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Liquod Pro? Benefits over AS5?

M

Mango1970

Member
Hi there,
As an extra I got a supply of Cool Laboratory's Liquod Pro for Copper Coolers. What the heck is this? Is it better than AS5? I honestly don't have a clue where this came from but it was given to me free. Are there benefits? Is it harder to clean off a CPU or heatsink once applied?
 
It's liquid metal. Gallium is inside it I believe. It will corrode some heatsinks. I suggest you do not use it.
 
http://www.flexbeta.net/main/comments.php?catid=1&id=16601

On the French forum Nokytech warnings appeared about the "Liquid Metal" products from Cool Laboratory's. The German manufacturer claims the cooling paste made with liquid metal conducts heat way better than normal coolingpaste. This is proven by several reviews (Allround-pc; Watercoolplanet; Technic3D). But when you buy 1.5 grams (7 euro) of this stuff, you should make sure you get the right stuff, because for aluminium heatsinks, there is a special AL-version. Although the manufacturer does mention on the normal version (for copper heatsinks) that it is not meant for aluminium heatsinks, this reaction of a client shows how big an effect the copper version has with aluminium.
Story continues here at Flexbeta; links to pictures included.
On the forum, the user describes how he accidentally got a bit of the stuff on the aluminium part of his Zalman cooler. When he got back with a piece of fabric to clean it, he noticed the aluminium already gotten black. It wasn't cleanable anymore and it looked like the aluminium was boiling. A last effort to save his cooler by holding it under running water didn't help either, before his eyes, he saw the aluminium part disappear and a part of his cooler literally went down the drain.

At FrostyTech, the analysts puts questionmarks at if this stuff is even legal and safe.

 
Don't use it! Some over at XS tried it and while it performed better than AS5 if it touches aluminum it eats it away. It also had a bad habit of hardening and sticking to your heatsink base or IHS requiring you to lap it to get it off. Or it also tends to become solid and permanently attach your heatsink to your CPU. Needless to say, not a good thing!
 
Are any parts of C2D chips aluminum? Like the heat spreader? It would suck if it melted part of the chip.
 
It's basically a liquid metal alloy (mainly gallium).

You apply it to metal heatsinks/heat spreaders. It works by basically dissolving the metal from the CPU and from the heatsink. After a few hours it then sets rock hard - essentially producing a cold, permanent weld between the heatsink and the CPU.

This has very good cooling performance, because you've got pure solid metal between the CPU and the heatsink.

Normal heatsink compound (even AS5) is actually quite a good insulator, it's just that it's not as good an insulator as air - that's why you're only supposed to use the tiniest amount needed (replace the air with grease, but don't actually separate the heatsink from the CPU with it).

The main problem with the liquid metal material - is that it dissolves metals. It will severely corrode any metal it comes into contact with (especially aluminium), including solder joints on the CPU and motherboard. The other problem is that it sets solid (the pure alloy is liquid, but as it dissolves copper, the melting point gets higher and higher, until it solidifies) - this may make it very difficult, or impossible to remove the heatsink from teh CPU.
 
Originally posted by: Mark R
It's basically a liquid metal alloy (mainly gallium).

You apply it to metal heatsinks/heat spreaders. It works by basically dissolving the metal from the CPU and from the heatsink. After a few hours it then sets rock hard - essentially producing a cold, permanent weld between the heatsink and the CPU.

This has very good cooling performance, because you've got pure solid metal between the CPU and the heatsink.

Normal heatsink compound (even AS5) is actually quite a good insulator, it's just that it's not as good an insulator as air - that's why you're only supposed to use the tiniest amount needed (replace the air with grease, but don't actually separate the heatsink from the CPU with it).

The main problem with the liquid metal material - is that it dissolves metals. It will severely corrode any metal it comes into contact with (especially aluminium), including solder joints on the CPU and motherboard. The other problem is that it sets solid (the pure alloy is liquid, but as it dissolves copper, the melting point gets higher and higher, until it solidifies) - this may make it very difficult, or impossible to remove the heatsink from teh CPU.
Click to expand...


That's a mouthful of information there.
 
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