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Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra experience?

I

Idef1x

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 2, 2011
Messages
227
I am considering purchasing Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra thermal paste together with either the NH-D14, the Prolimatech Megahalems black series or the Thermalright HR-02.

I would like to hear if any of you guys have experience with Liquid Ultra (Not the Pro)? People tend to fear the conductivity (from what I have read around the web), which I don't really understand. I know the thermal paste erodes aluminium, but since coolers usually use a copper base, I can't really see the problem.

Anyone care to enlighten me?

EDIT: Alternatively, I am also looking at the Innovation Diamond 7 Carat paste, if anyone have tried that.
 
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I tried IC Diamond and I didn't have very good luck with it. In all honestly I can't see using anything more than MX-2. I haven't tried anything that really performs any better. I think don't even Shin Etsu only performed better by a single degree for me. MX-2 and MX-4 also spread very easily and most importantly are super easy to clean up. They are also non-conductive and cheap.
 
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IC7 is more difficult to spread than most pastes. The Shin Etsu x23-7783D outperforms IC7, but is also difficult to spread, and thus I prefer less viscous, EASIER pastes.

MX-2 is great. MX-4 can be great, but it recently suffered a severely botched batch (abysmal performance) - I'd think those are gone by now, but I don't know.

Prolimatech PK1 is great.

The Coollaboratory stuff (the tests refer to the older "Pro" version, which for some reason I thought performed slightly better than the "ultra") probably does perform better than traditional pastes (although some tests show no benefit, some of the more credible individual tester's results I've seen (the most successful of which were done on lapped IHS's with copper exposed) provide evidence to the contrary), but it SHOULDN'T outperform Indigo Xtreme, which I'd think is about as good as it gets. Perhaps I'm wrong, as I've never seen a Head-to-Head comparison between the two. I just doubt it...

Considering that, Here is the most recent SkinneeLabs TIM roundup:

http://skinneelabs.com/2011-tim-results/ - goto page 3 for graphical summaries of performance vs. Contact (as in the quality of contact between surfaces)

At "Great Contact" - PK1 trails Indigo Xtreme just barely, and MX-2 isn't far behind.
At "Moderate Contact" - PK1 again keeps pace, and MX-4 beats out MX-2 this time.

Poor Contact...let's not consider...hopefully your mount and TIM application (I'd suggest "X" method or derivative of "X" method) will be at least average.

In his last roundup, which featured different pastes, x23-7783D was the top traditional paste, and it trailed Indigo Xtreme by a small margin. MX-2 fared well.

Note: He has tested IC7 in the past and was not impressed (check the bottom of the comments section)...After having used MX-2 and similar pastes, I'd question why I should bother with the PITA (I've experienced significant difficulty with these thicker pastes, and it varies tube-to-tube) that is IC7 (or even shin etsu).

Edit: With the CLL:pro, sometimes (not always) one would have to do a light sanding job to remove the paste. I don't believe this is the case with the Ultra, but I've never used or seen the Ultra.

As for Heatsinks: I'd consider the Thermalright Archon (best single-tower cooler available, IMO), and Thermalright Silver Arrow (better than the NH-D14, and quieter fans). The HR-02 seems to be the best heatsink around for nearly silent systems (probably below 800 RPM fans).

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermalright-archon_4.html - These guys think the Archon (dual TY-140 fans) > Silver Arrow > NH-D14; That is just one review, and there is no consensus. I've seen other tests in which the SA > Archon.
 
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Thanks for the replies, both of you. I will definitely stay away from those pastes - especially with PK1 and MX2 being so close to Indigo Extreme. Might as well try PK1 or MX2 instead, or Coolaboratory have also made pads similar to the Indigo Extreme - might also be worth a try. (If you're wondering why I not just get the Indigo Extreme, it's because I can't find a dealer in my country or neighboring contries.)

As for the heatsinks - The silver arrow could definitely be an option (also since it's a bargain on caseking). In most reviews I have seen, they seem to favor the NH-D14, but I think they are roughly equal. The reason I considered the HR-02 was the layout of the heatpipes when mounted in my FT02. At the moment I am leaning towards the black Megahalems, but that is also since I like the looks :p
 
I've used Coollaboratory Pro and Shin etsu and with a lapped Tuniq tower / TRUE120 + Lapped E8400. The Pro was 1-2C cooler, but resulted in no additional headroom for my OC. I also had to relap both parts after every run with it. (also a pain of having to shut the system down after a heat run to remove the cooler to make sure it wouldn't pull the chip off with it / damage the socket.

I also used IC-7 and the stuff was also a giant pain. It does not spread easy, and if you're dealing with 2 lapped surfaces then you also have to relap after every reseat as the stuff scratches copper very very easily (diamond vs copper - who wins).

I've found that proper paste application / sufficient pressure in the cooler mounting / properly mated surfaces outweighs most tim advantages and the easier pastes make these three easier than IC-7 / Coollaboratory.
 
After looking at all the stats on TIM's, I also decided to use MX-2 and just call it a day. The others are so close and MX-2 is safe, easy, and cheap for what you get. Also if you are getting that technical, your going to have to start worrying about all the other little factors that effect temperature also. Your not going with a water or extreme cooling solution so the differences in temps with the TIM are going to hit the "wall of diminishing returns" pretty hard.
 
Yeah, after having made this thread, I took a good look at Skinneelabs TIM roundup, and decided on MX-2 as well.

I cleaned off the heatsink and CPU using 99% isoprypyl alchohol and applied the MX-2 using the "pea-method" after I was sure the alcohol had evaporated entirely. I got a nice performance boost (At least 5-8c on load) compared to the TIM that came with my Asus Triton 88 which I applied then by covering the entire CPU. This time around I was much more careful with cleaning and applying the TIM. Thumbs up for advice given, and MX-2 !
 
Use biostar diamond paste. Its really easy to spread. Has ground diamond powder but I think it is better than IC.
 
Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra isn't all that good after a year of hard use. In fact, it completely hardens / dries. On my X9100 after 9 months I started seeing high temps and after 1 year auto shut downs while crunching. Turns out it was shutting off because it hit the 105 C thermal protection.
Opened it up; thermal compound was as hard as a rock. has to pocket knife blade and sand it down.
So for longevity it sucks.
I wonder if IC Diamond lasts a lot longer. A few degrees difference doesn't matter at all, it's long term longevity because the temperature difference will reverse and widen if it starts to wear out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNgIQQcUSDM
 
Wow, nice job on the 2011 thread.

LP gets hard right away, it will just about solder the HS and CPU together after just a few heat cycles, and I have a had trouble getting them apart, TIM getting hard just means that the vehicle that is used in it has flashed out, and that is not the thermally conductive parts, dried TIM can be just as good as fresh and sometimes better. In your video the dried TIM does not look like LP/LU, it looks more like normal TIM as LP/LU is allot more metallic looking than what it looks like in the video. Also, you tried using anti-seize as a thermal paste....Really?
 
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