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Liquid metal sucks long term.

C

cyclone3d

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The Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut was great for about 2 - 2.5 years. Temps were very good.

Then around 6 months or so ago, my temps started getting whacky. Thought it might be my water cooling system needed flushing so I did that and it may have helped a bit.

I also cleaned and reapplied the Conductonaut at the same time.

Get to a couple days ago and I unhooked the water block and the Conductonaut just didn't look right. I re-wet it and re-spread it with a bit of fresh Conductonaut and it lowered my slight load temps by about 10c. Before any load at all had been jumping to 65-70c, even with just watching a YouTube video.

This is with a super thick copper 420 rad with 38mm push pull fan setup with the water cooler only cooling the CPU.

CPU is an AMD 5950x

I knew it still wasn't right and so tonight I took the board out and started cleaning the CPU.

After cleaning the Conductonaut off with q-tips, the CPU was a dark dull gray.

I started trying to clean it up with q-tips and IPA and the q-tips were turning black almost instantly. Kept doing this for about 25 q-tips and then started using cleaning compound and IPA on the q-tips. After 25-30 more q-tips it finally gets to the point where after wiping the CPU off, it was barely getting anything on plain q-tips with IPA. There are still deposits on the CPU and possibly some coating same as on the CPU.

It isn't going to be smooth again unless I do a light sanding.

Decide to stop with the CPU and go clean the water block. The Conductonaut came off the block a lot easier but it was very evident that it had eaten through the coating on the block... Think it is polished nickel.

Cleaned it a bit and then used cleaning compound for a bit. Could tell that there were also deposits on the block that were not going to come off.

Grabbed a bit of 500 grit sandpaper and carefully sanded it to get the deposits off.

No more stupid liquid metal for me. Not worth the damage to the CPU IHS and the cooler / water block after long term use.
 
Yup, I remember 17 years ago getting that insulin syringe full of Coollaboratory Liquid Metal Pro. It wasn't even a retail product yet. Seemed to be amazing but also wrecked the surfaces. Not something you'd want to put on OEM parts under warranty or retail while in remorse period. It's not for novices that's for sure. If you're chasing that last couple of degrees especially in the realm of exotic cooling perhaps.

And on laptops and gaming consoles it's just ridiculous.
 
cyclone3d said:
Decide to stop with the CPU and go clean the water block. The Conductonaut came off the block a lot easier but it was very evident that it had eaten through the coating on the block... Think it is polished nickel.
Click to expand...
Never put gallium (main ingredient with liquid metal TiM) with nickel aluminum. Keep it on copper.
 
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El_Capitan said:
Never put gallium (main ingredient with liquid metal TiM) with nickel. Keep it on copper.
Click to expand...
So I should have lapped everything first....

Problem is, thermal Grizzly says that it is fine to use with nickel.

And with copper, it forms an alloy with it / soaks into it.

Screenshot_20260820-212708.png
 
El_Capitan said:
Sorry, I meant aluminum. With nickel, it creates that staining, but doesn't affect thermals.
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Oh yeah it does effect thermals with nickel. Maybe not short term, but after a while it gets really horrid.

My original wall.of text states this.

Ends up bonding in certain spots, causing gaps between the surfaces.

I had to sand my water block to remove the mounds. The CPU still has small dot shaped high spots and will need to be lapped flat before I put it in another system.

For copper, it also has to be reapplied after about 6 months because copper soaks it up. It also pits copper after long usage periods.
 
Aluminum is a big no no for sure.
Biggest mistake with this compound is using too much.
Surfaces its applied to should just be shiny like a freshly tinned soldering iron tip.
No globules or piles anywhere.
Those will run out and if your case is holding the motherboard vertical, it's not going to be happy.
 
I'm surprised Thermal Grizzly haven’t been hit with a massive class action yet. Doing their bit to send good kit to landfill before its time.
 
Nobody is forced to use it, it does transfer heat extremely well, and they do warn about damage (although not sure about this specific type of damage).

End of the day, it's extreme cooling for extreme applications, where damage to the hardware is not only possible but likely. If you aren't pushing your hardware that hard and you don't want to risk it...don't use it.

Edit: Not directed at you cyclone3d, just generally this is how I feel about it. It's why I haven't used it myself.
 
Yeah, I learned my lesson. I hadn't seen any warning about it messing up nickel and was kind of surprised when it did.

Nothing a lapping won't fix, but it was a huge pain to get both the CPU and the water lock to the point of being clean enough in the first place. Probably could have just forgone the cleaning past getting the majority of gallium off of them, but I didn't want to risk embedding the gallium when lapping.
 
Nobu said:
Nobody is forced to use it, it does transfer heat extremely well, and they do warn about damage (although not sure about this specific type of damage).

End of the day, it's extreme cooling for extreme applications, where damage to the hardware is not only possible but likely. If you aren't pushing your hardware that hard and you don't want to risk it...don't use it.

Edit: Not directed at you cyclone3d, just generally this is how I feel about it. It's why I haven't used it myself.
Click to expand...
From my own experience, I prefer to use liquid metal only for delidded CPU's between the die and the IHS. I don't use it for CPU Coolers, anymore, even if it's pure copper, just for the discoloration alone.
 
I've read liquid metal oozed in early plasystations5 and they had a recall? Because of vertical orientation.
 
El_Capitan said:
From my own experience, I prefer to use liquid metal only for delidded CPU's between the die and the IHS. I don't use it for CPU Coolers, anymore, even if it's pure copper, just for the discoloration alone.
Click to expand...
But wouldn't it have the same issue of eventually damaging the nickel plating on the underside of the IHS?
 
are closed said:
I've read liquid metal oozed in early plasystations5 and they had a recall? Because of vertical orientation.
Click to expand...
i dont know of a recall but yes, that can happen. despite what some users say it doesnt have anti-gravity properties...
 
Problem with liquid metal it reacts with aluminum and solidifies. Problem is most cpu lids are aluminum too so they too react with it. Its really only designed for bare die chips with copper coolers and even then, they should seal the liquid metal mating surfaces from the air so contamination and seeping onto the board doesn't happen.
 
This is why I just use the tried and true NTH1. It lasts a very long time and I never even think about it. Piece of mind.
 
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