Can you replace "Liquid Water"(in water cooling) with "Liquid Metal"?

[Joey Kapish]

Well just as the title says, is it possible to replace "Liquid Water" (in Water cooling) entirely with "Liquid Metal"? Wouldn't there be much benefit to thermals if doing so? Are there any risks of using "Liquid Metal" instead of Water?

 

Also (On Topic) (in a laptop scenario) wouldn't you get much better thermal performance if you apply "Liquid Metal" on the heatpipes/heatsink rather than just the cpu/gpu? Has anyone tried this? I've seen a lot of overclockers and benchmark testers apply "Liquid Metal" to the cpu and gpu only but I've always wondered why they never applied or tried "Liquid Metal" along the heatpipes going to the fans?

[GoldenLag]

Please point to a liquid metal that dont ruin anything it touches and is liquid at room temperature. 

[Thomas_nerd]

although the liquid metal would just solidify if it cooled down to a certain temperature and there is not much heat capacity

[Trik'Stari]

I looked into this a long time ago.

 

Basically, mercury would ruin everything it touches, be too heavy to pump, ruin any pump strong enough, likely break the glass tubing you would probably need to use (because of the weight), and be retardedly expensive and heavy.

 

Gallium might work, but again, heavy, expensive, bad metallurgical interactions with cooling blocks, etc.

[Arika]

10 minutes ago, Jason Greene said:

 Also (On Topic) (in a laptop scenario) wouldn't you get much better thermal performance if you apply "Liquid Metal" on the heatpipes/heatsink rather than just the cpu/gpu? Has anyone tried this? I've seen a lot of overclockers and benchmark testers apply "Liquid Metal" to the cpu and gpu only but I've always wondered why they never applied or tried "Liquid Metal" along the heatpipes going to the fans?

To me, this says you don't actually know what liquid metal is...

[GoldenLag]

7 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

Basically, mercury would ruin everything it touches, be too heavy to pump, ruin any pump strong enough, likely break the glass tubing you would probably need to use (because of the weight), and be retardedly expensive and heavy.

Mercury would work fine, but its also mercury. You know the thing that isnt good for you. 

 

7 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

Gallium might work, but again, heavy, expensive, bad metallurgical interactions with cooling blocks, etc.

Also solidifies during the winter or cold days. 

 

Another candidate is Cesium. But that reacts violently when it comes in contact with water or moist air. And it becomes solid at room temp. Its liquid at slighly above it.

[Trik'Stari]

Just now, GoldenLag said:

Mercury would work fine, but its also mercury. You know the thing that isnt good for you. 

 

Also solidifies during the winter or cold days. 

 

Another candidate is Cesium. But that reacts violently when it comes in contact with water or moist air. 

Isn't cesium hideously radioactive as well? Somehow I think that could be problematic.

[GoldenLag]

Just now, Trik'Stari said:

Isn't cesium hideously radioactive as well? Somehow I think that could be problematic.

Nope, regular old Cesium isnt. Or at least not something you would worry about. Some isotopes are offcourse bad

 

 

You can get the stuff in a bottle, it looks like gold and turns to liquid when you hold it in you hand due to the temp increase.

[Joey Kapish]

4 minutes ago, Arika S said:

To me, this says you don't actually know what liquid metal is...

If you apply "Liquid Metal" along the heatpipes in a laptop wouldn't that improve thermal performance? Isn't the purpose of heatpipes (in Laptops) to assist with cooling and fans?

[Trik'Stari]

2 minutes ago, Jason Greene said:

If you apply "Liquid Metal" along the heatpipes in a laptop wouldn't that improve thermal performance? Isn't the purpose of heatpipes (in Laptops) to assist with cooling and fans?

Heat pipes transfer heat to cooling fins, through which air is blown to take that heat away.

 

The liquid metal thermal paste is applied at the contact point between the thermal pipes and the thing generating heat, to increase the transfer of heat from the thing generating heat, to the heat pipe.

 

You do have the be very careful as liquid metal is a pain to handle, and extremely conductive.

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, Jason Greene said:

If you apply "Liquid Metal" along the heatpipes in a laptop wouldn't that improve thermal performance? Isn't the purpose of heatpipes (in Laptops) to assist with cooling and fans?

You know copper allready beats almost everything in thermal conductivity. Perhaps beaten by silver, but im unsure about that one.

 

And heatpipes sometimes allready use liquid to increase thermal transfer in the heatpipe. Not liquid metal, but probably some type of alcohol. 

 

 

I dont think liquid metal does what you think it does. Its only used as thermal paste as heattransfer in paste is awful compared to metal or saughter. Liquid metal are better than those, but not as good as copper. 

[GoldenLag]

4 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

You do have the be very careful as liquid metal is a pain to handle, and extremely conductive.

Same reason as to why you dont break old thermostats as the small amount of mercury will go through cracks in the floor and evaporate into the air you breathe. 

 

Offcourse liquid metal isnt that much of a pain since its not mercury, but it has the same bothersome fluid properties.

[boey]

2 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

You know copper allready beats almost everything in thermal conductivity. Perhaps beaten by silver, but im unsure about that one.

 

And heatpipes sometimes allready use liquid to increase thermal transfer in the heatpipe. Not liquid metal, but probably some type of alcohol. 

 

 

I dont think liquid metal does what you think it does. Its only used as thermal paste as heattransfer in paste is awful compared to metal or saughter. Liquid metal are better than those, but not as good as copper. 

Silver is slightly more thermally conductive than copper i think

[GoldenLag]

Just now, _d0nut said:

Silver is slightly more thermally conductive than copper i think

Its slightly more electrically conductive at least. 

 

But im not sure about thermal properties. Could allways look it up, but its not something i exactly need in everyday life.

[CarlBar]

1 minute ago, GoldenLag said:

Its slightly more electrically conductive at least. 

 

But i'm not sure about thermal properties. Could allways look it up, but its not something i exactly need in everyday life.

 

It is, 385 vs 406 w/mK

 

Thats said for a cooling fluid in a liquid cooling loop it's not the conductivity that matter but the specific heat capacity, no matter how hard you try you can't, (normally), cool the thing being cooled below the temperature of the liquid, that means when you transfer heat from the heat source to the fluid you want the fluid to heat up as little as possibble. Water is insanely good in this regard.

 

That said on a per volume basis mercury is better, (and it has better conductivity), but it's tendency to destroy any metal it comes into contact with makes it completely impractical.

[Guest]

Wouldn't it be to thick and gum up the loop? 

[HarryNyquist]

1 hour ago, CarlBar said:

That said on a per volume basis mercury is better, (and it has better conductivity), but it's tendency to destroy any metal it comes into contact with makes it completely impractical.

Even better:
Spill water loop in your computer => maybe damaged components, towel it up, hopefully no harm done
Spill mercury loop in your computer => immediate HAZMAT situation

[GoldenLag]

25 minutes ago, Mr. horse said:

Wouldn't it be to thick and gum up the loop? 

um, no? its liquid. and its metal. 

 

it pretty much behaves like a very heavy water substance. stuff like Cesium and Gallium could be an issue if it gets too cold. Cesium especially since its only liquid barely above ambient. 

20 minutes ago, HarryNyquist said:

Spill mercury loop in your computer => immediate HAZMAT situation

 

Spill Cesium loop in your computer => Explosion, violent reactions and a world of hurt if touches you. 

[CarlBar]

23 minutes ago, HarryNyquist said:

Even better:
Spill water loop in your computer => maybe damaged components, towel it up, hopefully no harm done
Spill mercury loop in your computer => immediate HAZMAT situation

 

To be fair whilst it can be a pain to clean up and shouldn't be taken for granted element mercury isn't super dangerous, people have swallowed large quantities of it without i'll effect because it does not absorb well into the gut. Now organic mercury compound,s whole other kettle of fish, those will kill you stone dead in droplet sized amounts.

[Sakkura]

TL;DR it's theoretically possible but very difficult and provides no real benefit compared to just using water.

 

There's a much more interesting direction for evaporative immersion cooling, where you can use organofluorine compounds instead of water. Some data centers actually use this, though it's very niche.

[Guest]

53 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

um, no? its liquid. and its metal. 

 

it pretty much behaves like a very heavy water substance. stuff like Cesium and Gallium could be an issue if it gets too cold. Cesium especially since its only liquid barely above ambient. 

 

But it does not flow well at all and is rather thick. it would gum up the micro fins of most newer blocks and stick to the copper and likely  clog.

[GoldenLag]

Just now, Mr. horse said:

But it does not flow well at all and is rather thick. it would gum up the micro fins of most newer blocks and stick to the copper and likely  clog.

Um no? Its just really heavy to pump. 

 

Its dense, sure. But its still very much liquidy. Its not like honey.

[Guest]

have you ever used liquid mettle tim before? It sticks to copper and leaves a hard layer of the metal on it.

 It would not work for long. You might recall how the older thermaltake coolant reacted once it thickened? It clogged up the blocks, this would be 10 times worse. But hay, don't believe me. Give it a try, I done it before a few years ago. it did not end well. I hardened in the rad and got stuck in the fins of the block.

 

 

 

[GoldenLag]

41 minutes ago, Mr. horse said:

have you ever used liquid mettle tim before? It sticks to copper and leaves a hard layer of the metal on it.

 It would not work for long. You might recall how the older thermaltake coolant reacted once it thickened? It clogged up the blocks, this would be 10 times worse. But hay, don't believe me. Give it a try, I done it before a few years ago. it did not end well. I hardened in the rad and got stuck in the fins of the block.

 

 

 

Well im basing it of the liquid properties of mercury. While mercury os pretty nasty, its very much a liquid that acts like water. Not like melted metal or honey.

 

It would work, its just a pain to pump

[boey]

6 hours ago, GoldenLag said:

Its slightly more electrically conductive at least. 

 

But im not sure about thermal properties. Could allways look it up, but its not something i exactly need in everyday life.

Looking it up it says 

Ag(Silver) 428 W/m-K

Cu(Copper) 401 W/m-K

Au(Gold) 318 W/m-K