Liquid Metal Laptop Cooling – 20C LOWER!

[AlexTheGreatish]

Buy Liquid Metal
On Amazon: http://geni.us/rlrP
On Newegg: http://geni.us/4GcR

 

Can the lower temps of liquid metal be worth the chance of bricking your laptop?

 

[Guest Generallee]

Just now, AlexTheGreatish said:

Can the lower temps of liquid metal be worth the chance of bricking your laptop?

 

Id sacrifice a goat for -20c

[jwh_]

wasnt this already posted?

 

nvm... floatplane heh

[Guest]

I was hoping you'd conduct this test. You did naut disappoint.

[Guest]

Just now, jwh_ said:

wasnt this already posted?

You have Floatplane... you probably saw it there.

[jwh_]

Just now, Legendarypoet said:

You have Floatplane... you probably saw it there.

yeye just realized that lol

[aezakmi]

12 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

Can the lower temps of liquid metal be worth the chance of bricking your laptop?

[Krominicon]

So I heard that liquid metal thermal compound can leak out of between your processor and heat sink on your laptop, if it's jostled around too much. I have an Alienware 15 r2 that i haul around school, and I've already done a repaste before, and it did improve thermals, but i just used normal polysynthetic thermal compound. I'd love to do this to my laptop, but if it being carried around in my backpack to and from classes is going to cause the liquid metal to leak, I'd rather not risk it. Is there anyone who could possibly confirm this? maybe?

[AlexTheGreatish]

23 minutes ago, Krominicon said:

So I heard that liquid metal thermal compound can leak out of between your processor and heat sink on your laptop, if it's jostled around too much. I have an Alienware 15 r2 that i haul around school, and I've already done a repaste before, and it did improve thermals, but i just used normal polysynthetic thermal compound. I'd love to do this to my laptop, but if it being carried around in my backpack to and from classes is going to cause the liquid metal to leak, I'd rather not risk it. Is there anyone who could possibly confirm this? maybe?

Yeah if you're slinging your laptop around, especially if you move it right after a gaming session while tings are still hot, its possible the liquid metal can escape and destroy your computer.  If everything around it is conformal coated there is less chance of it going bad but still not ideal.

[Guest]

Can't wait to try this out on my Aluminium UniBody MacBook Pro. 

[Krominicon]

54 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

Yeah if you're slinging your laptop around, especially if you move it right after a gaming session while tings are still hot, its possible the liquid metal can escape and destroy your computer.  If everything around it is conformal coated there is less chance of it going bad but still not ideal.

i see. that makes my doubts a little bit stronger. Maybe i'll hold off on doing that to my laptop for now. It would still be cool to do though, so make it more plausible to OC the 970m in my laptop.

[Canada EH]

Alloy!!!!!!!!

Electrical tape was a nice touch!

How much money was the product you used?

 

Liquid metal consists of alloys with very low melting points which form a eutectic that is liquid at room temperature.^[1] The standard metal used to be mercury, but gallium-based alloys, which are lower both in their vapor pressure at room temperature and toxicity, are being used as a replacement in various applications.

 

Alloy systems that are liquid at room temperature have thermal conductivity far superior to ordinary non-metallic liquids,^[3] allowing liquid metal to efficiently transfer energy from the heat source to the liquid. They also have a higher electrical conductivity that allows the liquid to be pumped by more efficient, electromagnetic pumps.^[4] This results in the use of these materials for specific heat conducting and/or dissipation applications.

Another advantage of liquid alloy systems is their inherent high densities.

[AlexTheGreatish]

7 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

Alloy!!!!!!!!

Electrical tape was a nice touch!

How much money was the product you used?

Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut is about 16 USD for a tube

[Canada EH]

Just now, AlexTheGreatish said:

Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut is about 16 USD for a tube

That is uber cheap!

[Zodiark1593]

Spoiler

 

How well would it work for mobile devices such as phones (assuming the internal design accommodates some sort of heat pipe or sink?

[SilverChain]

Now my concern is what will happen to the electrical tape inside if the processor gets hot ?

[Amaranth]

1 hour ago, SilverChain said:

Now my concern is what will happen to the electrical tape inside if the processor gets hot ?

 

If you use a quality tape that is rated for high temperatures you will be fine (for example Scotch Super 33+ has a thermal limit of 105c and if you're hitting that on your CPU or GPU than you have far bigger issues).

 

5 hours ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

Yeah if you're slinging your laptop around, especially if you move it right after a gaming session while tings are still hot, its possible the liquid metal can escape and destroy your computer.  If everything around it is conformal coated there is less chance of it going bad but still not ideal.

 

This isn't as likely as people make it out to be unless you have used far too much liquid metal and are having pump-out issues. Conductonaut and other liquid metals have a very high surface tension, so much so that you have to coat both the heatsink and the die itself when delidding or repasting since the thermal compound will not want to bridge the slight gap between the two and will not properly stick to the other surface otherwise, and, even after being heated, the thermal compound shouldn't move at all given a proper application.

 

For two years I traveled almost daily with my Alienware 13 R3 and my X230, both repasted, and neither of the laptops has had any problems despite being hauled around (sometimes rather roughly). Likewise iUnlock, a noted repaster who has made several guides for those wishing to try it themselves, regularly flies with his Alienware 14 R4 and has never had any issues with movement despite all the bumps and bangs associated with air travel. I have also tried to test the danger by violently shaking a spare delidded processor for an extended period of time and, despite my best efforts, I have yet to see any Conductonaut come off of the die in any scenario other than when I deliberately used too much in order to simulate a poor repaste.

 

5 hours ago, Krominicon said:

So I heard that liquid metal thermal compound can leak out of between your processor and heat sink on your laptop, if it's jostled around too much.

 

See my reply above, if you know what you are doing and have done a proper application you should not have any issues. And if you're worried you can always coat the surface around the die in a protective material and put electrical tape down to protect against pump-out and leaks. That said, 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.

[electrolux]

Wonder if this stuff is worth using on desktops, LTT should do some further testing.

[Amaranth]

9 minutes ago, electrolux said:

Wonder if this stuff is worth using on desktops, LTT should do some further testing.

Liquid metal is what you want to use for delidding and if you're using direct-die cooling, where you forgo the IHS and place the cooler directly on the CPU die, but isn't worthwhile with normal CPU coolers because of the higher mounting pressure and higher risk of pump-out. Unlike laptops you usually only see a degree or two over something like Kryonaut.

[mendi]

I have been a subscriber of LTT for years now and this video made me "sign up to the community forums" finally.
I have an ASUS ROG GL553VE with a 7700HQ and a 1050 Ti. This laptop has only 1 fan and is surprisingly good at getting the heat out of the CPU and GPU the laptop surface does get warm but not hot.
I am a software developer and gamer (mostly dota 2 and building games like Besiege, Scrap Mechanic, Beam NG etc.)
Most of these games run well unless you are rendering a huge amount of objects for a certain scene.
A HUGE amount of heat is coming out of the exhaust so much so that you cant hold your hand next to the exhaust. This tells me that it's good at taking all that heat and putting it outside. I haven't conducted any testing for throttling etc since i haven't had any issues.
I'm thinking that doing this to my laptop will help with the cooling but having better conductivity will probably make the exhaust area put out even more heat since its going to get better at it.
Any tips anyone?

[ahuckphin]

this could make the macbook pro actually professional 

[Dissitesuxba11s]

3 hours ago, mendi said:

I have an ASUS ROG GL553VE with a 7700HQ and a 1050 Ti. 
Any tips anyone?

Check out this teardown on how to get to the CPU and GPU die. Then just follow the steps shown in the LTT video.

 

Additional teardown videos but no cooling teardown:

https://www.myfixguide.com/asus-rog-gl553ve-disassembly-and-ssd-hdd-ram-upgrade-options/

http://laptopmedia.com/highlights/inside-asus-rog-strix-gl553ve-disassembly-internal-photos-and-upgrade-options/

[D13H4RD]

I can already sense a lot of newbies trying this without actually properly understanding the risks.

 

I mean, if you haven't repasted before, practice on something that is not worth anything. A dead laptop or some ancient CPU/mobo config.

 

And if you're really unsure, send it to a professional to have them do it. The service fee would probably cost more than the paste itself but unless you understand the risks and are the type who can actually follow instructions properly for once, if you ruin it, well, you can only blame yourself.

 

Know the potential risks and have a plan, especially one if things go south.

 

On a happier note, this seems to be very, VERY ideal for those laptops that house very powerful GPUs in thin housings like the ASUS GL502/503VS line, Razer Blade and MSI GS line among others. That drop in temperatures will surely make the above machines run better and cooler with probably less fan noise to boot. Don't know why non-boutique manufacturers don't offer it as an option for that one customer who wants a repasted laptop on the first unboxing.

[Primusaur]

     I would like to see a follow up test for example.  Do the liquid metal to 5 laptops, then have 5 people use them as a daily driver for a week or month. Then open them up and look at the results internally.  For even more variants (I know Linus loves those variants) use nail polish or other sealants around the DI and for sure one that has none of that stuff using only hubris to keep the liquid metal in.  I for one, would really enjoy seeing that sort of thing (mostly cause I want to see a laptop die from this).

[General_Snuss]

4 hours ago, bindydad123 said:

this could make the macbook pro actually professional 

Aluminium body and this stuff is going to be great.