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If you're testing using different materials, cheaper materials, better materials or what have you it doesn't really matter as long as SOME of the variables remain constants. You have valid points that people should consider, personally, I'm going to squeeze every bit of performance out. Sometimes it's high risk/high reward, sometimes it's high risk/little reward. There are risks and there are rewards, it's nothing new in the world. If it were a $1,000+ processor then I would be more hesitant. Worst comes to worst, those of us that do it and have a disaster have to buy another processor, it's not the end of the world. You mentioned some of the risks that many of us are willing to take. That would be carelessness and not erring on the side of caution when applying the material but you can argue that if you'd like. If you GLOB too much paste of any sort on the coolers pressure is going to cause problems, that's a given. So the rundown of your options are: use a cheap silicone paste for roughly the same performance (+/- 1-2C), or invest in $15-$20 worth of liquid metal, some kapton tape or liquid electrical tape, ruin the resale value of your copper heatsinks by staining the surface with a silver/gray color, and run the risk of damaging hardware for that extra 1-2C difference in thermals. Sure, you can cover contacts with kapton tape or liquid electrical tape, but good luck doing either of that for your motherboards pins. Not only that, but even cleaning LM can be risky if you accidentally smear it into a contact or pin. When you place it on your IHS, in between the IHS and heatsink, you run the risk of your coolers mounting pressure forcing the liquid metal out of the sides of the CPU. A $10 tube of Gelid lasts me several applications, and performs nearly identical to liquid metal in regards to IHS->Heatsink.Īlso, being careless has very little to do with it. I swap coolers quite often when swapping out CPU's and coolers for various tests, and spending $15-$20 a tube per swap, that adds up.
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Especially once you factor in maintenance. While 1-2C difference is worth it to you, it's certainly not worth it for me. Given how large IHS's are, that's certainly a very expensive paste application for 1-2C at best. Gallium bonds best with itself, so you will need a thin layer on both the IHS AND your heatsink. $20 a tube is expensive when you are using nearly all of it to spread over top of your IHS. Everything is a potential disaster, depends on how careless you are though. $20.00 is expensive? A drop in 1-2 degrees is definitely worth it if you're already in the process.