I would go to a thrift store and buy some old electronics to practice on or see if any local business is upgrading their equipment and has old/broken equipment that they're trying to get rid of - it doesn't matter if the parts are alive or dead, you just need something with a die that you can practice putting liquid metal onto. If you can get your hands on a cheap working laptop that would be even better since you could boot it up to ensure that it worked.
Unless someone really misapplied the liquid metal you shouldn't see any laptops die, done properly liquid metal is not going to run since it has a very high surface tension and likes to clump and the real risk comes from any ‘pump-out’ that could occur when someone puts too much compound on the die. I have tried to make liquid metal migrate in tests with an old CPU and laptop and the only time there has been any issue has been when I deliberately used too much Conductonaut.
Cost, not only are liquid metal pastes a lot more expensive but the application has do be done individually by someone who is trained on how to apply liquid metal. That is the same reason why thermal 'stamps' are used instead of regular thermal paste on all mass-produced electronics.
As I said in a previous reply, if you're not sure what you're doing I would strongly caution you to either find someone who is experienced to do the repaste or practice applying the paste first since it can be tricky and isn't like applying any other thermal compound. You'll want to use a very small amount of liquid metal, just enough to coat the die and the area of the heatsink that will have contact with the die, and using to much can cause potentially fatal 'pump-out'. I would also protect the area around the die just in case you accidentally slip while applying the paste and also not use the plunger but, instead, gently tap the end of the syringe against the die until a small blob comes out.
I would not use liquid metal on any Razer Blade product since they have a mixed copper-aluminum heatsink and liquid metal should never be used with aluminum. Instead I recommend you try Kryonaut, a non-liquid metal paste that is also non-conductive, if you want to repaste your laptop (and it does sound like it needs some work).
It also helps with noise, since the fans will not spin up as soon, and, given the way some components such as Pascal GPUs with Boost 3.0 work, possibly improve performance even if you're not throttling - although unless someone knows what they're doing then, yes, the risks might outweigh the possible gains (although if done properly almost all the danger should be negated).
I repasted my MSI GS63VR Stealth pro and I achieved a 11-13c drop in temperatures using Conductonaut. Its not the 20c drop but its way better results than a traditional thermal paste. I do think that it has to do with the thermal limitations of the heatsinks of this laptop.
My process: https://imgur.com/a/SYO1s
Mike Madani got a reaction from Amaranth in Liquid Metal Laptop Cooling – 20C LOWER!
Mike Madani reacted to Amaranth in Liquid Metal Laptop Cooling – 20C LOWER!
