Liquid Metal Turned My CPU Cooler to DUST!? (Learn From My Mistake!!)

[bmichaels556]

So a couple weeks ago, I decided to rig up and old Xeon X5675 rig that I got a decent deal on. However, it was a Dell T3500 motherboard, so it needed a proprietary 5-pin Dell fan. It was kind of an open test bench type of thing, so the rig is simply laid on my desk. I bought an LGA 1366 aluminum cpu cooler, as one does, but for $20. Even still, it's a nice, beefy cooler, no doubt. I decided to try CoolLabs' liquid metal stuff for the first time. 

 

Because I didn't have the proper cooler, I simply put down the liquid metal and laid my cooler on top of it, with a small 5-pin Dell fan on top of that. It cooled fine... But not long after, I noticed temperatures jump above where they were at the start. They stayed, so I didn't worry. I then finally was able to obtain the proper T3500 CPU cooler. Upon taking off the other cooler, it literally started falling apart! The center of the cooler is all black and coroded, and this corrosion spreads a bit, out towards the outside of the cooler's fins. A slight amount of pressure on the fins snaps them right off!

 

No doubt this is due to the liquid metal... I missed the damn warning about not using it on aluminum and now I had to pay the price. I may just avoid it altogether in the future...

 

Welp, that's $20 down the drain, plus the $5 for the garbage liquid metal that I'm not using... This sucks.

 

 

 

[DrMacintosh]

When you buy liquid metal it goes out of its way to tell you not to use it on aluminum coolers....

 

This isn't a problem with the liquid metal, its your fault for not reading. 

[DocSwag]

I don't think you're supposed to use LM with aluminum. Copper is ok

[W-L]

53 minutes ago, bmichaels556 said:

-SNIP-

That's suppose to happen if it touches aluminum, it specifically says to not use it with aluminum based coolers as they will quite literally get eaten away. 

[Raudi_]

Mixing metals can cause this.... Gallium causes structural failure of Aluminum.

[bmichaels556]

Damn... Yeah, I just did a little more research and realized how bad gallium affects aluminum...

 

I read the instructions primarily in regards to application, but I guess I must have missed the part about not using an aluminum cooler...

 

I guess you live and learn, and I'll definitely never screw that up again. But out of curiosity, how can this be avoided? Will a solid copper contact prevent this? It seems as though it rode its way up the heatsink, but I'd imagine that's only because of gallium's reaction with aluminum, and not because it was due to any kind of evaporation or anything like that?

[knightslugger]

this thread is full of every kind of kek there can be.

 

gallium leaches into the the pores of aluminum. even the slightest bit of contact will cause a catastrophic cascading failure of the crystalline structure.

 

copper does not.

[bmichaels556]

7 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

When you buy liquid metal it goes out of its way to tell you not to use it on aluminum coolers....

 

This isn't a problem with the liquid metal, its your fault for not reading. 

Eh, did read, but must have missed that part. I was more concerned about how to properly apply it, and wasn't really looking for how it would kill aluminum. 

[SuperCloneRanger]

Here's a fun video showing the effect of gallium(whats in liquid metal) on aluminium.

 

[W-L]

1 minute ago, bmichaels556 said:

Eh, did read, but must have missed that part. I was more concerned about how to properly apply it, and wasn't really looking for how it would kill aluminum. 

For application it needs to be spread extremely thin on both contacting areas, the CPU and cooler, essentially wetting the surfaces to get a good contact. Liquid metal doesn't spread like regular thermal paste and tends to bead up on surfaces if not spread out. 

[SpiralTTGL]

when u can't read

[Guest]

The original heatsink that comes with those T3500s should have a copper plate on the bottom if I'm remembering correctly... maybe that's the slightly beefier version, I dunno. I had a few and they were pretty good, would imagine that would work nicely with liquid metal. If your system didn't come with one, they're fairly cheap on eBay.

 

[Gofspar]

kek

[bmichaels556]

34 minutes ago, SpiralTTGL said:

when u can't read

The irony here...

 

*Posts "when u can't read" without reading my reply right before. 

[bmichaels556]

11 minutes ago, Gofspar said:

kek

I mean if you're just going to post a one-word nonsensical response, probably like your 4,000 others, maybe just refrain from doing so. 

 

This thread has devolved into "Can't read". - I did, and missed it. 

 

"Kek" - Okay, responding to serious threads with internet memez that have nothing to do with anything is super mature. 

 

I made a mistake, crucify me.

[bmichaels556]

34 minutes ago, Leinad4400 said:

The original heatsink that comes with those T3500s should have a copper plate on the bottom if I'm remembering correctly... maybe that's the slightly beefier version, I dunno. I had a few and they were pretty good, would imagine that would work nicely with liquid metal. If your system didn't come with one, they're fairly cheap on eBay.

 

I ended up going with the other variant (all aluminum with the weird tapered top) since I'm already running the fan and it seems to be working fine, about 60 Celsius under 100% load, and with that crap 10 gram capsule of paste off Ebay. 

[Cookybiscuit]

Just dropping by to add my kek to the thread.

 

Kek.

[bmichaels556]

1 minute ago, Cookybiscuit said:

Just dropping by to add my kek to the thread.

 

Kek.

Thanks bro, much appreciated...

[Matsozetex]

Just dropping a complementary Kek for not reading instructions.

 

Kek. 

[bmichaels556]

1 minute ago, Matsozetex said:

Just dropping a complementary Kek for not reading instructions.

 

Kek. 

Going to respond to your Kek by saying that I did, missed it, and just went back again to find them, and noticed that the warning isn't all that clear and can be easily overlooked.

 

Although I'm probably wasting my time even responding to this stupidity. 

[Matsozetex]

3 minutes ago, bmichaels556 said:

Going to respond to your Kek by saying that I did, missed it, and just went back again to find them, and noticed that the warning isn't all that clear and can be easily overlooked.

 

Although I'm probably wasting my time even responding to this stupidity. 

No problem, as a wise dwarf once said, everyone has moments of shit to the brain. You are lucky that the LIM didn't damage other parts, or you had used a more expensive cooler. 

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, bmichaels556 said:

Going to respond to your Kek by saying that I did, missed it, and just went back again to find them, and noticed that the warning isn't all that clear and can be easily overlooked.

 

Although I'm probably wasting my time even responding to this stupidity. 

The warnings come after the spells

[NelizMastr]

Also, liquid metal only really benefits you when you put it on a CPU that's delidded or didn't come with a heatspreader to start with (like laptop CPUs). It offers zero benefits over regular TIM when a heatspreader is installed.

[BlackMoth]

hmm i didn't imagine somebody would make this mistake.

[DildorTheDecent]

For a second I thought this was a new LTT video going by the title. 

 

Kek.