2 Months Of Liquid Metal On My Laptop, This Is What Happened.

After applying liquid metal two months ago, I was curious to see what it looked like two months later, so in today's video, I opened it up to see what It looked like.

[smithy]

By the way, 86 degrees maximum temp on the CPU is very good. Anything above 95 should be a concern.

[Ragnaraz]

Bit of info for you.
It doesn't dry out, the galium in LM amalgamates with copper and creates an alloy. You could say it soaks into the copper, it "stains" the copper a silvery colour. That's no problem though, gently scrape of the crusty remains, use something flat and 400grit paper over the surface on the heatsink so it's not bumpy. Don't go crazy, just smooth it. You can carefully use a plastic spudger to get rid of any crust on the die itself. Clean both up thoroughly and reapply LM. Once the copper is saturated it should never be a problem again it can take upto 3 applications for the copper to become saturated though.

[ben_jammin]

So, a few things, you do get those little beads of liquid metal pretty easily. You need to be SUPER cautious removing this. I found cotton swaps are pretty good at removing it.

The tape isnt recommended, the electrical or kapton tape. Rather get some liquid isolation tape, its like liquid electrical tape (make sure it's thermal resistant).

The liquid metal changes properties when it's hot, it becomes way more of a liquid and fills if the voids.

Lastly, to check the state of the bare copper/zinc coated cooler, you have to remove the old liquid metal and clean the surface thoroughly - only then you'll be able to see if theres surface corrosion. There are guides on youtube for reapplying: basically, non-abrasive polishing compound and a dish sponge, as one persons recommendation. It seemed to work really well.

If you really want to get the best performance, you need to clean the old thermal conpound off completely and make sure the surfaces are in the best condition possible. If the copper is slightly light and dull, instead of a little shiny and a dark orange color, THIS IS GOOD. That is what bare copper is meant to look like.

Stay within the borders of your die, there should be a mark left from the old thermal compound application. Dont apply too much, remember, you're applying it to both sides and you need way less than thermal paste. (Never forget it's conductive!!!).

Dont apply too much pressure. Be gentle with the cpu and gpu dies. You dont have to worry as much when cleaning the heat sink. Just dont touch the fins or bend them. Touching the fins leaves oils from your skins, this, along with attract dust, which then sticks, degrades performance. (Its a little pointless going through all the trouble to install liquid metal if you compromise the ability for your active cooling to vent the heat. I hope this all makes sense).

[morz]

It's normal that it has dried out as liquid metal really prefers nickel, if you do it on copper though it woudn't cause a problem if you check once in a while if it has ended your laptop i shouldn't be a massive concern.

[fadedninna]

86c is actually really good, that means it will never throttle because of the the temps

[samcrdx]

'86°C CPU temp max is not at all good'
Meanwhile Ryzen 9 5980HX with an underload average of 96°C

[rahulgogoi]

I am running liquid metal on my laptop since 2020 on my laptop and mini pc, The staining is real, but there is no performance downgrade due to it. I'm still running it and the temperatures are similar to what I used to get when undervolting my cpu pre spectre/meltdown updates which blocked undervolting. I used foam borders around the die in order to prevent the liquid metal to spread over the other components, like they did in the ps5. No stability issues whatsoever.

[Code_String]

I know I'm rather late in this video, but hope that unit's holding out well. G15AE owner here and I'm going to be removing that LM when some PTM7950 I've ordered arrives. ><

[pidespidergaming]

I'm looking to add liquid metal to my newly bought (~6 months) HP Victus. Please let me know if applying it to copper si any good? Or should I consider Nickel plating, which I'll prolly have to do myself since I'm in a non metro city here in India and it's gonna cost me a lot to do it. + parents will be mad at me. please let me know....

[xristosglezellis]

Don't put tape on chips...
Only thermal pads

[xd]

What you use for cover on the cpu, gpu, mainboard?

[lightweightwhitetrash]

still haven't blown up? damn, it's been a few months since my prediction but it's gonna happen and i aint leaving till then or even then unless i die from like the taco bell virus (lethal and excruciatingly explosive diarrhea)

[AttackTitan]

Subbed
But i wanted to see how do you actually applied new paste

[IvanRossS]

Did you really put electric tape around CPU ?... SMH

[Mariio-]

What is the name of the tape you are using around the CPU I wanna buy one thanks

[Fly-Co]

If you want to get way better termals then you'll have to make holes exactly where the fans are or cut strips of plastic
Its just a flawed chasse design sorry bruh

[HydeFromTs]

Next time don't forget to mention what laptop is it, Einstein....