- Apr 27, 2000
- 22,752
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In all fairness, Liquid Metal Ultra did NOT kill my CPU or motherboard, so don't jump to any conclusions when you learn that I killed my CPU or motherboard or . . . something.
I got sloppy, methinks, and that lead to damaged hardware. But that's besides the point.
Coollaboratory, the company that brought you Liquid Metal Pro, released an updated version of their (in)famous TIM called Liquid Metal Ultra. There are some reviews of it around the 'net, but there were some serious questions about its properties and whether or not it carries with it some of the problems inherent to Pro. Namely, people have wanted to know:
Will it alter copper or nickle surfaces?
Can I remove it without lapping?
Is it easy or difficult to spread?
Being a curious sort, I bought some and tested it myself after asking some questions about its properties. Here's a basic rundown of my experience with Liquid Metal Ultra thus far:
1). The video provided by Coollaboratory advises you to use far more TIM than you need to use, especially on lapped surfaces. Instead of spreading it out with the included brush after using such a large dollop, it is best to use an amount equal to about 1/4 of a grain of rice and spread that out instead. Then use a similar, if not smaller, amount on the HSF base (spreading with the same brush, or a similar brush) before installing.
2). Cure time is about 24-48 hours, plus an unknown number of power cycles/idle-to-load cycles.
3). It WILL diffuse into copper very quickly. It will also diffuse into nickel, though it does not adhere to nickel anywhere near as well as it will to copper, so it takes more time for it to alter a nickel surface.
4). Applying Ultra onto a surface that has previously been altered by Ultra often leads to poor temps. Lapping will be necessary to remove the altered surface before re-applying Ultra.
5). Using the "grain of rice" method to spread Ultra by simply installing the HSF and allowing the HSF base to spread the Ultra does not work very well. When I tried this on my system (mount #2), the resulting spread pattern apparently did not cover the spot on the IHS over the NB/IMC very well, resulting in erratic cooling for the NB/IHS . . . I think (this was on an Athlon II x4 635). Sometimes it would produce copious memory errors and sometimes it would not, depending on what kind of mood it was in. You WILL need to use a brush, and expect to replace the brush after 1-2 applications (at least if you're using one of the included brushes).
On my one mount that was (partially) successful, I got temps that were a solid 2C lower than I got with x23-7783D, and that's saying something considering how little x23 I had on the chip.
Overall, I would say that this is an excellent TIM IF you are prepared to use it properly. If you fumble around with it like I did and are forced to relap your IHS and lap your HSF to make it work, it can be a hassle, and of course you run the risk of killing components by tearing your system down and rebuilding over and over (and over) again. Which is basically what happened to my poor 635 (I think, jury's still out on exactly what's wrong).
If you want to use it, I recommend lapped surfaces, even when using an HSF famous for a quality base (like the nh-d14). Any HSF base reknowned for producing a good TIM spread pattern won't make much of a difference when using Liquid Metal Ultra, since HSF->IHS contact does a relatively poor job of spreading it, especially when the HSF base is nickel-plated and the IHS is lapped.
It spreads very easily by brush tip (almost as easily as zalman stg1).
Nobody knows if it can weld an IHS to an HSF base yet like Pro could, but once I get a working system with a successful mount using Liquid Metal Ultra, I'll run it for awhile and hopefully find out someday.
I got sloppy, methinks, and that lead to damaged hardware. But that's besides the point.
Coollaboratory, the company that brought you Liquid Metal Pro, released an updated version of their (in)famous TIM called Liquid Metal Ultra. There are some reviews of it around the 'net, but there were some serious questions about its properties and whether or not it carries with it some of the problems inherent to Pro. Namely, people have wanted to know:
Will it alter copper or nickle surfaces?
Can I remove it without lapping?
Is it easy or difficult to spread?
Being a curious sort, I bought some and tested it myself after asking some questions about its properties. Here's a basic rundown of my experience with Liquid Metal Ultra thus far:
1). The video provided by Coollaboratory advises you to use far more TIM than you need to use, especially on lapped surfaces. Instead of spreading it out with the included brush after using such a large dollop, it is best to use an amount equal to about 1/4 of a grain of rice and spread that out instead. Then use a similar, if not smaller, amount on the HSF base (spreading with the same brush, or a similar brush) before installing.
2). Cure time is about 24-48 hours, plus an unknown number of power cycles/idle-to-load cycles.
3). It WILL diffuse into copper very quickly. It will also diffuse into nickel, though it does not adhere to nickel anywhere near as well as it will to copper, so it takes more time for it to alter a nickel surface.
4). Applying Ultra onto a surface that has previously been altered by Ultra often leads to poor temps. Lapping will be necessary to remove the altered surface before re-applying Ultra.
5). Using the "grain of rice" method to spread Ultra by simply installing the HSF and allowing the HSF base to spread the Ultra does not work very well. When I tried this on my system (mount #2), the resulting spread pattern apparently did not cover the spot on the IHS over the NB/IMC very well, resulting in erratic cooling for the NB/IHS . . . I think (this was on an Athlon II x4 635). Sometimes it would produce copious memory errors and sometimes it would not, depending on what kind of mood it was in. You WILL need to use a brush, and expect to replace the brush after 1-2 applications (at least if you're using one of the included brushes).
On my one mount that was (partially) successful, I got temps that were a solid 2C lower than I got with x23-7783D, and that's saying something considering how little x23 I had on the chip.
Overall, I would say that this is an excellent TIM IF you are prepared to use it properly. If you fumble around with it like I did and are forced to relap your IHS and lap your HSF to make it work, it can be a hassle, and of course you run the risk of killing components by tearing your system down and rebuilding over and over (and over) again. Which is basically what happened to my poor 635 (I think, jury's still out on exactly what's wrong).
If you want to use it, I recommend lapped surfaces, even when using an HSF famous for a quality base (like the nh-d14). Any HSF base reknowned for producing a good TIM spread pattern won't make much of a difference when using Liquid Metal Ultra, since HSF->IHS contact does a relatively poor job of spreading it, especially when the HSF base is nickel-plated and the IHS is lapped.
It spreads very easily by brush tip (almost as easily as zalman stg1).
Nobody knows if it can weld an IHS to an HSF base yet like Pro could, but once I get a working system with a successful mount using Liquid Metal Ultra, I'll run it for awhile and hopefully find out someday.
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