Liquid Metal Degrading After 6 Months

[Mavflight09]

Hey guys, 

 

Recently I've noticed that my cpu temperatures have been consistently going up, and this time I have pictures to prove to myself that I'm not going crazy . 

 

 

As you can see when I first applied the liquid metal to my 8700k (6/1/18), I was getting amazing temperatures with highs in the mid 60's.

 

 

 

Flash forward to now and you can see that max temperatures are hovering in the low 70's. 

 

Ambient temperatures have actually gone down since I first ran the test because in June it's obviously very hot, and now its very cold. 

 

Does anyone else have experiences like this? I had the same issue with liquid metal degrading on my GPU but no one else seemed to have that problem when I posted a topic about it. 

[For Science!]

5 minutes ago, Mavflight09 said:

 

Some more info could be helpful such as whether you re-sealed the chip or not, which liquid metal, etc. But judging from your issues with your GPU, unfortunately to me it sounds like something on the user-end, exactly what, is hard to say.

 

I also notice you die-lapped your 8700K, I can't find the video at the moment but I kind of remember der8auer saying something about this in a recent video (about making the silicon more pourous or something...). 

 

Not helpful, but my 7700K (delidded and re-lidded) using TG Conductonaut is behaving as it was almost 2 years ago.

[Mavflight09]

 

11 minutes ago, For Science! said:

Some more info could be helpful such as whether you re-sealed the chip or not, which liquid metal, etc.

I did not re seal the chip, the IHS is just free floating, I'm using Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut.

I didn't provide more information because I didn't think it was relevant to the problem.

 

However, I have an i7-8700k with a mild overclock to 4.8ghz across all cores with 1.216 vcore, LLC level 1 (highest), cache at 4.5ghz. The cooler I am using is a H115i extreme with 4 sp140mm fans in push pull at the front of my NZXT H440 case. I am using the stock intel IHS with liquid metal between the CPU die and the IHS, as well as between the IHS and the cooler. 

11 minutes ago, For Science! said:

But judging from your issues with your GPU, unfortunately to me it sounds like something on the user-end, exactly what, is hard to say.

I've essentially gotten this response from multiple posts that I have made, but I've never gotten a clear answer on what I'm doing wrong. It just seems that liquid metal is just this magical solution for everyone else, but when I try and use it it dries up within a few months. 

 

I had the exact same thing happen on my hybrid gtx 1070 that I applied liquid metal to, however on the GPU it took only a few weeks before temperatures started to go up. 

With the GPU when I first applied liquid metal, running furmark for 30 mins resulted in about 40 degrees C max temperatures. After a few weeks it was up to 50 degrees. 

Changing the now dried out liquid metal with some old arctic silver 5 I had lying around dropped temperatures to about 42 degrees max. 

 

I've watched countless videos on how to apply liquid metal, having used ranging amounts from too little, to just enough, to a little much, to way too much, and in the end I still get the same results. 

 

Is the solution to just give up with liquid metal and get some kryonaut? Cause thats the vibes I'm getting right now. 

[For Science!]

2 minutes ago, Mavflight09 said:

 

Hard to say since we do so many things differently, but trying paste may be a good option for you since there are issues. If it's any help, here are the main differences between what you and I seem to be doing:

 

1. I don't put liquid metal on GPUs since the large die size and the direct contact nature of waterblocks make thermal paste a perfectly good transfer efficiency for GPU cooling

 

2. I always re-lid my CPUs. I always get good improvement of thermals nonetheless and live in the comfort that I can take my CPU out in peace. Whether this has anything to do with LM drying out is not clear to me.

 

3. I tend to apply a bit more LM than most people, but here are my pictures of application below. Considering that I have flown with this PC (in checked baggage (!)) and had no issues over 2 years for the 7700K and 1.5 years for the 8700K.

 

4. I am custom liquid cooling, so at least any degradation of the cooler is not a factor for me.

 

8700K

[Zando_]

You said you're using an AIO, sure it's not just that degrading over time? IIRC over a year or two the fluid evaporates and they get less effective.

[Mavflight09]

25 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

You said you're using an AIO, sure it's not just that degrading over time? IIRC over a year or two the fluid evaporates and they get less effective.

I actually had 3 H115i extremes, the first was new but the pump died, the second was a refurb from corsair for the first one, then I bought another off amazon to test if the refurb was bad. 

 

In my very basic testing there was no difference between the refurb and the brand new one off of amazon, so I would assume that the AIO is good. 

 

31 minutes ago, For Science! said:

I don't put liquid metal on GPUs since the large die size and the direct contact nature of waterblocks make thermal paste a perfectly good transfer efficiency for GPU cooling

Yeah, I don't plan on ever doing it again, it was just a test to see what would happen. Apparently a whole lot of drying.

 

31 minutes ago, For Science! said:

I always re-lid my CPUs. I always get good improvement of thermals nonetheless and live in the comfort that I can take my CPU out in peace. Whether this has anything to do with LM drying out is not clear to me

I don't because in Gamer's Nexus's testing re lidding the cpu apparently removes some of the benefit from delidding in the first place, but maybe it helps longevity? At least if your case it appears that it has done so. 

 

I mean I think I did a good job, here is a little mini album of me delidding my 8700k: https://imgur.com/a/lyF7VR0

 

Note that those pictures show me using a custom copper IHS, but I returned that since it gave worse temperatures than the stock intel IHS.

[Mavflight09]

Any ideas guys?

[RejZoR]

Liquid metal, even though it doesn't react with copper, it diffuses into it. And only pure copper has the best thermal conductivity.

 

Frankly, I've had liquid metal on CPU and GPU and have soon replaced it with top of the line regular thermal paste. It's just really messy and diffusion into copper is actually really nasty.

[Mavflight09]

14 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Liquid metal, even though it doesn't react with copper, it diffuses into it. And only pure copper has the best thermal conductivity.

 

 Frankly, I've had liquid metal on CPU and GPU and have soon replaced it with top of the line regular thermal paste. It's just really messy and diffusion into copper is actually really nasty.

I've heard of some people saying that copper can actually absorb the liquid metal, and people were fixing this by cleaning off the liquid metal, but leaving the old copper+liquid metal alloy on the copper, and just adding more liquid metal. 

 

The theory is that once the first application of liquid metal absorbs into the copper, the copper is now "full" and cannot absorb any more liquid metal, meaning that subsequent applications of liquid metal will take longer to dry out. 

 

I'm not sure if this idea is correct or not, but maybe it's worth a shot? 

[RejZoR]

"Drying out" is not really the issue. Diffusion of liquid metal into copper is. As it causes it to have worse thermal properties, because it's essentially not copper anymore, but a copper alloy.

[B4Quattro]

I applied LM around 13 months ago on my CPU die and its still fine with the same temperatures.