[Liquid Metal Showdown] Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut vs Cool Laboratory Liquid Ultra / Pro

Mr. Fox did a quick comparison video here:

 

wPrime Scores:




Temps hovered nicely in the mid 60's during the 1024M runs and in the mid 50's during the short run....impressive....

 

I remember watching that....thanks.

It's there in the OP

 

@iunlock I read that you had weird temps with CLU on one specific core...I'm exhibiting the same behavior...3 cores being at 65 degC under load and once core up on the 71 range. Did conductonaut resolve this temp discrepancy?

 

Is it your Core #0? Interestingly enough when I had opened it up again for the Conductonaut repaste, the paste (CLLU) looked strange on one of the corners, even discolored. In the middle of the die there seemed to be a bald spot, possibly from removing the heat sink, but I've never seen anything like that before. It kind of looked burnt...

I can't say for sure what the issue might have been, now with you experiencing the same thing making it even more strange, however, I have a feeling that it has to do with the viscosity of the paste. I've read folks experiencing seeing a strange consistency of CLLU where it looked like the 'ingredients' had separated...who knows...

The thing is I've used CLLU for years and never had an issue with it. The only thing I can think of that applies to my situation (possibly yours too) is that my tube of CLLU had been sitting around for a while so it's possible that some kind of separation had occurred and I just got the unmixed end of the paste...eh I don't know, but it's possible.

Usually when I had repasted my desktops with CLLU, I use up the whole tube because I repaste everything all at the same time as in my buddies computers, my other desktops in the house, office deaktop and my cat.

The tube that I used for my AW repaste had been sitting for about 6 months...bad batch/mixture?

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Yes to all of the above. Core 0 weird temps being higher than all the others, weird consistency/lumpy looking. It worked better than conventional paste, but if the conductonaut is of better consistency and fixed the core 0 temp issue I will switch without a doubt. I have no allegiances lol

 

I agree. It's strange one way or another of having multiple cases of the same issue. As mentioned, there are known issues of having had batches of CLLU.

I would give Conductonaut a shot. I haven't been this happy in a long time about a thermal paste.

 

but is it consistent across all 4 cores? That's my main problem here, core 1,2,3 are good, but core 0 is always high.

 

Yes, it is extremely consistent. In fact, my Core #0 isn't even the hottest. The core temps are very even...

 

Excellent, I will be purchasing a tube shortly and applying across the 2920XM, 3920XM, and 4940MX. The temps are already very good with CLU, but the overall temp is always jacked up because of core 0...hoping that goes away.

 

I repasted again. Upon removing the heatsink I noticed a clump of the paste near the middle of the die. The rest of the paste remained flat. After repasting, I ran another 10 minute run of P95 with the 920xm overclocked and got the similar results (give or take a degree or two).

Also, instead of electrical tape I chose to use Kapton tape. It's that clear amber colored tape used on motherboards and sometimes around silicon dies for insulating components. It's cheap, has high heat resistance, and doesn't leave sticky residue like electrical tape can.

 

For what it's worth....I mean for a CPU (6820HK) with a TDP of 45W vs the desktop 6700K at 91W....just saying....

I'm happy to have this in a laptop...

 

If you're extremely OCD about temps, get a graphics amp. By disabling your internal gpu, your cpu temps drop tremendously.

 

intel GPU already disabled.

 

Definitely planning on it, however, I'm also waiting for the Pascal equipped laptops...the GPU temps in my AW now are excellent (52-57C), therefore a GA for me would be more for work flow than gaming.

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Actually what I meant was if you hook up a graphics amp with a card in it to your laptop, your dedicated card (970m/980m) gets disabled completely and therefore your cpu has much more room for cooling. CPU temps dropped about 20C when I had an active amp hooked up. (that was just an estimate, don't have exact numbers)

 

It would have been nice if the cpu and gpu had its own individual cooling as oppose to a shared heat pipe.

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There is no IGPU when running PEG graphics....alienware m18x r1, r2, and Alienware 18 do not use graphics amp BS. The intel GPU is completely disabled.

exactly this. what a retarded design flaw. Just shows Alienware gone cheap like the rest of the laptop manufacturers. dGPUs, especially big boy chips, need their own separate heatsink and fan.

 

Oh the 18s, yea I'm not familiar with those. Was mainly aiming at iunlock since they're trying to get temps as low as possible. So outside of pasting, GA would work. And if you're even more OCD can buy a hybrid version that comes with a AIO watercool unit preattached for super low temps on cpu and gpu. And the cost is kind of skyrocketing at this point.

 

About to take a saw to it and cut the heat sink/pipe in half lol...jk...

Actually....haha nm. I'm OCD, but not crazy ...

But in theory if it were to be separated.......hmm. ...

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That is really good! My old 3840QM can only come within 95% of a 6700k at 4.3Ghz drawing like 72w lol Go skylake!

 

Good times with the gas guzzling V6 and V8 big blocks...Now with the Skylake we're sipping gas on a Turbo i4....Gosh it feels so much like that eh?

 

Hey I appreciate your review and time spent taking pictures. Thanks for the thread!

Yeah Skylake is wonderful!

 

It's my pleasure mate. Hope that it's helpful for those who are seeking...

Cheers to the community. Happy repasting.

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iunlock,
Awesome thread! Great job
I've purchased Condactonaut for my 13R2. Seems your experience will be very helpful for me.

 

Very welcome. Looking forward to your results! Keep us posted...

Cheers

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What thickness thermal pad did you use for the heatsink?

 

0.5mm

I got the two Fujiploy pads (11 W/mK) in 4x1 inch which was perfect for the sizes that I need to cut out.

 

Update:

I've been gaming for the past 3 hours non stop and the temps are holding strong...just thought I'd report:

OC: 3.8GHz on all four cores.
CPU: High 50's to Low 60's
GPU: 58C (Just rock solid...)

 

It both has plus sides and bad sides.

Individual heatsinks prevent that one piece of hardware affects the others cooling. But in limited space you can combine the heat distribution , the CPU is hardly ever 100% stressed while gaming so instead of just having 1 heatsink to its disposal it has more.

 

I ordered a tube of conductonaut, it will go on the 4940MX first since it is the hottest. I hope the tube has enough for 3 applications (4940MX, 3920XM, 2920XM)

 

This is also means it can unnecessarily heat up the CPU, which may impact it's ability to hold up turbo clocks. Somebody using an emluator + increased internal resolution tendering (think FHD-UHD range instead of original 640x480), puts a lot of load on both the CPU and GPU. It won't run well if there is no thermal headroom left. When maxing both CPU + GPU, dedicated heatsinks tend to work better.

At least the Alienware heatsinks aren't as bad as the Razer heatsinks...

 

THat woul dbe the case if they weren't sufficient. But the temps around 60~70c here are great temps for these laptops I think.

 

Great point.

 

True as well, however, the heat will be dissipated and has two exit points, which brings balance to the overall distribution and elimination of the heat.

If there was no cooling or fans at all, then yes the higher temps of either the CPU or GPU would have an effect on the heatsinks total temp, as it would even out due to the natural law of heat / thermal conductivity.

However, since there are two escape points where the heat can exit, the CPU or GPU would never get a chance to hit the maximum heat absorption, equal to that of the highest heat source. Whatever that may be...the CPU or GPU...

I'm pretty user AW could have easily went the individual heat sink route, if it was absolutely necessary.

 

Any tips for applying conductonaut over CLU?

 

CoolLabarotary Liquid Ultra

 

Yes, the black cotton Q-tips that comes with the kit are very good as it is much tighter spun than the regular Q-Tips, so you don't have to worry about the cotton fibers getting all mixed up in the liquid pool of goodness. (I used to be against using the cheap Q-Tips that came in some of the CLLP kits...just rubbish...but I feel good about the ones that come in the Grizzly Conductonaut kit and do recommend them. In fact, this is the first time that I've ever used a Q-Tip to spread the magic. That should say a lot as I'm very OCD.)

When applying, try to use only one side of the Q-Tip and work from the center out in one direction.

Make sure the layer of the liquid metal is even across the die.

Remember, due to our heat sinks not sitting as flush as it should, you'll have to use a little more than normal, however, this doesn't mean to create a puddle. It should look like a nice smooth thin layer. (See attached pic)

I'd highly recommend taping around the CPU and especially the GPU as shown in the OP.

Here's what the GPU looked like after my application. (Note: Due to the lightening it makes it look a little funky, but from the naked eye, it's a real nice smooth layer of metal...)


The only reason I taped around the CPU is because in the unlikely event of an emergency....jk...airplane talk haha....but, in case the liquid metal did somehow get on the PCB, I didn't want it to stain it. That's why I just put a small buffer area as a safety net...


Come to think of it, the airplane analogy is exactly how I feel about using liquid metal. (I feel safe flying and it is safer to fly than to drive a car. Statistically.) The likely hood of the stuff oozing out of the sides, which has never happened to me in all my years of using CLLP and CLLU is small...I'll take my chances. So think of it as flying...you're pretty darn safe.

 

Nice temps! Liquid Metal is the way to go...

Cheers

 

About the conductonaut over clu, ok for the qtips, but did you thoroughly remove clu?

E.g did you remove it with ipa, did you use sandpaper to gently remove the impregnated part...

Or can you just put grizzly over it, if it is the same kind of chemical (gallium arsenide)?

 

Absolutely. I've thoroughly cleaned it off the die and the heat sink and used a grey scrubber pad that came with my CLLU kit to buff off as much CLLU on the heat sink as I could as shown in the 4th picture on the OP:



Tips on removing CLLU:

1. Tape around the CPU and GPU with painters tape or any tape that won't be a pain to peel off, to protect the surrounding area. It's worth it...because an OOPS of getting CLLU on your mobo is not an OOPS you may be able to live with...it's a mess you do not want to even deal with, let alone suffer if it gets smeared on a transistor...

2. Use a plastic card / business card or the side of a wooden tooth pick to scrap as much CLLU off as you can so that you're not smearing this stuff around even more. Take your time...

3. Use a coffee filter (because it's lint free) and spray some rubbing alcohol onto the filter and start wiping the CLLU off the die and the heat sink. Try not to spread the CLLU, instead wipe it in one direction until you get it off. The CLLU will come off easily on the die...(If you have the Arctic Cleaning solutions #1 and #2, you can put a drop or two on the die and spread it around with a wooden tooth pick so that it covers the entire surface. Let it soak while you work on the heat sink...after you wipe off the formula #1, drop some #2 on there to polish it off....repeat as needed.)

4. As for the heat sink, same thing...after carefully scraping off as much CLLU as you can, you can drop some rubbing alcohol on there and spread it around the heat sink with the side of a wooden tooth pick, let it soak for a minute, then gently wipe it off. Repeat this over and over again until you can't get any more off and the coffee filter you are wiping it off with is clean. If there is grey still coming off you'll need to clean some more....

5. Next, if you have the grey scrubber pad that came with the CLLU kit handy, use that to buff out the heat sink in small light circular motions. (ONLY BUFF THE HEAT SINK. DO NO SCRUB THE DIE.)

6. After buffing it out, it should look like the picture above. Yes there will still be a little stain, but that is okay. Just make sure when you wipe it off again with a coffee filter w/ rubbing alcohol, that it wipes off clean without leaving the coffee filter grey...if the coffee filter is still grey, that means (well to me at least) that it's worth buffing it some more to get off the baked layer of old CLLU. (Note: Try not to confuse the stain to a layer of old CLLU. It's okay to have a slight stain as you can see in the pic.)

7. Leave the tape on around the heat sink and after you've applied the liquid metal on the CPU and GPU, use the same Q-Tip to brush / literally paint on a thin layer on the heat sink with the excess that is left on the Q-Tip. (See pic below)

8. Of course before you put the heat sink back on, make sure that the screws are aligned and tighten the screws down according to the numbered order.



Hope this helps! Good luck! Looking forward to hearing back...

 

What thermal pads did you use? Don't know which to buy.
Thanks

 

fujipoly 17w/mk

expensive, but I think it's worth it for thermal sensitive applications such as this

 

@iunlock
Thanks You for sharing such clean and nice pics along with guide.. i just got my 15 R2 after a long fight with Dell, got rid of throtling R1, temps on new R2 stock past reaches 88c on intense stress test, i bought a ICD 7, im using it on my desk rig, i know its no where near those Liquid type ones, but this is the only paste available here apart from Artic and Cooler Master ones.. I might repaste my R2 soon..

 

My pleasure and I'm glad you've found it useful.

Bravo on scoring the R2! ICD7 will work just fine. Anything, literally anything is better than the stock recycled chewed bubble gum that is on there now.

Tip: Apply a little more thermal paste than you normally would on a desktop. The heat sinks on laptops are known to not sit flush like we think it does so being a little more generous with the amount of paste will do you justice in this situation to ensure that every gap, wide or thin are filled. The worst thing is noticing one of your cores temp way out on left field after you've assembled everything back together, because it doesn't have enough paste on it.

 

I'll update the OP, but here's a little advice as well when removing the Mobo.

Start with inserting the right side of it first (USB C side) and make sure the PCB is under that little clip that you see in the picture. This will save a lot of unnecessary bending of the Mobo. Once you have the right side nice and clipped in, the rest will fall into place with ease.

 

OP will be updated as well...

Here are the BEFORE and AFTER temps after running wPrime v1.55 on both of my 17R3's.

As you can see the package temp for example is a difference of 21C.

BEFORE: (Stock Paste)


AFTER: (Grizzly Conductonaut)

 

Hey iunlock. I have ordered much of what is needed but i cannot find Fujipoly 17.0 mK/w on ebay or amazon. Only 14 or 11 mK/w? what does this reference to? Also what was the thickness of the pads your bought?

Many thanks

 

Hmm that's strange, I see it on amazon on my end. The thickness you want is 0.5mm for the VRM's. Also the 14 mK/w will work just fine as well. I've used those before.

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A couple quick questions so I can compare my results with Gelid Extreme paste.

1) Are using a laptop cooling pad?
2) In prime95 are you running Blend FFTs test?
3) Roughly what is your ambient room temp?
4) Is that 90c max temp or average temp? I like to use HWINFO64 because it will give you current, min, max, and average with the ability to reset all data measurements with the click of a button.

After I repasted my CPU and GPU I honestly didn't see a big drop for temps maybe 3-5c on CPU and around the same on GPU. Repasted with Gelid Extreme. I am undervolting my cpu by -40mv and still temps will spike to 81c when playing witcher 3 with average of 69c. Voltage average around 1.195v when playing witcher 3. GPU usually around 66c average.