Liquid Metal help

I have a PA71ES-G that I bought on August 2018 from HIDEvolution with liquid metal applied. It has worked wonderfully these ~2 years.
Just a couple days ago I started noticing higher than normal temps. I clean the fans regularly and was wondering what is the life cycle of a liquid metal application. Its been almost 2 years and I am not confident enough to repaste LM so I'd rather go normal paste IF I have to repaste.
Speaking of, which thermal pastes are good? Is there a list of good thermal pastes since I probably won't be able to find some of them.

 

2 years is too much, you need to repast every 6 months up to one year max, go for LM again or you will lose some performance. So many videos on YT can show you how.

 

The best non metal thermal paste is PHOBYA NanoGrease Exteme

You may also need this for proper cleaning of Liquid Metal:

Coollaboratory Liquid Cleaning Set

 

If it already has liquid metal on it a tiny dab refresh should be easy. You could speak to HID.

 

I thought with LM up to 1 year is just fine while normal pastes should be repasted more frequently. As for LM I know I've seen a lot of videos and all but still get giddy at the thought of messing up. One mess up and its over.

I've got an unfortunate situation, A LOT of the thermal pastes I had in mind don't seem to be available for now (see below). As for cleaning liquid metal, won't 99% isopropyl alcohol do just fine or does LM require special attention? What about if I repaste LM again?

As in just refreshing LM over whatever was already applied?
Also, I'll contact HIDe for more info.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I'd like to add that with a quick search these are my options-
> Arctic MX-4
> Arctic Silver 5
> Arctic Silver Ceramique
> Cooler Master MasterGel Normal/Pro/Maker
> Corsair TM30 and XTM50
> Deepcool G15 and G40
> Deepcool Z3, Z5 and Z9
> Kingpin KPx
> Noctua NT-H1
> Thermaltake TG4
> Thermal Grizzly Aeronaut
> Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut 1gram (but the price is like $33)

 

You'll be fine with just alcohol. The kit is if you are OCD like me and want to get of every tine bit of discoloration or residue. If you're not too far away from HIDevolution, why not just send it to them and have themn re-paste it with PHOBYA NanoGrease Extreme. It's non metal so it's much easier to apply and clean in the future and has superb performance for a non metal paste.

 

Yes you don't need to clean it to reapply it.

 

Thing is I'm not from the U.S., so HIDevolution service is out of the question for me.
I've listed what thermal pastes are available to me, could you please take a look at them? Unfortunately PHOBYA NanoGrease Extreme is unavailable and I'm not sure if they will sell again but PHOBYA do sell some stuff and their "Liquid Metal compound" is on the cards.

 

I have only tried Kryonaut out of the list you gave me. Started out good, then within 2 days the temps started going up slowly till it reached a point where I couldn't use the laptop. Absolute garbage.

You might wanna wait for others to chime in my experience is only limited to using the 2 or 3 best thermal paste which are not in your list

 

Arctic MX-4 and Noctua NT-H1 are pretty much the same for me. They're great pastes if you don't want to have to repaste very often and offer above average thermal transfer. My current MX-4 application in my desktop is a little over 3 years old and I don't see any temperature degradation. Those two pastes will last quite a while.

Cooler Master MasterGel Normal/Pro/Maker are all meh. They're average thermal pastes, but they're cheap so they're good if you're on a tight budget.

Thermaltake TG4 has above average thermal transfer, but there are better thermal pastes. I haven't tested this one long term, so I have no information on it's longevity.

Arctic Silver 5 is crap. It degrades quickly compared to other pastes, but not as quick as Kryonaut. It has above average thermal transfer, but I would never recommend this paste.

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is good for a few weeks until the paste starts to degrade. It was meant to be used in a watercooled setup, but even then it can degrade quick since it degrades rapdly at temperatures above 80°C. I had to repaste my Alienware 17 Ranger every few weeks, which was incredibly annoying. It's good if you can manage to keep temps significantly below 80°C though, but there are better pastes out there.

Phobya Nanogrease Extreme is the absolute best conventional thermal paste in existence at the current time of writing. The only thing better is liquid metal. There's no thermal degradation effect on this stuff like Kryonaut as far as I can tell, and it has the highest thermal conductivity out of any conventional paste. This paste is a must if you want to do heavy overclocking without using liquid metal. I don't have any information on its longevity since I only started using it a few months ago in my Ranger, but thermal performance hasn't degraded at all, so we'll see how long it lasts.

The others I have no experience with, but Phobya Nanogrease is the absolute best in terms of thermal transfer and is the only thermal paste I ever buy now.

 

You need sand down the heatsink slightly with 2000 grit sand paper regardless if put back LM or new standard thermal paste. If you don't go with Liquid metal, then look after options like Phobya Nanogrease Extreme, ICD, Coolermaster Mastergel Maker or Gelid Extreme.

I see they offer Cooler Master MasterGel. A good choice. You don't need look further.

 

You can get 10 grams of liquid metal for about $20USD from here:

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/283314273689/

Thats what I'm using at the moment. I just use a regular q-tip to apply (dipping the q-tip into the liquid metal bottle).

 

You can check here. Although it is outdated since I listed only top reputable brands. It will be a good reference point.
I'm using cooler master Maker Gel V1 and V2(flat syringe applicator). My AW Jokebook 15 r2 hasn't been repasted for 4 yrs with 50% dusty and temps have risen by 5-6C (Ambient temp 35C+) and another old rusty laptop which I use daily 15 hrs+ with newer Cooler master Maker paste is overheating by 5-8C more at 58C at 8 threads with ambient temps at 24C.
If you want to invest less effort I'd gladly suggest IC Diamond 7. A Small dot in the middle and you're done. Other high end paste needs surface spread to get optimal temps.

 

That kind of dispenser could be safer than the syringe, so long as you don't tip it over lol.

 

Thermalright TFX is better than Kryonaut and as thick as Phobya Nanogrease Extreme.

 

I'll add it to my outdated Thermal Paste Guide.

 

I'll have to pick up a vial to test against EVGA Frozen 2 which has proven to be better than Gelid, Kryonaut, Nanogrease so far for my testing. If it cools equal or
better with the consistency of Nanogrease, that's a major win/win.

 

Can't find that thermal paste anywhere on EU besides one listing on eBay and I dont trust eBay sellers shipping me legit thermal paste..

 

I got mine off amazon from Nan's gaming gear (I believe they are Thermalright's USA supplier) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MYJ1X8H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
but they're sold out of the 6.2g version or maybe Amazon doesn't want it?

But another shipper is on newegg as well as the original one on Amazon too.
https://www.newegg.com/thermalright...e=Thermalright_TFX-_-9SIA7WF8UF9204-_-Product

https://www.newegg.com/p/2MB-001F-00007?Description=Thermalright TFX&cm_re=Thermalright_TFX-_-9SIA4RE8M70693-_-Product&quicklink=true

Just don't try to spread it. You will fail and it will stick to the spreader. Apply a full X to top of IHS or GPU's diagonal to diagonal corner, or a straight line edge to edge across BGA throttlechips.

 

Everything is technically BGA your GPU to the package, the package to the card...

 

So I've inquired a bit from different sellers and I don't think I can get any IC Diamond, Phobya NanoGrease, Thermalright TFX or Gelid.
Kryonaut doesn't seem to be a good choice. Maybe Cooler Master MasterGel Maker? Don't know how it would hold up in a laptop where temps are usually higher than desktops.
A couple sellers are selling TG Conductonaut but at a ridiculous price of ~$50 for 1g. So I guess these two are my final choices.

 

I hear Thermalright TFX is a great alternative to Kryonaut.

 

While amazon is selling it, it has been unavailable for quite some time and the general answer is "no updates for re-stocking"

EDIT: Okay, can you guys give me your opinions about ordering from AliExpress? Price wise everything is a LOT cheaper but I don't know how good the website or my order will be.

 

Shame, the 50$ for 1g Conductonaut is absurd. You might as well just go and make your own at that point as brother @Falkentyne
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/clevo-overclockers-lounge.788975/page-1813#post-10972789

 

Okay so I got a message from HIDEvo that apparently they have "sealed the heatsink to the motherboard to prevent LM spill and that I'll have a hard time taking it apart"
umm....

 

As in double sided tape between heatsink and motherboard?

 

Didn't mention that in the message but when I've opened the laptop to clean fans, I noticed normal clear yellow tape around the heatsink. That shouldn't give me "a hard time to take apart". I'm sure I don't know of any other sealing methods for LM applications.

 

That is kapton tape, probably around the socket and die. If the theatsink doesn't come off easily after removing all the screws, blast it a little with a heatgun/hairdryer to loosen it up, should there be any double sided tape holding it together. But I'm sure if you were to ask HID fellas, they would walk you through what to watch out for.

 

They probably meant longer time to remove and clean up vs. standard thermal paste. Be careful when cleaning so You don't spill any LM on places you don't want it to be. They probably have to say it this way because there is many out there who have never dealed with liquid metal.

 

I'm using CM Maker and its been 4 years+ and paste seems to be degrading by 1-2C. I recently repasted my oldest laptop after I did a bad paste job like Dell Thermal paste stamp and the temps have been great. Now, its 5C cooler with properly applied thin coat vs too much Squishy paste. The newer model of Cooler Master Maker is like cotton candy. On CPU with BGA socket, apply only quarter of the paste at the edge and then flatten it till you get a thin coat.

 

Not hard to do.
Grab a crucible, some needle nose syringes and tips, and 100 grams of gallium, 40 grams of indium and 10 grams of tin and off you go.

This batch came from 50 grams of gallium, 20 grams of indium and 5 grams of tin.

 

Available on Newegg.

https://www.newegg.com/p/2MB-001F-0...TFX-_-9SIA4RE8M70693-_-Product&quicklink=true

or

https://www.newegg.com/thermalright...e=Thermalright_TFX-_-9SIA7WF8UF9204-_-Product

 

Aliexpress can be... hit and miss.