How long does conductonaut last?

I put on conductonaut last year with my laptop and it dropped temps across the board overall, but mainly with the CPU. After a long storage hiatus, the temps have gone up rather dramatically with the cpu hitting over 80c for the first time ever. Previously it wouldnt even go past 67c in a TS bench or cinebench, but gpu and cpu combined stress made both hit 82C way to fast, and that was on max fan speed. I had heard about it "drying" out and or crumbling to dust over time, so could that just be the case? Maybe the mounting screws got loose? I dont suppose there is some after market alternative to mounting screws that offer far better mounting pressure, yes? Laptop mounting pressure is notoriously bad, and if I do open up this thing I want to get it all right, and probably along with changing the thermal pads from stock. I cant find any compatible screw metric at a local hardware store because they are far to small, so help here would be appreciated.

Laptop is a mech15 and it cools beautifully normally.

 

Conductonaut needs a complete seal or barrier of some sort+firm fitting decent pressure (PSI) heatsinks to remain stable. If there is no seal and the heatsinks are weak, oxygen molecules will accelerate the ability of gallium to be absorbed into copper. This will leave indium and tin behind which will harden back to its natural state if the gallium is absorbed, which will leave uneven contact surface and bad thermal transfer.

You can see this effect in a simple real life test, provided you have extra LM to spare. Take any old copper block, old heatsink or other flat copper something that can be laid inverted and flat, put LM on it and spread it fully, then leave it sitting upright exposed directly to air, in a low dust area. In about three weeks, the LM will be completely hardened.

 

I see. What kind of seal would you recommend then? It would have to be tight, and resistant to high temperatures and immune to off gasing as is the case when rubbers and plastics get to hot.

Conversely I also have kyronaut and DX1(probably the same as nano grease extreme) to use.

 

Do you fellas notice any thermal degradation over time on your gaming laptops with Conductonaut properly applied by either qualified DIYers or resellers such as HIDevolution?

This case study by Gamer's Nexus concluded Conductonaut has good longevity as there were no temperature drops after 1 year of use (thermal cycling). But in the end, we're talking about one sample.

 

If the laptop was in storage for a while, it could also be suffering from a simple dust buildup.
You'd be surprised how often this causes temperatures to rise over time - especially in dusty areas.
My advice would be to open up the thing and check the buildup of dust on the fans, air-vents and the space between the fans and air-vents.

Pressure is important, and laptops heatsinks don't generally come with good pressure, so that could play a part... but if the initial application of Conductonaut dropped temps, then its possible its a case of bad batch and/or dust buildup.

 

I ran compressed air all over the vents and fans to make sure that wasnt an issue, and looking into it with light there is no dust build up and its quite clean. It was in storage with no access to outside air, so there is no chance of dust building up.

In all likelyhood its a combination of either of lose of pressure, LM oxidization, bad batch or both. I noticed with HidEvolution that they put foam barriers around the die, which may have something to do with reducing oxidation, but that foam doesnt look very air tight.

 

Ya, its one sample against a myriad complaints saying otherwise. My issue with his test is that he is using a die delid, and that heat spreader once its back on will of course protect against outside air and hence oxidization. Not sure about the gpu die but its not included in the test. I am going to say his test is irrelevant to laptops.

 

Can I ask where you learned this? I'd like to read up on the chemical composition of LM. Getting ready to repaste my laptop.

 

This comes largely from user reports of using LM. By far the most successful usage is when people do it for deliding, but not direct on die contact where there is circulating air exposure.

LM is largely gallium

HidEvolution and other boutique laptop sellers all do the foam barrier.

 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/...cts-copper-nickel-and-aluminum-corrosion-test

Ah, found it. Gallium seems fine with copper/nickel, but is highly reactive with aluminum. I've never seen an aluminum heatsink in a laptop or desktop.

 

Compressed air can sometimes push dust further into the system and not really solve too much.
I would suggest you open up the unit and manually inspect the insides for dust buildup.

And if that isn't the case (it doesn't hurt to check), just replace the thermal paste in that case.

 

I like polyurethane foam dams. They work quite well and also double as a barrier to stop LM from ever escaping the CPU area. Air conditioner filter foam is excellent for this and you can get it on amazon or at your hardware store. Window foam tend to often be far too thick. Here's some perfect stuff you don't even have to search for:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GKC2US/

You also don't want an airtight foam whatsoever. Anything fully airtight will be so thick that it will interfere with heatsink pressure. Simple 15 ppi polyurethane foam is good enough, but it should only be a few mm thick. It will compress greatly with pressure anyway and will block anything that tries to get in or out.

I learned it by reading and watching. Nothing more.
And you can make your own liquid metal. All you need are gallium, indium, tin, and a crucible. Then some needle syringes to store it in for use.
Tin is needed to lower the melting point to 0C or lower.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galinstan



https://imgur.com/a/T6JlP
https://www.reddit.com/r/watercooli...yd_liquid_metal_thermal_paste_and_so_can_you/

 

It running out isnt the problem. Oxidization is what I am trying to prevent, and that poly products sole purpose is to pass air. I suppose something like it would be useful, but it needs to be relatively air tight, and have a high heat tolerance rating.

 

As I said before, it won't pass air if you compress a 2mm foam into 0.2mm.

 

If you have the time, let Liquid metal stay on heatsink a couple of days. Then put on new.

 

First i've heard of this, so what does that accomplish? Its been sitting on there for about 10 months currently.

 

I guess this is so the Gallium would be absorbed into copper. You then remove the remaining paste, apply new one and the new application should last longer since some of the Gallium is already absorbed into copper from initial application.

 

See post below.

 

Oh that. Goodness and I thought I overdid it last time with liquid metal in my first repaste. I am not certain but I would be curious to know what's the point of complete saturation is of gallium would be on a copper surface to a point that it no longer absorbs. Just trial and error this point, and I'm not sure how resellers that do liquid metal get away with it, if they get away with it at all because this took 9 months to get to the point of saturation and have a thick layer of the remaining metals from conductonaut.

 

I guess this is why most resellers do not have an option of applying liquid metal ;-) Those who do apply it probably hope that it will last long enough for warranty to expire.

 

By reading this thread and others regarding Conductonaut's longevity, I reached out to HIDevolution (just purchased a laptop from them) for comment and they did state there's indeed a 2 day "curing" time for conductonaut, just so it bonds with the heat sink, then they re-apply Condunctonaut again, hence the 7 to 12 working days time for assembling, tuning and testing the laptop. I takes time but is well worth as it ensures the liquid metal will last several years and they reassured me that If I saw a large temperature creep, and if the laptop is still under warranty to just send it to HIDevolution and they would do a full inspection and repaste. Still they have no reports of temperature creep or any need for yearly Conductonaut repasting.

So I'm at ease and pretty confident Conductonaut, applied with HIDevolution proprietary methods, will last several years on my upcoming EVOC PB71RF-G.

 

I get the idea thats not the whole story. It tooks nearly 6 months for me to start to notice a thermal decline, and not 13 days as a cure as they say. Assuming they do a curing, I suspect then its probably with pure gallium as the rest of the components in conductonaut work in part to inhibit absorption. Once the heatsink is saturated enough, then they apply the conductonaut. Not a difficult process, but one I wish I would have done earlier, and wish grizzly had the courtesy to tell its buyers. Regardless after this last repaste with my laptop I am rather sure it will be saturated enough so it stops absorbing.