Will thermal grizzly conductonaut be ok on a Cooler master 212 LED heat sink? It has 4 direct contact heat pipes, but it has aluminium in between them. Is it ok?
No, it's not OK.
Conductonaut is best used for delidding, where it's applied between the processor's Die and IHS, rather than between the IHS and cooler.
There is no Nickel.
From Cooler Master's website, Specs, Line 5:
https://eu.coolermaster.com/en/cooling/cpu-air-cooling/hyper-212-led/
Heat Sink Material | Aluminum (Fins)
Copper (Heatpipes) |
There is no mention of Nickel plating. Having installed these coolers, I can confirm that.
The block that holds the Copper Heatpipes is Aluminium. Both metals are a single flush surface exposed to the surface of the CPU's Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS) and the applied thermal compound. There is no Nickel-plating.
From Thermal Grizzly's website, Products, near the bottom of the page:
https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/produkte/25-conductonaut
Note: The Conductonaut thermal grease must not be used with aluminum coolers!
There's a similar warning on the
back of the black zip-lock bag, as well as a
red warning label
inside the bag.
Note: Conductonaut is a metal alloy and can leave optical residue.
For best long-term performance, we recommend heatsinks with nickel-plated copper floors.
By "floors" they mean coolers which have a nickel-plated solid copper block with heat pipes that are completely contained
within the block,
NOT direct touch where the copper heatpipes and the aluminum block are a single flush surface exposed to the IHS.
Do
NOT mount that cooler using Conductonaut! It will corrode the aluminum into a white powder, thereby ruining the cooler. The best alternative is to instead use Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut:
https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/produkte/2-kryonaut
From Thermal Grizzly's website, Products, near the middle of the page: Can be used
on aluminum radiator. (Warning label is exclusively for Conductonaut!)
By "radiator" they mean air cooler or water block.
Here’s a short list in order of thermal conductivity:
Indium - 81.8 W/mk (Used in processors with soldered IHS)
Liquid Metal TIM (IHS to Die)
Thermal Grizzly
Conductonaut - 73.0 W/mk
CoolLaboratory Liquid Ultra - 38.4 W/mk
CoolLaboratory Liquid Pro - 32.6 W/mk
Typical Silicon TIM (IHS to Cooler)
Thermal Grizzly
Kryonaut - 12.5 W/mk
Arctic Silver 5 - 9.0 W/mk
Arctic Cooling MX4 - 8.5 W/mk
Thermal Paste Round-up: 85 Products Tested - https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-comparison,5108.html
CT