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

Hah! Yes, I did a Google search right after posting (sorry, I know that was the opposite order ...). That thing is a beast... and not too aesthetically pleasing =\

And right, the topic of "thermals" with these new laptops really confused me ... well until it made a lot of sense Definitely a challenge until we get those portable super conductor computers ( with cold fusion batteries =P )

 

Oh the day will come Most of what's in store is already in existence today....the issue with technology is that it's all time released. Very controlled market.

I have a feeling perhaps what we'll be seeing is more of a portable / removable tablet that you just dock to stations....kind of like the MS Surface Book. Imagine that. It would be fun to revisit our discussion when this becomes a reality haha.

 

1

It's funny how the expectations are already there. Engineers and marketing have a challenge to exceed expectations when expectations are pretty high.

I would not have imagined a smart phone back in the 1980's when my high tech portable device was a Sony walkman, and now I'm basically waiting for a gaming laptop that's a very sold thin piece of metal that opens up (maybe like a Yoga) with very high res screen, runs cool all games on max settings of course =P Then we just need our laptops to be a pair of reading glasses with uber high res heads up displays (that can be opaque when needed).

EDIT: Apologies for going off topic on this thread!

 

If you go for Liquid metal.. Go for Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra. A safer choice if you are afraid for leakage. Almost same cooling capacity. I have used both types of Liquid metal. Liquid Pro isn't a choice!!

 

Yes, @hidevolution is actually doing this for me: CLLU on the CPU and ICD on the GPU.

I started to wonder if CLLU was as good as Grizzly Conductonaut, but I see your point about CLLU and maybe that's why HID uses that.

In the above post I was wondering if there is any chance of actual liquid cooling - liquids are so much more efficient at conducting heat than the air.

EDIT: this kind of answers my question:
https://www.quora.com/Are-liquid-cooled-laptops-the-way-of-the-future
Not much excitement about the idea =P

 

One of the
AsusBook's use a water cooling dock. A useless concept if you use your laptop as portable. Rather buy a desktop if you have to be tethered to your desk And yees, not much difference between the variety of Liquid metal.

 

Even worse, that watercooling dock has a limited lifespan because liquid is leaking out a little bit everytime when you connect and disconnect. Asus claims users cannot refill it.

 

Wow, that is bizarre. There has to be a better way...

 

Users probably find a way to refill it ofcourse. But they might used a very specific coolant. Not sure if they use mixed metals. Those AIO Corsair liquid cooling kits for example use a special liquid to prevent the copper from eating the aluminum because both are present in the loop.

 

The whole idea seems flawed to me. It is hard to wrap my brain around high compute power without heat, but maybe fundamental changes in solid state circuitry will lead to cool computing....?

 

Yeah. But I have read that Asus offer that they can refill this monstrosity if needed. What a joke. And what will this cost the owner? Maybe most part of the owners use this castrated junk like a desktop and newer ever disconnect that water dock from the gaming book. Even without any leakage is the concept crippled. Rather make a better internal cooling!!

 

Hi guys!
My temps after applying grizzly conductonaut are around 73 - 78 in gaming, before 80 - 82; Idle 30 - 35 , before 43 - 46. Thanks @iunlock for great post
.

 

Very nice. Would you mind attaching the picture again? It doesn't show up...(it's common on NBR with photo uploads..)

Great stuff!

Edit: Thanks for fixing the picture and it's my pleasure...great temps!

 

What about longevity? How long it last? IC Diamond was a king with more than 1 year with minor difference.

 

I use Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra on my scorching hot OC'd i7-4930Mx(AW17 "Elitist"). No change in the temperature since I applied it early April 2014. I use also Liqid metal on my [email protected] GHz (P870DM BGA-KILLER laptop) with good results. See image Only uneven / warped heatsink breaks down liquid metal. This applies to all thermal paste!!

 

Hmmm. Im still scared a bit about applying it.

 

Any results with Grizzly Conductonaut on 980M?

 

My 980M stays around 65 - 70 celsius, better than before ( 75-80 ) .

 

This might be a silly question, I tried looking here but did not see. Are you guys keeping that electrical tape on the cpu/gpu after? Just making sure!

Also how do you know where on the heatsink to apply the paste so it doesnt overlap?

Thanks all!

 

Some take off, while others let the eletrical tape remain on. You see either marking for proper placement on the heatsink + also where old paste hits the Die.
Remember Liquid metal must be applied on Die and heatsink.

 

i used 3 layers of nail polish above metal contacts, and my machine have been working fine since almost a year when i made the repaste with conductonaut .. i think i was the first person on this forum using conductonaut

 

I would recommend to leave the electrical tape on as an insurance policy, just in case. Nothing to lose, everything to gain in the unlikely event of leakage.

::iunlock::

 

Thanks! I just tried looking for that thermal tape and am having a tricky time finding the right stuff. Does anyone have a link?

 

Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Elect...8&qid=1477910781&sr=8-2&keywords=3m+super+33+

 

Thanks.. Sorry I was not clear but I was meaning the actual thermal pads.. Also some people were saying pieces are 0.5mm thick and other 1mm thick. Do we just double up on those spots?

 

NP. Here is the link to the pads. You will be using 1.0mm all around and it'll work fine. I've already checked the clearance.

https://www.amazon.com/Fujipoly-mod...qid=1477911251&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=fujiploy

 

Thanks again for the help. Crap it looks like its not available in Canada Would you recommend something else close enough?

 

msu

Hmm...not sure then. You might want to check other sites and also...If you can find Fujipoly 14.0 or even 11.0, just get those will work just fine.

 

Will do. I did find some on eBay, but its about $60 :S Looks like only cheap stuff is easily available here. I may just have to bite the bullet and get this expensive one and just do it.

Sorry for the 100 questions but what volume (grams) of the paste did you get?

 

1.0 Gram is plenty and more than enough, but buying 5.0 grams can be cheaper in the long run depending on if you plan to be repasting something else in the near future.

 

Thanks yet again. Man this stuff is pretty hard to get here also. This country sucks for things like this

Sorry, one LAST question I promise. Are you sure about the 1mm thickness? Your OP says 0.5mm so I just want to make 100% sure.

Did you measure the temps using the stock thermal paste/pads? I am curious how much of a change there was between the two. I am not sure I saw it in your OP.

 

that's not the 17W/mk or the pictures are wrong. Also afaik the 17W/mk comes in 0.5 or 0.25mm thickness and less only and the thicker the less the value. i.e like 1.mm should be around 4-5W/mk to give you an idea. Also the 17W/mk should be flakey and brittle, but there is hundreds of vendors out there selling cheap alternatives as the real stuff and no one seems to notice because they didn't know what to expect and were misusing the pads anyways. Go ahead and spend the money, if in the end it made you feel better for no better result.

You can use 3M pads as well or whatever you want. You could just use a thermal paste even, or silicon grease. We're talking about cooling components that don;t need very good cooling. The only reason to apply thermal pads like Fujipoly' 17k/mk is to have a ultra thin liquid like thickness spread very evenly over a very flat surface that will have unilateral pressure applied to it. It's a waste really. If you want to use it on components, you;d be better off with copper shims which have 500W/mk+ and then CLU and if your going that far - might as well grind away the coating on the components too since most of the outshell on components is nothing more then a physical insulator with HORRIBLE heattransfer ratings, and they have at least a 0.5 thickness - so you'd actually triple thier heat conductivity if you could do that, and find some happy medium between electrically conductive and insulated but worn out thin.

 

http://www.fujipoly.com/usa/product...roducts/high-performance-gap-filler/xr-m.html

It goes up to 2mm thick for their 17w/mk pads. Also it should not be flakey at all. From what it is made from it should be somewhat sticky and conform to whatever it will be pressed against.

 

Yes. You can use 1.0mm all around. I've already tested the clearance with my thermal pads that I have in stock...so I took 1.0mm pads and placed them where the 0.5mm's are and it actually worked better.

Those stock 0.5mm pads are actually too thin....

 

Longevity wise it trumps everything that I used before (MX-04, STG-02, Gelid Extreme, Kryonut & IC Diamond)

Speaking of Liquid Ultra not Conductonut though

 

So, did you leave the tape on? Not going to melt in worst case scenario?

 

a 105C + thermal rated insulation tape won't melt as in worst case scenario like fan failure your CPU core will throttle or thermal shutdown or whatever at 100C. a normal 85C rated tape is a different story.

 

The 17W/mk at 2mm ? It might be a mistake. Because that would be like.... 10x better thermals then CLU . I think the picture they show might be wrong. It wouldn't be so malleable. When we tested pads and compared, Fujipoly didn't hold up to other companies. Their best product was 4W/mk or something at 1mm, which was roughly the same as taking thier 17W/mk and folding it twice thus quadrupling it's resistance to heat.

The squishy thermal pads they make are not as great as people are advertising, otherwise we'd be using ultra thin versions of thier pads on all semi conductors and CPU everywhere. Think about - why use 7W/mk at 0.5mm thickness ICD7 thermal paste when you can have 17W/mk at 4 x that thickness i.e 2mm which would be something close to... 65-70W/mk. Would basically be almost as good as silver. It would be something NASA uses for crying out loud.

My point is, even CLU becomes more resistant the thicker it gets. The reason why it's so great is because it's liquid it can become thinner, while at the same time, not electrically conducting too much. This is why butter works as a good thermal paste compared to a bad thermal paste job. Your pretty much guaranteed even results all the time, whereas if you make a thermal paste or thermal pads too thick, your essentially isolating instead.

 

I've ordered from Amazon before, many times and although the picture shows a white pad, the actual pads you do receive are grey. 17.0's are a bit more brittle for sure, but that doesn't change the thermal conductivity numbers. Yes, there are a lot of cheapo knock offs out there, but I don't see how that fits into the equation here when we're specifically talking Fujipoly pads.

You also seem to think that there are no benefits to repadding, which is wrong. Tell me then how the PCH temp decreases by a respectable amount if these thermal pads are not working properly? See what I mean? It's pretty obvious that something is working. I'm pretty OCD about gathering data with the things that I test and trust me, if they didn't work I would not be recommending them, let alone waste my money on them.

Mistake? How so? I think you're forgetting the fact that a liquid metal is in a more dense and solid state as oppose to a thermal pad, which is not as dense; therefore, you can't compare apples to apples of two different things that are in two different states in form. Take water and sound for example. Based on what you're claiming, sound can travel the same through air than under water?

A 2mm thermal pad with a thermal conductivity of 17.0 is not 10x better thermals than CLU and that's why NASA doesn't use it LOL...it's a joke.

The bottom line is...anything is better than the stock dell toilet paper thermal pads...wet some tissue or toilet paper and use that instead, while making sure to buy the better brand when it's on sale because they work better.

 

@iunlock, thank you for the guide. I just repasted my Alienware 15 R2 from MX-4 to Conductonaut. The temps have dropped a significant amount. Max temps in the 80's to 90's for the CPU in Firestrike before. Now they're maxing in the upper 60's. You rock!

 

Very nice! Great to hear...there's nothing like cruising at 60's....

Liquid Magic.

 

I will say, it was a stress putting it on and I'm hoping I didn't put too much and have future issues. I did tape like you did just in case though. I'll keep an update for how it is in the future.

 

Sounds like a plan. Looking forward to it. Yea the tape is a must...it's a free insurance policy in case of any leakage. If you put the right amount, the liquid metal stays put pretty well.

I've opened up many laptops after a LM repaste and can confirm for sure, with the right amount applied, it'll stay put.

 

@iunlock When you posted your idle temps with conductonaut was that with stock fan profiles or did you turn the fans on higher? Also, I noticed that while the CPU temp has dropped a lot my GPU temp is pretty similar to before for idle and load. The thickness of the paste I put on the GPU was similar to the amount on the CPU. Could it be heatsink pressure or the chip itself? Would a small amount too much paste affect the temperature much?

 

I replaced about 9 months old Arctic Cooler MX4 with Conductonaut here are my results. My laptop is Acer vn7-792g, i7-6700hq gt960m 2GB, 32GB ram, stock fan curve. I did some Internet browsing while I run tests.

Idle

MX4


Conductonaut


Kombustor furry donut

MX4


Conductonaut


Kombustor cpu burner 8 threads

MX4


Conductonaut


Cpu burner + furry donut

MX4


Conductonaut


MX4 was a good improvement over stock paste and retained about the same thermals as fresh, but Conductonaut was just plain better. In game use I cant stress my system enough to reach over 80C in games, mostly it stays around 75C. Whereas with MX4 CPU reached 95C and stayed around 85-90C.

Now I have another problem, while in game my battery discharges at rate of 5-10W, apparently manufacturer didn't expect continuously turbo boosting CPU.

 

I've been reading this post and wanted to ask those with experience 3 questions.

1) What is the consensus on the longevity of Conductonaut. I keep reading about people saying they're going back to LCCU because Conductonaut stops after a few weeks or a couple of months. I'd like a repaste to last a year at least if not more.
2) My understanding of liquid metals is that they are, well... liquid. So will it be an issue to use on a laptop that might be tilted for an extended period of time? Sometimes I lay on my couch and the laptop base is at a 60 degree angle while running a game. I wouldn't want the Conductonaut to spill into things it will ruin.
3) Electrical tape vs kapton tape?

I just ordered an Aorus x7 v6. Looking for disassembly videos on this slim form machine. I will do stock tests but from my research it seems people are hitting 90 or higher on CPU tests with the 6820hk OCd to 4ghz. That's not cool.

 

If applied properly and conservatively, there will be no spillage or anything to worry about in that regard. Liquid metal thermal compounds last up to 12 months (from my experience). If you're a heavy gamer and expect to play multiple hours per day, you should re-paste more than once per year. I always re-paste every year on gaming rigs, and every 12-18 months on other systems.

The benefit of liquid metal over ICD (paste) is about 3C (on average). Some people report up to 10C difference but I've never experienced that. If you're not comfortable with using the liquid metal compounds, then just grab a tube of IC Diamond and be on your way. It's the most durable paste I've used and always last about a year before needing replaced.

The key is the method of application. You can do a crappy job on either and still have horrible temperatures.

 

Thanks for the reply. I have been watching videos on this application and the 2 things I notice are:
1. People are cleaning the crap out of the old ones. I read the CLLU tech sheet and it explained how old paste insulates and works against liquid more than if you were replacing with a new paste.
2. People are painting the die entirely, and the heatsink almost entirely where it touches.

I'm not new to repasting, but I have only ever done it to keep things cool, not to extend the OC overhead room.
The new laptop seems to have no issues with a slight factory OC on the GPU, keeping it sub 80s. But the 95 degree stress tests on the CPU is the reason I want to do this. It seems that liquid will go a lot further than ICD or any other paste on the CPU. My question is, do I need to be careful to paint the entire CPU die? or is it true that the majority of the heat is in the middle of the die?

 

You need to paint the whole die!! As well the heatsink copper who touch the die!!

 

Has anyone ever used Tuniq TX-4? It's better than ICD (imo) for low pressure contact, is 6.5W/Mk and non-abrasive/conductive. I have had really great results in my old M17x R2 that had poor contact due to low pressure.

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