cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Is it worth it to re-paste Thermal Paste to Liquid Metal ?

moses0101
Level 7
So I came across from the internet other day, like you guys usually do
I found there's people doing stuff like "re-pasting the Thermal Paste into Liquid Metal" , and it works very well for cooling the laptops CPU and GPU.
So just wanna to ask is it worth it ?

Reason for asking this is because I just bought a new laptop for like 2 weeks. The CPU/GPU usually when I playing video games goes up to 78~92 Celsius WITH full fan speed.
That is not a problem for being high temperature... just I'm not satisfied with that. Result for Liquid Metal Thermal Paste is very good, i mean.... the temperature can go down for up to 20 Celsius.

And here's the problem
The laptop is new .. if i open it up, will it avoid warranty ? and I'm also scared if the liquid metal will broke my thing if i use it for a long term.

Another reason for why I'm thinking for doing this..
- I'm using a RTX2060 laptop
- after researching I found that rtx2060 will perform literally same with gtx1070ti
- but the result in benchmarking , I lost to a desktop gtx1060 (compared with my friend)
- I want it to perform AT LEASE like a desktop normal gtx1070

Hope u guys give me a suggestion whether is it worth it doing re-pasting and why... Thanks 😄
12,395 Views
4 REPLIES 4

Arne_Saknussemm
Level 40
First up I'd say make sure you are comparing like with like on the benchmark front...various things can affect results.

Assuming you do that and find it's thermals limiting you then sure, consider changing the thermal paste. The stuff on there wont be top quality no doubt.
Maybe try a high quality traditional thermal paste first?

As always, only attempt this if you are confident in your tinkering skills. If you regularly drop stuff and fall out of open windows get someone else handy to do it...

Warranty might be affected...depends a bit where you are in the world. If a tech opens up the laptop one day and sees liquid metal and staining from it...he might have grounds for calling it a day. If he opens it up and there's a thin layer of PK-1...he's not going to know anything about it.

Make sure it's copper heat-sinks all round with liquid metal...aluminium heat-sinks react badly with LM

xeromist
Moderator
I would not expect to have warranty service on the CPU and potentially motherboard if you do. As Arne mentioned, it stains. So even if you tried to revert to paste before sending it for warranty service you might get denied.

Also be aware that liquid metal (as per its name) stays liquid. If you apply too much it could leak out and create an electrical short. It's not as forgiving as paste so be sure you know what you are doing.

Personally, I would rather just repaste with a traditional paste. It minimizes the risk and a good traditional paste job will still perform quite well. Start experimenting after the warranty is up.

It sounds like the problem is that you have unreasonable expectations. Laptops run hotter and slower than desktops. There is simply less power and cooling to work with so they are not comparable. Desktop GPUs have massive heat sinks and can draw more power than all of your laptop's components combined. You can't compete with that so don't even worry about it.
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

I agree, I wouldn't re-paste for competitive purposes. If you are happy with the performance doing what you do (Gaming, working, etc) that's what matters. At the end of the day the advantage you have is mobility. Running higher temps is the trade off. I personally would not void my warranty unless the heat kept me from competing with similarly spec'd laptops.

That said, if you really want to see best temps, then re-applying new thermal material can help. I'd go with the best paste possible versus LM for safety in a mobile environment. Something like Kryonaut or Hydronaut. As Arne said above, make sure you know what you're doing before opening up laptop. It's not brain surgery, but you need to be careful.

not gonna open up the laptop anymore.. (for a few months)
IF my laptop is still going at high temperature.. maybe ill go for high-end thermal paste .

Now i have a better reason for re-pasting it with high-end thermal paste
- To "protect" my pc for the longer usage
- To "protect" my pc from over-heating

at lease im not going to try the LM paste while my warranty is still up.

Again Thanks 😄