Delidded 4770K and temps gone through the roof after few months!

[stuff_me_good]

I successfully delidded my 4770k 6 moths ago and replaced the original thermal paste with Coollaboratory Liquid Pro like so many delidders out there. Supposedly the pro is better compared to ultra, because easier to apply and it shouldn't get hard over time like some have reported that ultra does.


When I delidded and applied the liquid pro paste between IHS and core and also between IHS and CPU cooler(Phanteks PH-TC14PE), I could overclock my 4770k to 4.7GHz 1.32v stable. Temps were 90-91 at best at that time. As time went by I started to notice some random crashes when doing some heavy AVX based computing(encoding video, or encoding music to ogg with foobar2000) and when I re-run IBT or prime, the temps just jumped through the roof under a minute. Before I took 20min to run IBT to get 90C and now IBT goes 93C or more and then system freezes. Nothing had changed except some dust in the heat sink. So I cleaned my case and heat sink but the results were the same. Temps got out of control and system was not stable anymore at heavy computing.

Reason could not be the room temp, since it's winter time and it's colder here now than when the initial setup and benches were made.

So what's wrong? Does the liquid metal move after time under the IHS or maybe under the IHS and heat sink, or maybe both? Is it better to put liquid pro only under IHS and between IHS and cooler something more regular thermal paste? Have any of you had the same problem?


And yes, I did apply the liquid pro correctly, just like this official tutorial shows http://www.coollaboratory.com/en/products/liquid-ultra/.

 

[flexy]

>>
Coollaboratory Liquid Pro like so many delidders out there. Supposedly the pro is better compared to ultra
>>

You got it exactly wrong. The CLU is the successor of the pro. I never heard that the pro is supposed to be better, pretty much anyone uses the ultra.

 

[2is]

I believe the same thing happened to idontcare and the issue was that the thermal compound had started to "run" with the help of gravity. I do not recall what he was using though. Anyway, it was his issues with delidding that effectively kept me out of that venture. I'll just happily run my CPU 200mhz slower

 

[Idontcare]

CLU > CLP

Only way you are going to determine the culprit is by systematically removing and replacing the existing CLP.

Start with removing the CLP between the HSF and IHS. See if that improves the temps. If it doesn't, then replace the CLP between the CPU and the IHS.

If that still doesn't improve the temps then start to suspect something else has changed to cause your CPU temps to increase.

 

[tweakboy]

Gotta be dust. Blow it with fan or blower or vacuum or take outside and blow it good......

 

[stuff_me_good]

>>
Coollaboratory Liquid Pro like so many delidders out there. Supposedly the pro is better compared to ultra
>>

You got it exactly wrong. The CLU is the successor of the pro. I never heard that the pro is supposed to be better, pretty much anyone uses the ultra.

What do you make of this then? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNgIQQcUSDM

But then again at the end of the pager trucido says that pro dries more than ultra, so now I'm really confused. Do they both dry after while and one or another more so than the other? http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1041398976


But yeah, I'll need to take the whole thing apart and check the results.

 

[stuff_me_good]

Time to update this old thread with necessary information. I did take my system apart months ago and completely forgot to update my findings here.

So it seems that I run to the same problem like so many others have when playing with liquid ultra or pro. Both of those thermal compounds tend to solidify after month(s) and after that cooling performance drops like a rock and system becomes unstable. For some reason this happens only metal to metal contact but not metal to silicon. Nobody including me did not have solid TIM between core and IHS. Also I've put liquid pro between many VGA cooler and DIE and never have had this solidifying problem that has happened just between cooler and IHS.

Here are some more info from others regarding this issue:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1351984/coollaboratory-liquid-ultra-vs-liquid-pro-vs-phobya-liquid-metal/0_100
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?249495-Liquid-Metal-Ultra-Does-it-alter-HSF-base-surface/page2

>>
Coollaboratory Liquid Pro like so many delidders out there. Supposedly the pro is better compared to ultra
>>

You got it exactly wrong. The CLU is the successor of the pro. I never heard that the pro is supposed to be better, pretty much anyone uses the ultra.

Clearly you have not read much other forums and OC people experiences on pro vs ultra. By quick googling I immediately found this overclockers thread where is a lot discussion on pro vs ultra. At least with my reading ability I can see pretty many people saying that in their experience pro is better.

Anyway, looking at the results, difference is minimal. Pro seems to be better at really high power usage but ultra more easier to work with and in most cases 1-2 Celsius better and so overall better solution.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Good to see you found the solution. This is also an issue with solder. I have seen a couple of SBs for example with the same issue. In those cases the solid solder simply cracks so you have air gaps like you.

And some wanted Liquid Pro as a TIM replacement

 

[superstition]

Ultra was designed to be easier to apply and remove. It has inferior thermal performance. I have heard, but not verified, that ultra is thicker and tends to perform better for rougher surfaces while pro is thinner and performs better for finely lapped/mirror surfaces.

Both apparently solidify when used with copper. This happened to me with a lapped CPU and cooler, both copper surfaces. It also happened with my EK waterblock which was copper. The nickle spreader on the second CPU did not have solidification on it. It wiped off. The fact that the liquid pro on the die and inside the spreader remained liquid appears to be because there is no copper involved.

So, it seems that there is no issue with using these on the die but they should be avoided for copper surfaces.

Good to see you found the solution. This is also an issue with solder. I have seen a couple of SBs for example with the same issue. In those cases the solid solder simply cracks so you have air gaps like you.

And some wanted Liquid Pro as a TIM replacement

Solder is so unreliable that Intel switched exclusively to polymer TIM for its E and Xeon chips many years ago!

 

[ShintaiDK]

E3 Xeons uses TIM. You want a relatively big die for solder.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Solder is so unreliable that Intel switched exclusively to polymer TIM for its E and Xeon chips many years ago!

Source?

 

[superstition]

E3 Xeons uses TIM. You want a relatively big die for solder.

My Lynnfield chip hasn't broken with its massive 775 million transistors.

Source?

Just a bit of sarcasm over the unsupported assertion, designed to support Intel's very questionable decision to sell i7s with low-performance polymer TIM, that solder isn't compatible with smaller dies. The only evidence that's ever been produced shows problems with liquid nitrogen cooling.

 

[Magic Carpet]

You guys claim it's the smaller die size that made Intel use TIM instead. Interesting theory.

 

[ShintaiDK]

My Lynnfield chip hasn't broken with its massive 775 million transistors.

You forgot 296mm2.

 

[superstition]

You guys claim it's the smaller die size that made Intel use TIM instead. Interesting theory.

It's a bogus theory that has never had anything more than liquid nitrogen cooling issues to support it. And, the debate belongs in the TIM thread not reduplicated here.

You forgot 296mm2.

solder:
Intel Sandy Bridge 2C (GT1), 131mm2
Intel Sandy Bridge 2C (GT2), 149mm2

TIM:
Intel Ivy Bridge 4C, 160mm2