Liquid metal on an aluminum heat sink graphics card causes this

I really love Der8auer's channel, he's such an honest person with his reviews as well.

I unfollowed GN a little while ago, Steve is becoming really childish and mainly just trolls away now. Havn't felt like i missed anything of great value by not watching their videos anymore.

 

Now, there's a thing.

 

He didn't replace the cooler, he repaired it.

 

I wonder just how many casual PC builders or people taking their consoles apart and applying this liquid metal are aware that it is not only great at conducting heat, but also electricity, a reason i have never felt the need to use it over the standard normal thermal paste, and which thankfully has saved me a few times over the years when i put too much on and the heatsink to mobo connecters were like the metal press from the first terminator movie. lol

 

Liquid metal TIM (thermal interface material) contains Indium, Gallium or both. These metals will literally dissolve Aluminium. See here:
Nickel, Iron, Steel, Copper, and any plastic or glass is safe from this effect, Aluminium is NOT.

His benchmark videos and other technical stuff is still useful IMO but his personal commentary has taken a dive into the childish in the last year or two I agree.

I mean it should be blindingly obvious that metal conducts electricity but you're right, many people are just stupid and don't think these things through. I love using liquid metal though, I've always found it gives better temps, and there's very little variability in quality, i.e. the cheap liquid metal performs just as good as the expensive stuff. Whereas to get decent quality thermal paste you have to spend a lot, that's my experience anyway.

Liquid metal is perfectly safe to use if you protect exposed electriconic components nearby. So before I apply any liquid metal, I borrow the clear-coat nail polish from the wife and give all the surface mount components in the vicinity two thick coats. That way even if the liquid metal spills/escapes a little it can't do any damage.

I remember back in the good old days of Pentium 3 processors, liquid metal TIM wasn't really a thing and enthusiast thermal pastes were crazy expensive, so I used to use copper grease, dirt cheap and worked well enough. Don't try this at home though.

 

arnt most Heatsinks nickel/gold plated at this point anyway? I will never use liquid metal more time then not i use more then i should when pasting

 

My impression as well... copper or copper with nickel plating please.

 

Yeah I stained a copper block with liquid metal now I just stick to thermal grizzly for the heatsink and liquid metal for underneath the IHS if I decide to delid, it's amazing stuff , dropped the temps on my old 4790k by 15 degrees!

 

Also aluminium is hardest to weld (you can even make it burning if too hot)...
Using liquid metal with it demonstrate how is people knowledge...

 

And this is why you need a very well nickel plated heatsink if you dare put liquid metal on it, even then it's dangerous. Thanks for not nickel plating even your highest end halo products Gigabyte.

 

I'm not sure I ever owned a modern cooler that wasn't copper at the CPU contact point. I think even stock coolers have a thin layer of copper there?

I still like GN's reviews though. They're quite thorough.

 

Linus Sebastian and his league of ghouls still exists, and makes Steve appear to be a consummate professional within that space. Steve has invested into testing standards and producing information based in fact based on a repeatable process, I feel if he can reign in the snark it would put his platform over the top.

 

Liquid metal on a high-end GPU won't make a difference. I have done so on water cooled 1080 ti,2080 ti and my 3090 with same temps. It works better on CPU's.

 

Last pc i built was 8 years ago and is still my present desktop, and i used my fave cool master thermal paste, and apart from the odd cleaning or changing the GPU, i have not touched it again in that time, and it has gone through the ringer with VR hmds since 2018, but it is still running fine with no issues at all.

Of course now that i have said that i have jinxed it, so expect to see it die in a flash at some point soon ju

 

That should come off with isopropyl alcohol and elbow grease.

Liquid metal gives more benefit over paste when the contact area is small (e.g. between the die and IHS of a CPU like stereoman said), if the contact area is large (like a GPU die) then liquid metal offers less benefit vs. paste. This is somewhat obvious when you look at the equation for thermal conduction: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/heatcond.html

 

That's what I just said. High end GPU's are huge and CPU die is small.

 

Yes I was just explaining why for the benefit of others.

 

Same 2X.