5 ms·

Careful with liquid metal. Its conductive unlike normal thermal paste and can short things out if it gets out.

by geuis 8y ago

spectramax 8y ago
It cannot get out unless you overflow it with more than necessary. Normal shock levels range in 2-5g maximums when you are carrying around your laptop in a briefcase, backback, by hand, etc. This is tested on a shaker table in the reliability lab at 10ms classical half-sine shock. They also do RMS, sine-burst, etc waveforms to ensure that the laptop is going to survive normal use. The capillary action between gallium liquid sandwiched between the copper heatsink and the die is higher than any of the shocks or external forces you can experience in normal use. Higher by an order of magnitude. Also, the die surface has extremely high surface energy - it wants to wet badly. It is not going to spill all over the motherboard. UNLESS - 1) You apply more than necessary. 2) The heatsink is not secured correctly 3) During the application process, you spill all over the motherboard (what Linus @ Linus Tech Tips did in one of his videos). There is literally no need to worry - I wish I can disclose where I work to give some credibility.
- jrockway 8y ago
  I read your first sentence and thought “boy do I have a Linus Tech Tips video for you”. But I read further and see that you have seen it :) I have used liquid metal thermal compound before. It is not hard to apply correctly and works great.
brianpgordon 8y ago
Normal thermal paste is conductive also, including the AS5 that the author uses in the article. You can get electrically nonconductive paste too, but it's not as thermally conductive.
- mbell 8y ago
  > Normal thermal paste is conductive also, including the AS5 The vast majority of thermal paste is non-conductive, including AS5.
philjohn 8y ago
Two things you need to do when applying LM. Clear coat around the die covering any components (resistors and caps) and less is more. Seriously, a tiny drop is all you need.

Careful with liquid metal. Its conductive unlike normal thermal paste and can short things out if it gets out.

by geuis 8y ago

Careful with liquid metal. Its conductive unlike normal thermal paste and can short things out if it gets out.

It cannot get out unless you overflow it with more than necessary. Normal shock levels range in 2-5g maximums when you are carrying around your laptop in a briefcase, backback, by hand, etc. This is tested on a shaker table in the reliability lab at 10ms classical half-sine shock. They also do RMS, sine-burst, etc waveforms to ensure that the laptop is going to survive normal use. The capillary action between gallium liquid sandwiched between the copper heatsink and the die is higher than any of the shocks or external forces you can experience in normal use. Higher by an order of magnitude. Also, the die surface has extremely high surface energy - it wants to wet badly. It is not going to spill all over the motherboard. UNLESS - 1) You apply more than necessary. 2) The heatsink is not secured correctly 3) During the application process, you spill all over the motherboard (what Linus @ Linus Tech Tips did in one of his videos). There is literally no need to worry - I wish I can disclose where I work to give some credibility.

jrockway 8y ago
I read your first sentence and thought “boy do I have a Linus Tech Tips video for you”. But I read further and see that you have seen it :) I have used liquid metal thermal compound before. It is not hard to apply correctly and works great.

brianpgordon 8y ago

Normal thermal paste is conductive also, including the AS5 that the author uses in the article. You can get electrically nonconductive paste too, but it's not as thermally conductive.

mbell 8y ago
> Normal thermal paste is conductive also, including the AS5 The vast majority of thermal paste is non-conductive, including AS5.

philjohn 8y ago

Two things you need to do when applying LM. Clear coat around the die covering any components (resistors and caps) and less is more. Seriously, a tiny drop is all you need.