Jiko980

https://secure.avdns7.com/~scitoys/c...etal_desc.html I think this is what sapphire uses for thier super cool cooling thing on the x850 xtpe right? according to the site it's a liquid at 30C I remember reading somewhere in the cooling experiments forum that someone was looking for gallium and I happened to stumble on to some.. maybe some one could make a cool heatsink or something? I just thought I'd let you all know maybe it'll help

nizfiz

I don't see the point of it? why not water?

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"Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves." - Oddball, Kelly's Heroes

k0m0d0_dragon

water will freeze if u get it sub zero degrees. gallium goes down to -20 as a liquid.

Jori

Gallium is more conductive.

Jacks Smirking Revenge

Unfortuneately, they don't use pure gallium in the liquid metal cooling. It's M.pt. iis a tad higher than room temperature you see.
What they're using is a compund of gallium, with similar themal properties, but a lower M.pt.
Unfortuneately, i couldn't tell you which compund, or how to make it or where to get it.. well, maybe if i knew.

Even if you could get hold of some of the stuff: A) It'd be expensive to get the amount you'd need, B)Because of it's density, i expect your pump would explode. back to a) phase change would probably be cheaper.

To get it down to -20, you'd either have to live in alaska, or use phase change anyway. It won't get anycooler than room (ambient) temperature.

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"No Signal" on monitor?

Sno*

gybe!

Umm...no, gallium won`t. Perhaps, if gallium is in a perfectly static system you can pull it down to -20 and maintain a liquid (as you can do similar things with water) but you won`t be able to maintain gallium as a liquid in most rooms (it melts a little above 29 deg. C, typical room temp is around 22...). Moreover, to anybody who had the bright idea to go and order some gallium for a custom cooler/heatsink, etc...please don`t! Gallium is relatively friendly (i.e., not toxic per se) but it will eat through most things that you would be using in conjunction with it (steel, copper, aluminum, etc..). Its not an instantaneous reaction but will degrade your components over time.
I work with gallium all of the time, and while it is fun to play with, it won`t really do you any good in pure form.

The cooling system that everybody is going crazy over is a gallium alloy, not gallium itself. While the company that developed it is keeping pretty quiet over their composition, chances are pretty high that the other elements in the alloy are things you want no part of (probably chloride, possibly some sodium, and maybe either indium or aluminum, possibly even mercury). Also, chances are also pretty high that even if you could get your hands on the raw elements, you would not have the means to make the alloy itself. While I admit that alloys are not my specialty (I am a grad student at Cornell in solid state materials synthesis) most alloys are synthesized in a traditional solid state manner (read: either high temperature (~800 to 1500 deg. C) or sol-gel methods, which you won`t have the capability to perform without some serious equipment and still needing high temp furnaces)

Hope this helps, but if anybody has any questions I can probably help out. Gallium is not my focus of research, but some of my colleagues have done extensive work with it (in particular, the synthesis of gallium nitride). Anyways, hope this clears up some confusion and let me know if you want any more info!

postaldudeleo

Why would you even try in the first place? It's simpler to buy thier heatsink if you really want it.

The two guys above me are 100% right. You need a vacuum heating solution (vacuum furnace) to get an alloy. Unless you rent one in your local university and have the credentials to allow the guys there to let you use, and you get all the expensive materials, then put it in the thing and wait the 18ish hours; there is a good chance you still won't succeed unless you get someone to do it for you that has experiance in this area, which would itself cost more then the 40 $ a made heatsink can cost you.

Goldenpi

Surely the solution is simple. Wait. All that gallium-alloy cooled equipment is going to break sooner or later, and then you will start to see people emptying them out and putting little bottles of the coolent on ebay.

GALLIUM

Im right here! what did i win?

J3r3my

You win a cash prize of $0.05