CoolLabs Liquid Pro drying up?

[mac_angel]

Core i7 6850k and a Corsair Hydro H115i watercooler. I applied the Liquid Pro TIM properly (I believe) and it was working great for a while. But I noticed my CPU was running about 65*C idle lately. I took my computer apart and when I removed the heatsink part of the watercooler, I noticed the Liquid Pro had dried up completely. I didn't think this was suppose to happen, and would only happen if it was in contact with copper and aluminum at the same time, which would basically meld the two together. I asked around before and I was told the heat spreader on the Core i7 6850k was nickle, not aluminum. Was I misinformed?

I'm also using the Liquid Pro on a pair of Asus Strix 1080ti OC cards. I haven't taken them apart to see if it's dried up on them yet, but I don't think I'm having any issues with them.

 

[jay32267]

I don't think it should be dry. I work in electronics and none of the heat sink compounds I use ever really "dries".

I generally use Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on PCs and so far I haven't had it dry out.

 

[mac_angel]

I don't think it should be dry. I work in electronics and none of the heat sink compounds I use ever really "dries".

I generally use Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on PCs and so far I haven't had it dry out.

yea, that's what I was thinking. "Liquid Metal". Shouldn't be drying out. As I said, only reason it should dry out is if there was a reaction between copper and aluminum. Do you know what the heat spreader is made of on the Intel Core i7 6850k?

 

[mac_angel]

Definitely oxidization (right term?) On the CPU and heat sink. I'm not sure how to upload a pic on here.

 

[jay32267]

From what I thought...and just googled....it's supposed to be nickel plated.

Perhaps it's a bad plating job?

I might try different thermal paste.

 

[mac_angel]

Yea, I'm looking at thermal pastes now. I have a big tube of Arctic Silver 5 (I do a lot of builds for friends and family). I might make a run out to get some Grisly or something.