Ordered some Liquid Ultra

[ShrimpBrime]

I found it very easy to spread with the brush applicator which was one complaint a lot of people had. I didn't find that to be an issue.

It's good to see a spreading technique! I'm a firm believer in application in this manor, especially when the Cpu and cooler/block was lapped or on naked chips.

Good thread Trents.

 

[trents]

Yeah, you know you don't hear much about lapping these days. It got real popular when the Thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme was a new product. That cooler's heat sink base was so convex you easily see it with the eyeball if you set it on a table top. Folks started lapping them to make the base flat and that significantly improved it's already excellent performance. But then other folks got into mirror finish polishing which I don't think really improves performance much at all.

 

[EarthDog]

But then other folks got into mirror finish polishing which I don't think really improves performance much at all.

It depends on the application, but, it can be a few C.

 

[trents]

Well, maybe only 4c difference instead of 6c. I realized in my testing that the pre liquid ultra testing was done on a machine that had been up and running for a long period of time and that my testing after applying the LqUltra was done on a "cold" machine. Still, 4c difference is much more than you see by switching among conventional TIMs or at least the quality ones. Differences between brands of quality TIM seem to be more in the neighborhood of 1c.

 

[EarthDog]

There are too many variables to hang our hats on anything... the mount makes THE biggest difference. If that wasn't done a couple of times to confirm a proper mount and TIM spread, who knows.

Im not totally poo-pooing the results, but there are a lot of variables, including the major one (mount) that wasn't looked at. As we can see from websites that properly test the TIMs (who make multiple mounts, discard the best/worst) the difference between the major brands is really only 0-3C.

 

[trents]

Just had my first experience with removing Liquid Ultra from heat sink/CPU as I changed cooling solutions. It had been in place for about 4 days before I cleaned it and the curing time to solid form according to mfg. is 48 hours.

Anyway, it was certainly more difficult than removing conventional TIM but really not that bad. The scrub pad that comes with the Liquid Ultra kit moistened with some Isopropyl alcohol cuts it pretty well.

All in all it's a pretty effective product IMO with bigger upsides than downsides.