It came from ebay: Liquid Gallium Cooling

I have had my eye on this for the last 4 weeks. Its a shame the guy hasn't dropped the price on it yet. The pumps on it are MHD and after reading some studies on them I am not sure they move the alloy with enough volume. The alloy is about 6 times better than water per volume, however I don't think the pumps move it near quick enough to compete.
 
techPowerUp! said:
As a metal, the liquid is both highly thermally conductive and highly electrically conductive.
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God help your mobo if there are any leaks. Other than that, this looks pretty sweet.
 
KingThot said:
It doesn't seem too bad to me considering high end WC systems can easily approach $200.
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Checkup the price on liquid gallium....

gallium is 220$ / 100g


Gallium has 7 times more heat-taking-away ability than water.
Gallium — Specific Heat Capacity: 370 J/(kg·K)
Water — Specific Heat Capacity: ~74 J/(kg·K)
 
Adrenaline said:
I have had my eye on this for the last 4 weeks. Its a shame the guy hasn't dropped the price on it yet. The pumps on it are MHD and after reading some studies on them I am not sure they move the alloy with enough volume. The alloy is about 6 times better than water per volume, however I don't think the pumps move it near quick enough to compete.
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I've emailed buyers with lower offers. Sometimes they accept.
 
My friend got ahold of an ES Dell server with 2 liquid gallium coolers on the processors. It looks like it uses magnets to move the liquid through the loops, neat stuff.
 
ChronicTrees said:
My friend got ahold of an ES Dell server with 2 liquid gallium coolers on the processors. It looks like it uses magnets to move the liquid through the loops, neat stuff.
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Yes you can google MHD or Magnetohydrodynamics and is a good visual of the Lorentz force or Fleming's left hand rule.
 
The metal used is not pure gallium.

It's an alloy called 'Galinstan' . It is 68.5 % Gallium , 21.5 % Indium and 10% tin.It melts at ~ -19c.

The company that made these units , Nanocoolers does not build them anymore.Now , I've heard two reasons for this : patent disputes and or technical issues.I cannot speak to the patent stuff , but I do know the technical bits.

Galinstan , like nearly every liquid metal , is a really good solvent for,well,metals.If you think you've seen corrosion in a waterblock , you havnt seen anything.Galinstan will dissolve aluminum like it's not there.Copper , forget it.Galinstan is such an agressive metal it will even attack Platinum.....And this of course ruins the properties of the galinstan.

This makes blocks and rads rather difficult at best....certain refractory metals may be capable of resisting galinstan , but i'd hate to think what a Tungsten or Molybdenum block/rad would cost.

This also makes the em pumps ( the MHD pump) have a limited lifetime , for the same reason , the electrodes dissolve.

:cool:
 
Yeah, ever seen what the coolaboratory Liquid Pro TIM does to a piece of aluminum?

I have... Just for fun. Man it was awesome.
 
Arcygenical said:
Yeah, ever seen what the coolaboratory Liquid Pro TIM does to a piece of aluminum?

I have... Just for fun. Man it was awesome.
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You should see what it does to copper, it stains it :(
 
yep.It eats aluminum quite well :D

Personally , I would never use that coolabs TIM.....It'll do more than stain copper , it seems like a really good way of completely ruining the flatness of a heatsink.Every time you apply it , it'll amalgamate more of the copper.

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Galinstan is used commercially as a mercury replacement in thermometers.One of the other issues when using it , is that unlike mercury , it is capable of 'wetting' the materials it comes in contact with....this adds to friction etc....

The one method I've heard of to prevent both corrosion and wetting , is to coat the materials with gallium oxide.I'm not sure how easy this is though.

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I am quite curious why the seller on ebay is getting rid of ' 5 used liquid metal coolers'....Nasty accident with #6 ? hehe :p
 
I've been playing with an ingot of gallium for some time now. It is great stuff, but as it starts off as a solid at room temp you'll not get much out of it (also, like water, the solid is less dense than the liquid, so you'll rupture your cooling lines when it freezes).

Galinstan is the way forward, but the dissolving of metals is a big problem. Your best bet is a ceramic block, with large-bore PTFE pipework. You'll need a powerful pump too, though I'd suggest a peristaltic pump like they use on kidney dialysis machines - much easier to handle. You probably wouldn't need a particularly high flow rate. You would need very strong seals on each joint though.

Don't do what I did though and accidentally get it on your skin - it stains you grey. Not particularly toxic though.
 
mungbean said:
I've been playing with an ingot of gallium for some time now. It is great stuff, but as it starts off as a solid at room temp you'll not get much out of it (also, like water, the solid is less dense than the liquid, so you'll rupture your cooling lines when it freezes).

Galinstan is the way forward, but the dissolving of metals is a big problem. Your best bet is a ceramic block, with large-bore PTFE pipework. You'll need a powerful pump too, though I'd suggest a peristaltic pump like they use on kidney dialysis machines - much easier to handle. You probably wouldn't need a particularly high flow rate. You would need very strong seals on each joint though.

Don't do what I did though and accidentally get it on your skin - it stains you grey. Not particularly toxic though.
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Where'd you get your gallium ingot :eek:

WANT
 
Hmm... Just how much is 5g of Gallium?

I'm imaging like... a quarter of it hahaha. Or about 1 square cm at room temperature (as this IS it's density)...

50$...

:eek:

Beware - you must think ahead when moving these magnets.
If carrying one into another room, carefully plan the route you will be taking. Computers & monitors will be affected in an entire room. Loose metallic objects and other magnets may become airborne and fly considerable distances - and at great speed - to attach themselves to this magnet.
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:eek:
 
Arcygenical said:
Quote:
Beware - you must think ahead when moving these magnets.
If carrying one into another room, carefully plan the route you will be taking. Computers & monitors will be affected in an entire room. Loose metallic objects and other magnets may become airborne and fly considerable distances - and at great speed - to attach themselves to this magnet.
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Where did you get this quote from? Is it true? Or just a joke:p
 
Vlad_13 said:
Where did you get this quote from? Is it true? Or just a joke:p
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From the magnets page at United nuclear...

They've got a supermagnet about 2"x3"x2"... An N45 too. 2 of those coming together can crack your forearm.

We can only ship these magnets by ground UPS - they cannot be shipped via air as it will interfere with the aircraft's navigational equipment.
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:D
 
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