Liquid Metal Between AIO & IHS, Is it Risky?

[ah.mhanna1987]

Please someone answer me, i have delidded 8700k and just applied conductonaut liquid metal between the cooler and IHS , im getting amazing extra drop temp, im using a kraken x62 with polished copper cold plate .. they didnt mention aluminium, but im afraid it is and its polished with copper.

its working better then any thermal paste i used! im at 5ghz 1.3v .. my temp on stress test prime95 without avx.. around 55 degrees .. before delidding it used to reach 90 degrees .. thats a big drop there.

Some people are saying In about a year you will need to reapply the liquid metal. Gallium will be absorbed by copper slowly over time.

 

[13thmonkey]

The only people I would trust with an answer to this are the makers of the liquid metal and the kraken x62. A chemist might help if you knew exactly what the liquid metal was.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

Using liquid metal between the cooler and IHS is not recommended for everyday use not only because of "absorbtion". One of the main risks is that it gets on something and might fry your MB and any component connected to the MB.
The best approach is liquid metal between CPU die and IHS + thermal paste between IHS and cooler.

 

[The Original Ralph]

what n0ns3ns3 said X2 - plus the conductonaut liquid metal, when used as thermal paste seems to "etch" the metal on both the IHS and the heatsink. Google it and you'll see a lot of youtube videos showing the etching after 30-90 days of use. Yeah, it's tempting to use it as thermal paste, but not worth the risk

the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut or the Noctua NT-H1 thermal pastes are the way i'd go

 

[n0ns3ns3]

^^ using the conductonaut for the past couple of years and seen no "etching".
And i went as far as mounting the cooler directly on the CPU die without IHS for at least 6 months. the nickel plated copper cold plate became a bit stained, but nothing that can degrade performance.

 

[ah.mhanna1987]

^^ using the conductonaut for the past couple of years and seen no "etching".
And i went as far as mounting the cooler directly on the CPU die without IHS for at least 6 months. the nickel plated copper cold plate became a bit stained, but nothing that can degrade performance.

Which cooler are you using? and how to remove liquid metal later on my IHS, any suggestion?

 

[The Original Ralph]

^^ using the conductonaut for the past couple of years and seen no "etching".
And i went as far as mounting the cooler directly on the CPU die without IHS for at least 6 months. the nickel plated copper cold plate became a bit stained, but nothing that can degrade performance.

not the best screen captures, but the link to the orig youtube vid is provided
here's the first one on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlWxZWiZ1mU

and in this one, the IHS identification markings transferred (permanently) to the heatsink. That's an awfully strong chemical action taking place on both surfaces

2nd youtube capture, of a die showing similiar "staining" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWTbxH-wyFI
The IHS showed similiar staining in this vid

and there are dozens showing that staining,

another youtube, this one the poster indicating after 3 months, when he cleaned the GPU pictured, the nickel plating felt a little rough, so some metal is being eaten away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIikmLf_H48

this is it, pictured after cleaning

whether you call it staining or etching, it's a chemical action on the metal, in this case nickel, which from my limited metallurgical experience is pretty resistant to a lot of elements. My concern is after two years what's it going to look like? And some chemicals embrittle certain alloys, again we don't know the specific nickel alloy or the chemicals, but we are seeing sign of some interaction. If it, over time, embrittles that nickel plating on the IHS, with the expansion / contraction with each thermal cycle, can we expect to see cracking in the plating?

as far as having run your cpu without an IHS, i assume you employed some sort of seal to prevent leakage

 

[ah.mhanna1987]

^^ using the conductonaut for the past couple of years and seen no "etching".
And i went as far as mounting the cooler directly on the CPU die without IHS for at least 6 months. the nickel plated copper cold plate became a bit stained, but nothing that can degrade performance.

not the best screen captures, but the link to the orig youtube vid is provided
here's the first one on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlWxZWiZ1mU

and in this one, the IHS identification markings transferred (permanently) to the heatsink. That's an awfully strong chemical action taking place on both surfaces

2nd youtube capture, of a die showing similiar "staining" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWTbxH-wyFI
The IHS showed similiar staining in this vid

and there are dozens showing that staining,

another youtube, this one the poster indicating after 3 months, when he cleaned the GPU pictured, the nickel plating felt a little rough, so some metal is being eaten away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIikmLf_H48

this is it, pictured after cleaning

whether you call it staining or etching, it's a chemical action on the metal, in this case nickel, which from my limited metallurgical experience is pretty resistant to a lot of elements. My concern is after two years what's it going to look like? And some chemicals embrittle certain alloys, again we don't know the specific nickel alloy or the chemicals, but we are seeing sign of some interaction. If it, over time, embrittles that nickel plating on the IHS, with the expansion / contraction with each thermal cycle, can we expect to see cracking in the plating?

as far as having run your cpu without an IHS, i assume you employed some sort of seal to prevent leakage

Please watch this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhuf6ARiJiY

it seems super safe after 8 month of use

 

[The Original Ralph]

just watched it - while he did indicate he didn't see any corrosion, the cpu identification markings seem pretty light, but i still didn't like seeing he had to sand it off the copper on the pump's heatsink. The fact that the conductonaut dried out to the point of cementing itself to the copper heatsink, while it didn't dry out on the IHS says there is a chemical action taking place. Copper is pretty vulnerable to a lot of elements.

Again, there are dozens of videos showing "staining" or "etching" . When i asked about conductonaut not too long ago, right here on Tom's, another poster reported his bud's cpu having been glued to the heatsink, which is what made me start researching it. The best that vid you posted shows me is it's unpredictable.

if you feel comfortable with it, go for it - more power to you, and i hope your experience will be positive.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

Which cooler are you using? and how to remove liquid metal later on my IHS, any suggestion?

I'm using custom loop. the block I mentioned is EK Supremacy EVO.
Removing the liquid metal is kinda easy. Just use cotton + acetone.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

@The Original Ralph
I've seen even more weird reactions in pictures. there are many things that can go wrong due to many reasons. remains of other thermal material or cleaning solution, cold plate materials etc.
If done properly (at least clean), there is nothing wrong that can happen. but again, i'm not recommending to use liquid metal on top of IHS anyway.

 

[The Original Ralph]

i'd have used it to delid mine except my cpu is epoxy soldered, and even silicone lottery said they no longer delid the epoxy soldered CPUs - they wouldn't say why but i suspect they had too difficult a time removing the epoxy solder, so i've left that alone.

 

[Marko9111]

Only liquid metal that won't stain IHS and waterblock is thermal grizzly conductonaut .Tried it on my i7 7700k on die and IHS and IHS and Kraken x62.When I pull apart my system,I used polishing paste and removed all liquid metal from IHS and AIO with no staining.(after 8 months),als it didn't stain EKWB supermacy EVO which is nickel plated block .It's doesn't get absorbed,it doesn't get dry,it doesn't glue together any metal components.Also,I wiped liquid metal from my i9 7900 with isopropil alcohol ,it remained clean with no defects on it.Also,conductonaut isn't like thermal paste,it won't run off your IHS or block if you put a drop on both surfaces and spread them with q tip. With liquid metal LESS is MORE.Hope this helps.