am using mx4 and was wondering what would be a better thermal paste than mx4. havent seen a thread that talks about people testing thermal paste.
You never need to change it and there are no better or worse. In general, you always throw away your old computer with the first thermal paste. The need to change is only when changing an important cooling part, for example the processor. But if you don't need to change any such important part, it is never even recommended to touch this paste. But of all kinds of paste, completely ordinary silicone oil is better, and it should be refreshed from time to time, for example once a year. It's because it can simply evaporate from there at high temperatures and create air gaps. This is my personal recommendation as a physicist and electronics engineer with more than 40 years of experience.
Define better, usually pastes that manage to shave few degrees are also the ones that degrade faster. So which is better, something you apply once and forget, or something that cost way more for few degrees less in the first months? Most of discussion about it would be pointless, just like AV comparisons. A real scientific comparison would require huge resources and months to have a decent result. Everything else would be a futile pissing context. Also, unlike other IT items, a paste cost next to nothing to produce while cost a (relatively) big amount of money to the end users. Which means huge profits, which in turn means big chances of not honest reviews....
better longevity. better temps and of course price. change once a year seems about right. i have 3 in mind syy Honeywell PTM7950SP and one named tfx thermalright. i agree i dont trust most reviews as i think they could be sponsored. thats why i tought there was thread here.
Best is the liquid metal from thermal grizzly but that's conductive so a pita to apply. You can kill components! Other than that the next best for me is Noctua NT-H1
LM have another negative effect See YouTube videos what happen after 1 year of use with it It react with the base metal it contact with