Hey everyone. I’ve been looking through my framework laptop and one thing that slightly annoys me is the slight load fan noise and the “hot” temps the framework gets while charging and using the machine at the same time.
This issue is probably also amplified by the fact that my cooler is likely very dusty and needs cleaning.
I was about to buy some thermal paste to reapply when I clean ou the cooler but wondered if liquid metal thermal paste could improve the thermals, as it did in Linus Tech Tip’s video on the subject on a gaming laptop.
Has anyone tried to do this before? If so, what are some aspects I should be wary about?
I havent used liquid metal on my framework, but I did on my old sandy bridge laptop. The temperature difference between liquid metals and freshly applied arctic mx4 was about 15°C with the fans spinning slower, iirc. It was a huge upgrade. I havent done it on the framework yet, since mine is very quietly and i have it in the low power setting. If you apply liquid metal carefully, there is nothing wrong with it. You have to cover all metal contacts close to the CPU with some kind of conformal coting (I used nail polish, but its not really made for this application). If you dont use too much of it, it should be fine.
If you dont want to take the risk, which is understandable, I would recommend something like thermal grizzly kryonaut as a thermal paste.
Note, thermal grizzly isn’t great for this application, because the CPU temperature jumps around so much since it’s a mobile cooling solution, it wears out far faster then other pastes.
It might wear out a little faster, but until it does, it gives you about the lowest temperatures, you can get without using liquid metal. Since the framework is not an old laptop, I dont think the stock paste is worn out yet, but its just not as good, as @Paul_Kim would like. He cleaned his laptop after less than a year, so I thought, that repasting wouldnt be such a big deal.
Just out of curiosity, what paste would you recommend for long durability @Shiroudan ?
Frying your motherboard comes to mind…if anyone stumbles across this thread and still wants to do it, make sure to buy conformal coating to spray around the chips you are putting liquid metal on. Make sure to apply it properly as well, putting liquid metal on both the heatsink and the CPU, it doesn’t take much.
IIRC, you need root privileges and physical access to the device. Under these conditions, security has already failed somewhere else. A BIOS setting where you van enable and disable the fix would have been better IMO.
Don’t most youtubers find that liquid metal is only marginally better than a good thermal paste anyway (like +/- 1 degree) - I’m not sure that would move the needle on reducing the fan spinup. I’d love a solution though.
@gmv it depends on the usage, it is of great value when placed directly on the die as in this case as it speeds up transfer between the die and the IHS. If it is just used on top of the IHS, then it’s usefulness is diminished somewhat. Since this is a direct die-to-heatsink contact, it is worth doing but carries risk as stated earlier.
Theoretically, the fans would still spin up but at a lower speed and reduced volume as the transfer efficiency is increased
This video showed a 3 degree difference between liquid metal and thermal paste albeit on a desktop part
The die is one side of the contact. On the other side, ideally, it should be direct heatpipe contact. The Framework laptop’s heasink&fan module doesn’t expose that unfortunately. Instead, there’s a copper plate, then solder, then heatpipes, then press fitted fins. There’s a degree of inefficiency in this chain.
Even though I am confident of my skills, I didn’t opt for the liquid metal just in case I messed up my fairly new framework laptop. This is why I put on some thermal grizzly since I was already re-doing my old GTX1060 (which I am now selling, since I found a good deal on an RTX3060 AT A RETAIL STORE of all places )
For my testing in the post linked earlier I used MG Chemicals 419D and applied it with a brush. Been using it for years with other laptops and GPUs with no issues.
There is a standoff between the mainboard and chassis though. And the fan should be over the liquid metal. But lol, yes a giant conductive chassis can’t exactly help.
A realy shame. Undervolting is great.
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