Liquid metal gone bad?

sieze2 · 9 Dec 2020 at 08:40

I have a de-lidded 7770k with a Alpenfohn Olymp twin tower cooler. Its using liquid metal (Conductonaut) between the die and heat spreader, and Aeronaut between the cooler and heat spreader. For 2 years or more its been great, but now one core is getting very hot, even after I change the TIM between the cooler and heat spreader (look at those maximum temps!). My question is: has the liquid metal gone bad? Has it moved around? Is that normal? I thought liquid metal lasted a long time. I guess ill have to de-lid it again (which is a pain as I siliconed the heatspeader down at the corners.)

Doug2507 · 9 Dec 2020 at 08:55

If that's what you were / are getting before and after changing TIM I'd certainly be inclined to re apply LM.

sieze2 · 9 Dec 2020 at 09:08

Doug2507 said:
If that's what you were / are getting before and after changing TIM I'd certainly be inclined to re apply LM.

Yup changing the TIM between the cooler and heat spreader has made no difference.

Doug2507 · 9 Dec 2020 at 09:16

Time to delid again then I reckon!

tyler_jrb · 9 Dec 2020 at 15:53

I've had it happen after a period of time, not sure if it soaks into the die/IHS somewhat but my old 9900k needed a re-application after about 1-2 years. The original stuff went pretty dry and as you was getting hot temps on a few cores. Re-applied and much better.

Because of this i haven't delidded anything since, too much faff.