Liquid Metal paste - need help to apply - anyone based in Leeds?

[eidairaman1]

Not that i recommend Lm to everyne, but it does make a big difference in certain situations

First off you're prep job is the most important and for most people they make this mistake, like not using copper or nickle plated metals, and second you need to sand the copper down tell its a shiny finish
And third make sure to apply little as possible on both the die and the heatsink
amd forth you might have to reapply LM the second or third time so what this does over time it forces the LM to absorb into copper materials
And last make sure to use electriacal tape or non conductive nail polish to cover the outside of the die just in case the LM leaks

I did this with my Xfx Rx 580 that had terrible overheating problems with a low tdp under powered stock heatsink that came with this card, so i used LM and expensive new thermal pads for the vrm and memory, now ive been using the gpu for 3 months, with a 15c drop in temps and at a lower fan speed, and even the vrm and memory temps are lower, and yes the first and even the second time the LM did not last long and temps went trough the roof, but once i did it the third time i never look back its been solid, so again using Liquid metal you're prep job is key and to have a lot of patience

But again i don't recommend LM to everyone Bottom line you have to realize the risk's in stake that it could damage your coponents, and know what you're getting into before you do it
in my case i had no choice it was over heating real bad

Fatboy cards had tons of plastic on them

 

[Corduroy2739]

Fatboy cards had tons of plastic on them

Sadly enough mine is not the fatboy its this version

XFX GTS RX 580 XXX 8 GB Specs

AMD Polaris 20, 1366 MHz, 2304 Cores, 144 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 8192 MB GDDR5, 2000 MHz, 256 bit

www.techpowerup.com

 

[R-T-B]

Um, we're still talking about Conductonaut, right?

If so, the manufacturer clearly refers to it as a paste in the product FAQ ON THE COMPANY'S CORPORATE WEBSITE:

FAQ in the Thermal Grizzly Online Shop

In the FAQ section of the Thermal Grizzly Online Store you will find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about our products!

www.thermal-grizzly.com

Remember that an item can have several names/nouns for it. The Conductonaut product appears to be one of these.

Reading is FUNdamental.

I mean they can refer to it as whatever they want but it's not considered a paste by most in the industry.

Also, that is a generic FAQ, and contains this:

What do you consider a conventional thermal paste?

Thermal Grizzly classifies "traditional" thermal paste as a product that consists of a matrix material such as silicone oil in combination with nano particles for heat transfer. The nano particles are not electrically conductive and are usually provided from oxides such as aluminium-oxide.

So Conductonaut is not a paste. Even on the conductonaut page, they call it a "Liquid Metal Thermal Compound"

Reading is FUNdamental.

Indeed.

 

[Shrek]

It's not a paste. It's a literal liquid metal alloy. I have seen such results before but usually when going between heatspreader and die. It may be possible on heatsink side but on that I am more skeptical.

Perhaps I did not explain my logic very well... if a paste does not suffer 10°C drop then one can't recover 10°C.

I was not calling Liquid Metal a paste; I was comparing it to a paste to counter the claim that it could reduce temperatures by 10°C

 

[R-T-B]

Perhaps I did not explain my logic very well... if a paste does not suffer 10°C drop then one can't recover 10°C.

I was not calling Liquid Metal a paste; I was comparing it to a paste to counter the claim that it could reduce temperatures by 10°C

At load you can very easily recover 10C from liquid metal vs conventional paste if applied to the right place. The drop is real, if usually realized in between the heatspreader.

 

[Shrek]

Hard to believe... unless the surfaces are far from flat and then the TIM is rather thick

Reason I include the calculation

• Power = 100W
• Area 3 cm x 3 cm
• Thermal conductivity 5 W/K m
• Thickness 1/20th of a mm

results in in a temperature drop of just over 1°C

As usual, I am not saying I am right, just that I am mystified.

 

[R-T-B]

It's a pure liquid alloy so it's as thin as it needs to be and pretty much always a perfect fit. Also very high thermal conductivity vs paste.

Of course, it's very dangerous if it gets out (conductive). That's why most avoid it.

 

[ir_cow]

Hard to believe... unless the surfaces are far from flat and then the TIM is rather thick

Reason I include the calculation

• Power = 100W
• Area 3 cm x 3 cm
• Thermal conductivity 5 W/K m
• Thickness 1/20th of a mm

results in in a temperature drop of just over 1°C

As usual, I am not saying I am right, just that I am mystified.

The equations wrong. Power is 250-300 watts. Thermal conductivity is 12+ for LM.

Thermal paste is in the 7 wk range. So at lower power draw the difference will be lower. But give it more surface area and high thermal conductivity, it becomes this 10c delta.

 

[GerKNG]

do not use liquid metal except on delidded CPUs.
it will not drop temps by 10°C.
and where are the other 9000 dollars in your build (case, NVMe storage, psu, ram etc included)

 

[Shrek]

But give it more surface area and high thermal conductivity, it becomes this 10c delta.

Confused... more surface area and high thermal conductivity will decrease the temperature delta

 

[eidairaman1]

Sadly enough mine is not the fatboy its this version

XFX GTS RX 580 XXX 8 GB Specs

AMD Polaris 20, 1366 MHz, 2304 Cores, 144 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 8192 MB GDDR5, 2000 MHz, 256 bit

www.techpowerup.com

Yeah outside of Sapphire I'd replace the thermal stuff fast.

 

[R-T-B]

do not use liquid metal except on delidded CPUs.
it will not drop temps by 10°C.
and where are the other 9000 dollars in your build (case, NVMe storage, psu, ram etc included)

If you aren't a pro at isolating the stuff, agreed.

Confused... more surface area and high thermal conductivity will decrease the temperature delta

Not from how paste performs.

 

[GerKNG]

If you aren't a pro at isolating the stuff, agreed.

how do you want to isolate the IHS from the rest of the board and socket without filling it with vaseline or some mix of tape and plasti dip?

and at best you gain like 0.5 to 1.5°C with a very high end cooling solution. ON the IHS.
GN tested it a couple years ago on a 7900X or something where the delta from an AIO went down by 1°C over normal cheap paste.

 

[R-T-B]

how do you want to isolate the IHS from the rest of the board and socket without filling it with vaseline or some mix of tape and plasti dip?

I usually use a ring of cheap, standard thermal paste (MX-2 often) carefully formed on the top of the IHS. For whatever reason, LM seems phobic to it.

If you are seeing worse performance under any circumstance with LM, you applied something wrong (very easy to do).

 

[Corduroy2739]

As i said this before if you're PREP job is not done right, then you will not notice a big difference, and for me i found it works better on copper, and make sure the lm is baked into the copper and put little as possible then you will notice bigger gains, and yes i did watch the liquid metal test that gamers nexsus did i presonaly don't think he apply it right or something was wrong, cause i get huge temp drops and running at a higher clock with a lot lower fan speed then before with a 10 to 15c drop from mx4 paste

As i said this before if you're PREP job is not done right, then you will not notice a big difference, and for me i found it works better on copper, and make sure the lm is baked into the copper and put little as possible then you will notice bigger gains, and yes i did watch the liquid metal test that gamers nexsus did i presonaly don't think he apply it right or something was wrong, cause i get huge temp drops and running at a higher clock with a lot lower fan speed then before with a 10 to 15c drop from mx4 paste

Been running this card for 3 months now and never seen higher temps then 52c at 48% fan speed