Liquid Metal - worth the hassle?

[Chronic]

Is liquid metal worth it vs something a little easier like kryonaut? The potential application is a 9900k with a 240mm AIO.

I understand it is good for delidding and replacing TIM on old CPU's, but for the latest CPU's from intel with solder, is liquid metal worth using inbetween the IHS and cooler?

 

Thanks

[Enderman]

Whether it is worth it or not is up to you...

You're the one who has to buy and apply it.

[mxk]

From what I know, the solder is better for lower temps and the liquid metal is better when you get into higher temps. It really depends on what you're doing with the PC.

[Jurrunio]

Dont bother. If you need to ask this on a soldered CPU, you're not ready for it.

 

23 minutes ago, mxk. said:

From what I know, the solder is better for lower temps and the liquid metal is better when you get into higher temps. It really depends on what you're doing with the PC.

9700k's solder job makes it do worse than 8700k with liquid metal, but being soldered means it's more difficult to delid

[mxk]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

9700k's solder job makes it do worse than 8700k with liquid metal, but being soldered means it's more difficult to delid

Yup. I remember de8auer talking about that.

[Raudi_]

With a soldered IHS you shouldn't go down the route of delidding as it won't warrant anything useful. Delidding a soldered CPU is for those going Super SUB zero with LN2 or LHe and the solder will hit a point of being terrible and temps with go up under those situations so they use Kyronaut or KPx to being correctly when that cold.

[Chronic]

48 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Dont bother. If you need to ask this on a soldered CPU, you're not ready for it.

 

9700k's solder job makes it do worse than 8700k with liquid metal, but being soldered means it's more difficult to delid

For clarity, I am only asking in reference to using it for my cooler - not for de-lidding a soldered CPU...

[Tilaron]

If your block is nickel or nickel-plated copper it should be fine, when it's bare copper you'll end up with a stain you can't move, but if it's aluminium keep it as far away as possible. It also has the added risk of being conductive, where a bit of overlap with normal TIM won't kill your CPU, being accidentally sloppy with LM more than likely will. As for thermals, it's maybe a 4C difference tops, so in the end it's a risk-reward decision you have to make. Personally, I wouldn't bother, as you said you aren't de-lidding and a 240mm AIO with some good ol' fashioned grey goop should be more than enough for a 9900K. Of course, if you intend to do a decent overclock you'll want a bigger rad AIO, or go for a custom loop instead, at which point those few degrees difference with LM might be more appealing.

[AFCYouri]

Personally i'd say it's not really worth it.

There's no doubt that LM works great but it's just a b**ch to apply and you have to be carefull with different kind of metals.

Kryonaut still performs really great and is a LOT easier to apply.

 

[Maticks]

is it worth it yes. 8th gen its easy to delid and apply with no real smds to worry about.

9th gen worth it temp wise, challenging to delid, given its soldered chances of damaging are high and you need to scratch of the solder.

 

think silicon lottery .com offer pre delid might be worth it for something predone for you.

[Mick Naughty]

Seems as though people can’t read. 

 

Wouldn’t waste the time and money for metal between the cooler and ihs. You can test it yourself, as that’s the only way to see if it’s “worth it”. 

 

 

[SolarNova]

15 hours ago, Chronic said:

Is liquid metal worth it vs something a little easier like kryonaut? The potential application is a 9900k with a 240mm AIO.

I understand it is good for delidding and replacing TIM on old CPU's, but for the latest CPU's from intel with solder, is liquid metal worth using inbetween the IHS and cooler?

 

Thanks

 

Between IHS and Cooler, no not really.

[Kalm_Traveler]

On 2/3/2019 at 3:54 PM, Chronic said:

Is liquid metal worth it vs something a little easier like kryonaut? The potential application is a 9900k with a 240mm AIO.

I understand it is good for delidding and replacing TIM on old CPU's, but for the latest CPU's from intel with solder, is liquid metal worth using inbetween the IHS and cooler?

 

Thanks

Have you google'd or watch any of the youtube videos about it? The answers are already there as far as data - but only you can decide if something is "worth it" to you.

 

IMO having delidded and applied LM on several CPUs now, it isn't really a hassle to me any more than picking up a bottle of water to take a drink is a hassle.

[Maticks]

oh between the IHS and Cooler absolutely not its less than 1c and reacts badly to copper and really badly to aluminium which most coolers are made out of one of the two.

 

Copper you will have diffusion of the liquid metal into the Cooler and that will mean you have worse cooling performance over time.

 

Aluminium you will desolve your cooler very quickly.

 

If you absolutely must have that 1c better cooling you need to find a cooler that has Nickel Plated Copper. It has little to no reaction.

You won't find 1c really make that much difference with overclocking.