Liquid Metal, Liquid Cooling - Storytime

[sikari2015]

Let me tell you a little story about how I was a genius making awesome cooling in a tight space. So if you haven't seen my build, check it out  ----> 

 

 

Basically, I decided to upgrade from air cooling to an AIO for my i7 4770k, in a retro IBM case. In order to fit the 120mm radiator of the Fractal Design Kelvin T12 AIO I needed to remove the stock blower fan cooling the GTX 970. Lucky for me the EK Waterblock for GTX970 was recently discontinued, so old stock was going out cheap, I mean $30 cheap. I grabbed it! Yeah! So now the GTX970 and 4770k are water cooled by a FD Kelvin T12, and under full load sit around 63-65 degrees celcius max. Awesome!


Oh noes! A wild problem appears!

 

After about a month of gaming and occasional mining suddenly the graphics card starts going whack-job and the display goes funny if not completely blank. I'm freaking out, did I damage the card on the install? I'm freaking out, my graphics card is dying...

Then I thought, hey maybe it's the gallium Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut liquid metal I so ingeniously used as a thermal interface material for the GTX970 water block. I frantically take out the card, unscrew the water block and BAM! Yep, nice shiny balls of gallium scattered all over.

 

So, turns out nickel plated water blocks are really hard for gallium to stick to. It just tends to float around onto, even after scuffing the surface of the contact point. I cleaned up the card with a spray electrical contact and parts cleaner, a clean rag and patience, and did the same for the water block.

I then used EK's thermal paste and reinstalled the water block. Fingers crossed, reinstalled the card, booted the system and walah! It works! So far, so good.

Moral of the story, if you can't get a good, sticky contact of liquid metal, and there's a chance it will get into very nearby contacts, use something else or take better precautions than I did. I'm a very lucky camper.

[Dabombinable]

TBH I've always seen liquid metal as being best for delidding a CPU and nothing else.

[sikari2015]

Yeah I delidded my 4770k and that's why I thought I'd give my graphics card a go. I did have liquid metal on the GPU with the stock cooler as it had a good copper cold plate that made solid contact and held the liquid metal well. Also dropped the temps by 5 degrees celcius. Ran that way for months and it was still perfectly applied when I removed the cooler to put on the water block. It was the water block that wasn't good with it, unfortunately.

[Damascus]

7 minutes ago, sikari2015 said:

Yeah I delidded my 4770k and that's why I thought I'd give my graphics card a go. I did have liquid metal on the GPU with the stock cooler as it had a good copper cold plate that made solid contact and held the liquid metal well. Also dropped the temps by 5 degrees celcius. Ran that way for months and it was still perfectly applied when I removed the cooler to put on the water block. It was the water block that wasn't good with it, unfortunately.

Quote if you want a response. 

19 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

TBH I've always seen liquid metal as being best for delidding a CPU and nothing else.

Yeah, a gpu with a waterblock honestly doesn't need it either.  WC is just so damn efficient. 

[Dabombinable]

6 minutes ago, Damascus said:

Quote if you want a response. 

Yeah, a gpu with a waterblock honestly doesn't need it either.  WC is just so damn efficient. 

It also helps that they don't have (or need) an IHS as well, which is why even bad TIM does well on GPU.

[Damascus]

9 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

It also helps that they don't have (or need) an IHS as well, which is why even bad TIM does well on GPU.

Massive dies are also a plus.

[PrimeSonic]

Thank you for the cautionary tale.

I'm glad this one had a happy ending.