Liquid Metal: how long before repasting?

In the beginning i was going to buy a laptop from HIDevolution, making them repaste it with liquid metal (Conductonaut).

Then, after reading here and there i started thinking about it... will the application last forever? Or i will need to repaste it the next year?

Then i came here on the forums and @trias10 told me that if i did not want to repaste it the next year, i should absolutely stay away from liquid metal.

So i decided to ask to HIDevolution's customer service. I asked also GenTech PC's customer service.

They both replied that i should not worry. I should go for the liquid metal and never repaste it in the next 4/5 years or so.

Right now i am really confused. I don't want to check my PC each year, and repaste it with a dangerous procedure. I want it to last something like 3/5 years. And stop.

What do you suggest me?

Go for the best thermal compound or liquid metal?

 

I have not repasted the liquid ultra in my M18x for 6 years now. Works fine, temps are still incredible

 

It depends. Liquid metal will diffuse into copper over time so you will need a repaste after some time. How soon - it all depends on the material of the heatsink or how much paste was initially applied.

 

great to know!

Im talking about the MSI GE75 heatsink. Don't really know which compound/material is made of

 

If the heatsink makes good contact and a copious amount of LM is used, you won’t need to reapply over the useful lifespan of the system.

 

Agree... when the heat sink fits well, nothing lasts as long as, or transfers the heat as well as, liquid metal thermal paste. It changes the color of the copper heat plate from gold to silver, but that is totally irrelevant. If stuff like that gets on your nerves more than the value of having good thermal management, then you might want to avoid it.

If the heat sink fit is sloppy, then liquid metal does a terrible job and you need to use something like IC Diamond or Phobya Nanogrease Extreme if you want good results and durability. They work the best with sloppy fitting parts because they are extraordinarily thick and tend to stay put on the parts to which they are applied. Some of the other popular thermal pastes work well enough at first, but they rapidly loose effectiveness because they are too thin and suffer from pump-out issues.

 

Oh well, i hope that HID or GenTech will make sure that the heat sink fits well tight! People says that they do a great job usually. Actually i am not sure from which one to buy.. probably should go just for the lower price? (I am buying from italy)

 

I just want to say I don’t know what liquid metal is.

 

It's copper so the Gallium in liquid metal alloy will slowly diffuse into it. That's simple scientific fact ;-) This may reduce performance of the rest of the alloy (the remaining alloy will become more brittle and hard which will allow some air gaps) and you may need to re-apply it. Some people get lucky and do not have significant performance loss after several years and some people get less lucky.
https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/ad43wd/psa_liquid_metal_and_copper/
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/how-long-does-conductonaut-last.829954/

There is also this thread on this forum, read the section about copper:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-works-why-it-fails-and-how-to-use-it.809332/

Some resellers may do something like applying a little bit of liquid metal to copper heatsink, let it stand like this for a few days to let some Gallium diffuse into copper surface, then clean off this remaning liquid metal and apply the new one before mounting heatsink onto CPU. I don't know whether the resellers you mentioned do this, you should ask them.

 

lol

I asked again GenTech PC. Let's see what do they answer.. i asked also what happens if i need to reapply it by my own (would their sealing be reusable?)

Why do they sell this service as ever-lasting if it can't be?

 

If you want guaranteed lasting, use a graphene pad.

 

*graphite pad, and it’s mostly inadequate in high performing laptops because the mounting pressure is too low.

 

Their job is to sell people stuff, without mentioning any potential drawbacks. This is why you should never believe anything the company representatives say ;-)

 

They do not offer graphite pads.. and i dont want to open the laptop as soon as it comes in my hands lol

They are not answering back.. i'm really confused right now.

Should i go for the good old kryonaut? How much of a difference between Kryonaut and Conductonaut on a MSI GE75 equipped with a Core i9?

 

My personal advice would be to order it as it comes from manufacturer then just repaste it yourself, or ask a friend who can do that, or find a local reputable PC repair shop which could do that for you. This way you will know for sure that you have a properly applied thermal paste and that someone will repaste it for you when the paste will start losing a performance after some time.
Kryonaut will definitely not cool as well as liquid metal and will most likely not last as long, so either use some other conventional thermal paste (something with higher viscosity) or stick to liquid metal but like I said, just find a local repair shop or a friend who will know how to properly apply it instead of relying on any reseller.

 

Why would a local PC repair shop be any better than the reseller? Having worked at a local repair shop, I often fixed the work of other local repair shops. I think doing it yourself is the best way to go, but some people don't have the time/desire/know how.

Kryonaut has typically been within 2-5C of conductonaut for me in my thin and light laptops (XPS 9550, 9560, 9570, GS63). It's gotten to the point where I haven't even repasted my Aero 15x with conductonaut because I don't expect amazing results (at least not for the headache). It's also been better for me than nanogrease, GC extreme, or good ol' ICD. My wife's laptop has been running it since the release of the laptop (March 2018 or something) without issue.

 

No time to properly learn and do it myself. Never worked with liquid metal. Unfortunately I live in a remote village in the northern Tuscany in Italy.. guess what: no one here other than me would be able to apply liquid metal

Ok thanks for your opinion but what would you choose if you just needed to click Kryonaut or Conductonaut? Price is the same on GenTech PC. And they do all the work for me. To me it's just a click.

Should I go with Kryonaut or Conductonaut?
To be or not to be??

 

I said "reputable", someone who you know will do a good job ;-)

That is unfortunate. You should definitely avoid Kryonaut, there was a good thread about it and about the certain reseller who knew Kryonaut does not work well in some laptops and who still did a repaste for customer without warning the customer first.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/need-help-extremely-hot-gs65-i7-9750h-gentechpc.830003/

 

Well, hidevolution does not offer kryonaut. GenTech PC does. Interesting... this increases my confusion level lol

 

Yes, that was work from "reputable" computer repair shops. Just because someone has a good reputation doesn't mean they do a real phenomenal job, especially when the customer doesn't really know a lot about the subject at hand.

I still think something was going on with that user's laptop and it wasn't kryonaut to blame. I still haven't found a laptop that didn't get good temps with kryonaut even after months of use. HIDevolution has had a good reputation for properly applying conductonaut in the past, however there have been some issues with some of their more recent shipments in regards to cooling enhancements. Having said that, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a conductonaut pasted laptop from a reputable dealer. They should in theory do a good job and make it right (especially for the price they charge). If something isn't right, they should make it right without charging you money. That's how it should be, but that other user had issues just getting that...

 

True, but I have seen stories about negative experience with HIDEvolution, GentechPC and XoticPC, and it is much more easier to bring notebook back to local shop to fix issue than to send it back to these resellers especially if you are an international customer ;-)

 

This is true, the biggest worry I would have is if something happens at the local shop and then HID or Gentech says "oh sorry you voided your warranty." With them you get a little piece of mind in that regard.

 

Well, they both allow repaste by customers, so that shouldn't void anything, and if local shop would break something doing this - I would hold the local shop responsible and force them to fix stuff that they broke ;-)

 

If the local shop puts on too much LM and it leaks and destroys the motherboard, that warranty is gone for sure. And yeah they should fix it, but that's not a path I would want to go down. They may just say "well you shouldn't be carrying the laptop and that's why it leaked" or something silly like that.

 

Well, then you just leave them an angry review ;-) Anyway, that's just what I personally would do - when I worked at repair shop back in my native country we always tried to be honest when it came to repairs and not scam or do a half-assed job and never blaming our own fault on customer doing something wrong. Of course, not all shops are like this and some might not have any shops nearby, in which case this won't be a valid option.

 

Well, i think i will give it a shot. Probably going to buy it from GenTech PC, repasting with Conductonaut.. they actually have a sale and offer it for free.

I think i am going to buy the GE75 during next week, meanwhile i am still open to any last objections lol

I will note down thermal performance and check it one year later. If it degraded, i will do a repaste by myself using a regular thermal paste (or liquid metal if i will have some spare time to learn how to apply it safely).

P.s. (a bit offtopic) i am still thinking if to buy the msi ge75 with a core i9 or the asus zephyrus gx701. I need the best cinebench score because i will do a lot of rendering.. but the zephyrus looks way cooler and more portable (also thanks to the optional usb-c charger).

 

Here are a couple of examples... there are several brands, and you can buy the materials generic as well.
Conductonaut - Thermal Grizzly
Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra – Coollaboratory

 

If you would like to travel to Rome, I can work on it (repasting with liquid metal compound with sponge around application to prevent leaks) whatever laptop is, and put on it a six month warranty on labor part by my boss shop.
My latest tornado F5 CLU's repaste was running from 1 year now with no thermal degradation at all thanks to a balanced heatsink.



cpu+fpu+gpu stress test. 27°C ambient temp today here
Cheers!