Liquid metal on new GPU's = warranty violation?

[plastiscɧ]

Ah, but graphite pads have no pump-out effect

Graphite - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Carbon fibers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Plastiche, what type of liquid metal did you use? Was that 30°C difference under water or some exotic cooling solution?

gallium and air cooling. my watercooling came 1,5 years later.

@80251

 

[Ruru]

I think most gpu manufacturer's warranty voids when you disassemble the card

EVGA allows disassembly. Also in some cases MSI allows if you ask for a permit, IIRC Asus has permitted too.

Yeah didn't read the whole thread so sorry if these are said already.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

my precious i7 7700K dropped with Liquid Metal 30°C (from around 95°C to ~60°C). They were really heat-heads
30°C = 86°F

that was an amazing result.

View attachment 206308View attachment 206307

Yikes! That sounds like the stories about Ivy Bridge, (3rd gen) where the stock TIM, reportedly sucks!

I'm hoping that Kaby Lake, (7th gen) came with at least, better TIM than that!

 

[R-T-B]

I'm hoping that Kaby Lake, (7th gen) came with at least, better TIM than that!

Kaby Lake had the same.

It was a Dow Corning paste built around longevity, not performance. I always joked it would perform just as crapily new as it would ten years from now...

 

[plastiscɧ]

Yikes! That sounds like the stories about Ivy Bridge, (3rd gen) where the stock TIM, reportedly sucks!

I'm hoping that Kaby Lake, (7th gen) came with at least, better TIM than that!

No it was dry like sand.
i was afraid delidding it but it went all for good! and using the "breaking tools" was fun and thrilling tho! the noise when the head breaks from the chip is very unique... and the Gallium smelled like quicksilver

 

[watzupken]

From what I can recall, only EVGA and Zotac allow their users to remove the heatsink. This was one of the reasons I used to choose only Zotac GPUs as EVGA is not very common where I live.

As for using liquid metal, I've pondered about it myself. But there are few things that hold me back,
1. LM tend to dry up faster - While you get great results at the start, that will start to deteriorate over time quite rapidly
2. Risky - You need to do some prep work to ensure that the LM don't drip on other components or you will fry the card

I may be wrong, but I feel it is not worth the risk and trouble. I rather you just use a good non conductive thermal compound and replace the thermal pads with better ones, which will help with the temps.

 

[eidairaman1]

From what I can recall, only EVGA and Zotac allow their users to remove the heatsink. This was one of the reasons I used to choose only Zotac GPUs as EVGA is not very common where I live.

As for using liquid metal, I've pondered about it myself. But there are few things that hold me back,
1. LM tend to dry up faster - While you get great results at the start, that will start to deteriorate over time quite rapidly
2. Risky - You need to do some prep work to ensure that the LM don't drip on other components or you will fry the card

I may be wrong, but I feel it is not worth the risk and trouble. I rather you just use a good non conductive thermal compound and replace the thermal pads with better ones, which will help with the temps.

Liquid metal can corrode the heatsink and gpu die, so no thanks, drop that idea.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

My GeForce GTX 1660 Super is from Zotac (on other PC) and the only thing bothering me about it, is the low 130W hard wattage (default is 125W, IIRC) cap. So MSI Afterburner will say "pwr" all the time, pretty much!
So, unless GPU Vcore undervolting is successful, I can only get very notable gains by OC'ing the VRAM.

 

[kayjay010101]

Liquid metal can corrode the heatsink and gpu die, so no thanks, drop that idea.

It doesn't corrode it unless the heatsink is aluminium.
It does stain copper and nickel-plated copper, but it doesn't corrode anything and the thermal performance/structural integrity after staining is identical to pre-staining.
As long as it's kept away from components that need to not be shorted (LM is quite obviously highly electrically conductive and will bridge circuits very easily) and materials it doesn't react well with (mainly aluminium), it's totally fine. It's always a risk that it'll leak out and short a PCB or something like that but as long as you don't use aluminium or unpure copper heatsinks then at least a harmful chemical reaction isn't a risk. As said, at most you'll get an ugly stain but it doesn't affect anything other than aesthetics.

 

[yotano211]

It doesn't corrode it unless the heatsink is aluminium.
It does stain copper and nickel-plated copper, but it doesn't corrode anything and the thermal performance/structural integrity after staining is identical to pre-staining.
As long as it's kept away from components that need to not be shorted (LM is quite obviously highly electrically conductive and will bridge circuits very easily) and materials it doesn't react well with (mainly aluminium), it's totally fine. It's always a risk that it'll leak out and short a PCB or something like that but as long as you don't use aluminium or unpure copper heatsinks then at least a harmful chemical reaction isn't a risk. As said, at most you'll get an ugly stain but it doesn't affect anything other than aesthetics.

I've been using LM for over 6-7yrs, I only get stains on the heatsink, I use it on laptops. Never had issues with corroding.

 

[delshay]

I've been using LM for over 6-7yrs, I only get stains on the heatsink, I use it on laptops. Never had issues with corroding.

Tend to agree with you here, it only stains copper heatsink, GPU core unaffected. As for the topic using it on brand new GPU, manufactures will use this to turn away non working cards.


@R-T-B

You RMA a card a few months back, what's the outcome?

 

[eidairaman1]

My GeForce GTX 1660 Super is from Zotac (on other PC) and the only thing bothering me about it, is the low 130W hard wattage (default is 125W, IIRC) cap. So MSI Afterburner will say "pwr" all the time, pretty much!
So, unless GPU Vcore undervolting is successful, I can only get very notable gains by OC'ing the VRAM.

Lets do an experiment shall wee with bios flashes.

 

[king of swag187]

As long as it (liquid metal) doesn't end up killing the card, it is illegal to void the warranty for it (in the United States atleast) It can however, end up make things difficult for you if you need to RMA the card, as they can still illegally void it, and its very costly to end up in a legal battle around said issues.
I wouldn't personally bother with a GPU vs a CPU, unless you really want to for some reasion (bad cooler, seeking extreme performance, Laptop, etc)

 

[delshay]

As long as it (liquid metal) doesn't end up killing the card, it is illegal to void the warranty for it (in the United States atleast) It can however, end up make things difficult for you if you need to RMA the card, as they can still illegally void it, and its very costly to end up in a legal battle around said issues.
I wouldn't personally bother with a GPU vs a CPU, unless you really want to for some reasion (bad cooler, seeking extreme performance, Laptop, etc)

They can turn it away on the grounds of.

1. It's difficult to work on a card that has conductive liquid, one mistake could make the card worse.
2. May need specialized solutions to remove LM compound.
3. It's a risk to other user(s) devices as well as they own test equipment as LM can end up anywhere when trying to remove it. ..Not forgetting staff may not be trained to deal with LM Compound.

To end this posting, if I was running a business/company I would turn all devise away that had LM as you would normally have extremely expensive test equipment. I would not put very expensive test equipment at risk. Downtime would also delay other customers repairs.;

..Sorry, don't want my repair workshop contaminated with LM.

 

[GerKNG]

liquid metal on a GPU is completely useless. (1-3°C at best compared to normal paste)

 

[xtreemchaos]

when i first put a waterblock on a gpu, i contacted MSI and asked if it would void the cards cover and thay told aslong as i didnt do any damage to the card the warranty wouldnt be affected but this was longtime ago and LM wasnt really a thing, id email EVGA and just ask them.

​

 

[80251]

Obviously Sony thinks liquid metal is a worthwhile TIM -- because the PS5's all use it.

 

[xtreemchaos]

sony and a few laptops too.

 

[r9]

I've always read EVGA would allow modifications to the cooling employed for their graphics card but how far do they allow you to go? For other AIB manufacturers is it true that any modification of the cooling solution (or VBIOS) is an instant warranty violation?

You can change the title from ? to !

 

[king of swag187]

They can turn it away on the grounds of.

1. It's difficult to work on a card that has conductive liquid, one mistake could make the card worse.
2. May need specialized solutions to remove LM compound.
3. It's a risk to other user(s) devices as well as they own test equipment as LM can end up anywhere when trying to remove it. ..Not forgetting staff may not be trained to deal with LM Compound.

To end this posting, if I was running a business/company I would turn all devise away that had LM as you would normally have extremely expensive test equipment. I would not put very expensive test equipment at risk. Downtime would also delay other customers repairs.;

..Sorry, don't want my repair workshop contaminated with LM.

This is actually false, in the US it is illegal to deny any warranty (RMA) claims that cannot be proven to have been caused by end user configuration (IE upgrading a laptop with a SSD, or changing it's thermal paste just as examples)
2 and 3 have nothing to do with denying a RMA either lol

 

[R-T-B]

This is actually false, in the US it is illegal to deny any warranty (RMA) claims that cannot be proven to have been caused by end user configuration (IE upgrading a laptop with a SSD, or changing it's thermal paste just as examples)
2 and 3 have nothing to do with denying a RMA either lol

This does not mean they won't try to claim liquid metal caused the damage, and good luck proving it didn't. Stuff is nasty and the court will see that as evidence towards the idea that this is your fault, honestly.

Thus, basically, don't put liquid metal on and expect warranty service. You can try, but I'd be surprised if you get it without a fight.