Liquid Ultra Thermal Paste

[Intervention]

Hello. Does anyone know the life span of Liquid Ultra once applied? I have used it on my delided 4790k @4.6 ghz 1.30 volts which was overheating, even with IC Diamond hitting 80 celsius under full load using WPrime. Now, temperatures stay under 60 celsius! (see screen capture)

 

[jboydgolfer]

Iirc it never needs reapplication., unless disturbed.
As a matter of fact, im confident of it.

Unless my brands are mixed, in my mind

 

[Intervention]

Iirc it never needs reapplication., unless disturbed.
As a matter of fact, im confident of it.

Unless my brands are mixed, in my mind

That goes along with my assumptions. Since it is made of purely metal, why would it need reapplication. But you never know. Its always best to ask

 

[jboydgolfer]

That goes along with my assumptions. Since it is made of purely metal, why would it need reapplication. But you never know. Its always best to ask

From what ive pickded up, reapplication is only reqiired if temp dissepation begins to degrade, or what i posted above. But yes, your right, its always best to ask, and im certain its also best to let this thread marinade for a while, as members who are more knowledgable will likely chime in with advice/suggestions.

Welcome to TPU

 

[Intervention]

From what ive pickded up, reapplication is only reqiired if temp dissepation begins to degrade, or what i posted above. But yes, your right, its always best to ask, and im certain its also best to let this thread marinade for a while, as members who are more knowledgable will likely chime in with advice/suggestions.

Welcome to TPU

Thanks for your opinion. Always welcomed!

 

[silentbogo]

Iirc it never needs reapplication., unless disturbed.
As a matter of fact, im confident of it.

Unless my brands are mixed, in my mind

Not sure about that. There were similar videos in english, just couldn't find those, but here's one of the long-term testing projects:

This guy used Collaboratory Liquid Pro, but similar results were seen on other brands, such as similar Russian ЖМ-6.

Collaboratory Liquid Ultra also "expires" in 18-24 month. My co-worker killed his Macbook Pro with this one (most likely microfractures on GPU die, because there was nothing wrong with it at first).

 

[micropage7]

the simple thing is when the temp is getting higher it means thats the time you need to replace them

 

[peche]

coollab does not degrades over the time, no need re-application unless you screw the first application, for example, take out CPU IHS and screw the bond of the previous application sir, also i have noticed that every time that you want to re-paste your delidded processor, due cooler swap or upgrades, general maintenance or sh*t you may re-apply it becase of broken bond on delidded cpu, if you could glue back cpu's IHS again, this will make you never re-paste the liquid metal again, im looking forward a thermal resistant adhesive for my CPU

 

[Intervention]

Not sure about that. There were similar videos in english, just couldn't find those, but here's one of the long-term testing projects:

This guy used Collaboratory Liquid Pro, but similar results were seen on other brands, such as similar Russian ЖМ-6.

Collaboratory Liquid Ultra also "expires" in 18-24 month. My co-worker killed his Macbook Pro with this one (most likely microfractures on GPU die, because there was nothing wrong with it at first).

I watched the video you posted. It almost gave me a headache at how many mistakes were made. First of all, you are not supposed to use it on aluminum. He did not exactly apply Liquid Ultra to the aluminum part of his heatsink next to the copper pipes, but when he sits that cooler on the IHS it will spread a little into the cracks between the copper pipes and aluminum and thus cause damage to his cooler. Also, a common mistake many people make is to apply Liquid Ultra to the side of the IHS that comes in contact with the die. You only need one layer and that is on the core if the CPU is delided, or if applying to a GPU core. One thin layer and it will work great. At the cool laboratory site it mentioned that Liquid Ultra does not need to be reapplied again.

Your co-worker must have surely made a mistake applying this Gallium based product on to his GPU die, which might have shorted out the transistors around the core. Gallium is perfectly safe on most metals, except for aluminum, which it will breakdown like a cracker. I have posted above my temperature results after applying Liquid Ultra to my 4790k core. The stuff works and according to my research, it lasts the life of your cpu or gpu. For between the cooler and the IHS, I do not use Liquid Ultra, but instead either IC Diamond, or another good quality thermal paste. Cheers.

 

[TirNaNog]

Keep it for over a year on my de-lidded 4790K as die/ihs interface without noticing any decrease in thermal perf.

 

[silentbogo]

I watched the video you posted. It almost gave me a headache at how many mistakes were made. First of all, you are not supposed to use it on aluminum. He did not exactly apply Liquid Ultra to the aluminum part of his heatsink next to the copper pipes, but when he sits that cooler on the IHS it will spread a little into the cracks between the copper pipes and aluminum and thus cause damage to his cooler. Also, a common mistake many people make is to apply Liquid Ultra to the side of the IHS that comes in contact with the die. You only need one layer and that is on the core if the CPU is delided, or if applying to a GPU core. One thin layer and it will work great. At the cool laboratory site it mentioned that Liquid Ultra does not need to be reapplied again.

Your co-worker must have surely made a mistake applying this Gallium based product on to his GPU die, which might have shorted out the transistors around the core. Gallium is perfectly safe on most metals, except for aluminum, which it will breakdown like a cracker. I have posted above my temperature results after applying Liquid Ultra to my 4790k core. The stuff works and according to my research, it lasts the life of your cpu or gpu. For between the cooler and the IHS, I do not use Liquid Ultra, but instead either IC Diamond, or another good quality thermal paste. Cheers.

Hear you on the headache: this guy's obsession with soviet cartoons and stupid audio tracks also hurt my brain, but apparently this is one of the very few long-term testing videos on the net.

In regards to MacBook, it was more like this, but more intense, completely dry and GPU-permanently damaged:

There also was a copper spacer between GPU/CPU die and heatsink and no spillage onto nearby components, so any type of foreign material was out of equation.

 

[Intervention]

Hear you on the headache: this guy's obsession with soviet cartoons and stupid audio tracks also hurt my brain, but apparently this is one of the very few long-term testing videos on the net.

In regards to MacBook, it was more like this, but more intense, completely dry and GPU-permanently damaged:

There also was a copper spacer between GPU/CPU die and heatsink and no spillage onto nearby components, so any type of foreign material was out of equation.

Thanks for sharing. Yes, I have seen this video before. My thing I got from it was, bottom line, it does not destroy your CPU or GPU. I understand that once you apply Liquid Ultra, you are supposed to leave it alone unless you notice overheating due to most likely wrong application. I have seen a few people making these videos of them taking off the heatsink after applying Liquid Ultra, and the results are as expected. I just applied Liquid Ultra to my XFX R9 390 gpu yesterday because it was thermal throttling hitting 80c during game play. After applying this stuff, temps stay in the low 70's.

However, I do know that Gallium, which is the base for Liquid Ultra, destroys aluminum. If the original thermal paste is not removed completely, and it is aluminum based or has aluminum in it, it will react with Gallium and leave permanent markings on dies. Notice how Liquid Ultra comes with a scrub pad for removing the old residue from heat sinks? It is to avoid contamination and reaction with left over particles. I have seen other videos also where people take their equipment apart after a year or so of using Liquid Ultra, and there are no markings left on die, and barely some on the IHS. Here is a video addressing this issue:

 

[Iceni]

Gallium doesn't mark aluminium. It destroys it.

Personally I feels the benefits don't outweigh the risks. Non conductive safe to aluminium thermal pastes like MX-4 will last several years if correctly applied the site says 8 years. And the difference in temps would only be a factor if you are overclocking to the limits of the chip and your heatsinks, And if you are at those limits the lifespan of the chip has already been compromised. For the sake of a very marginal temp difference I'd rather be safe, both to the electronics in terms of conductivity and to the common metals used in heatsinks.

Under review condition MX-4 shows only a 5 degreed celcius temp increase over liquid metal. If 5 celcius is the problem you need better cooling not better thermal paste.

 

[Intervention]

Gallium doesn't mark aluminium. It destroys it.

Personally I feels the benefits don't outweigh the risks. Non conductive safe to aluminium thermal pastes like MX-4 will last several years if correctly applied the site says 8 years. And the difference in temps would only be a factor if you are overclocking to the limits of the chip and your heatsinks, And if you are at those limits the lifespan of the chip has already been compromised. For the sake of a very marginal temp difference I'd rather be safe, both to the electronics in terms of conductivity and to the common metals used in heatsinks.

Under review condition MX-4 shows only a 5 degreed celcius temp increase over liquid metal. If 5 celcius is the problem you need better cooling not better thermal paste.

To each their own, I suppose. I would rather have those extra 5 degrees lower. Cheers!

 

[Frick]

Gallium doesn't mark aluminium. It destroys it.

WTF HAS HE DONE TO HIS VOICE THIS IS WHY I HATE VIDEOS.

Also, alumnun. LOL

 

[Ungari]

Not having the necessity to reapply this liquid thermal paste will interfere with many users compulsion to do so, and thus ruin their enjoyment of this product.

 

[TirNaNog]

^ you made my day!