ~ 8 months. 

 

Regardless, the top-5 or top-10 pastes are like 2*C ~ 3*C off from each other.

It's not going to make a HUGE difference, unless you need something very specific.

 

MX-2 is rather old...and I would not use paste that's been sitting for too too long.

I've had good luck with MX-4 (and still have a tube that's a few years old). Supposedly the MX-6 is quite a bit better.

[RevGAM]

12 hours ago, -rascal- said:

MX-2 is rather old...and I would not use paste that's been sitting for too too long.

If it's not separating or dried out, why? As the OP said, it's working fine...

[SergNMerp]

16 hours ago, -rascal- said:

MX-2 is rather old...and I would not use paste that's been sitting for too too long.

I've had good luck with MX-4 (and still have a tube that's a few years old). Supposedly the MX-6 is quite a bit better.

Yeah, MX-2 is old but the paste in this tube seems to be in good condition, only dried up around the tip, but also considering my current setup on the T7910 of using 2 different coolers that are literally just sitting on top of the processors, not mounted to anything, the MX-2 here is just a placeholder. Temps seem to be decent, on the Shadow Rock 3 it's around 21c at idle, the amd stock cooler is high 30's, but also the amd stock cooler isn't held down with a giant stack of DVD's, so that probably affects temps as well.