Liquid metal is not all its cracked out to be!

that's exactly what I did with my 8600k,used one of those green scourers for a few seconds then ultra thin LM layers on both die and IHS,couldnt be more happy.
 
Have you tried using liquid metal under the original IHS? It's possible it's a decent fit for that particular die top. Worth a try.

I'd consider lapping the silicon at this stage for sure, assuming it's only one or two thousandths of an inch.
 
W
fastboy said:
helps the LM stick better and a rougher surface has more surface area,
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Is this for sure going to increase the conduction of heat from the die to the cold plate, though? Normally, you want both areas to be as smooth as possible for traditional dielectric thermal paste and there is probably a good reason for that.
 
mikegold10 said:
Is this for sure going to increase the conduction of heat from the die to the cold plate, though? Normally, you want both areas to be as smooth as possible for traditional dielectric thermal paste and there is probably a good reason for that.
Click to expand...

Thermal paste is much worse than either metal part its between so you want the minimum possible.

The problem with liquid metal is it is a good conductor but rubbish at wetting surfaces so when you buy it, it often comes with a little scouring pad to rough up both surfaces.

You still use a tiny amount of liquid metal. The slightly roughed surfaces help you do this instead of having to use excessive amounts due to it preferring to stay in a blob rather than wet a surface which is too smooth.
 
What Hotwire said. The more metal to metal contact the better. Reason to use TIM is to fill microscopic voids in metals'microscopic crystalline structure between surfaces where there is making direct metal to metal contact.
We do not want a layer of TIM. Air transfers heat at about 0.024 W/m K.
Normal TIMs transfer heat at 3.0-12 W/m k.
Liquid metal (gallium) TIMS are up to about 70 W/m k.
Aluminum transfers heat at 200 W/m k and copper transfers heat at 400 W/m k.

But keep in mind TIM testing of liquid metal (gallium) TIMs and normal top tier TIM with a good seat/print show galium TIMs to have a temperature spread of 0.4-1.83c lower temps than normal top tier TIMs, and the next 31 normal TIMs are from 0.47c to 1.35c warmer. So how much is it worth to get 1-3c lower temps after possibly having to re-mount multiple times to get a good seat? Is it worth paying several times more for liquid metal and having all the hassles it involves to lower your CPU from 70c to 68c? To me it is not worth it. I just make sure the airflow into coolers is less than 3c warmer than room air. I would venture to guess 70-80% of systems have air that is 7-10c warmer going into their coolers after a few minutes of high load on CPU and GPU .. and every degree cooler the airflow into cooler is translates into almost exactly the same degree cooler component will be. So if CPU is 75c and we lower the airflow temp for 10c above room air temp to 3c above room air temp the CPU will be 67-68c. And optimizing case airflow almost always lowers system noise levels as well. ;)

Scuffing the surface a little allows liquid metal TIM to adhere to surface better instead of slipping off.
 
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