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CLU safe to use with water block and gpu?

2K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  czin125 
#1 ·
Can I use CLU between ihs and water block?
Can I use it on my GPU
 
#4 ·
#6 ·
I've actually heard that it's a bad idea to use it on the CPU on any kind of cooler, and it's also a bad idea to use it on a GPU if you plan on taking the heatsink or waterblock off again.

The reason for this is that at lower temperatures (e.g. room temp) the liquid metal becomes solid and acts like a very strong adhesive between a waterblock or air cooler and the CPU integrated heat spreader (IHS). Basically, it hardens and turns into metal, so then you have hard metal between the CPU and cooler. I've heard of people basically ripping their dies out or pulling the IHS totally off the processor when trying to remove it. This, of course, ruins the processor.

I never considered using the stuff this way after I heard those things.

Whether or not you want to risk it is up to you. It should provide superior thermal performance, and definitely lower temperatures compared to any other available thermal paste. But regardless, you may be risking your components.

* Disclaimer: I have never used Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra on a CPU or GPU myself. Everything I've said has been from word of mouth and reviews. So take it with a grain of salt and decide for yourself.
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by neurotix View Post

I've actually heard that it's a bad idea to use it on the CPU on any kind of cooler, and it's also a bad idea to use it on a GPU if you plan on taking the heatsink or waterblock off again.

The reason for this is that at lower temperatures (e.g. room temp) the liquid metal becomes solid and acts like a very strong adhesive between a waterblock or air cooler and the CPU integrated heat spreader (IHS). Basically, it hardens and turns into metal, so then you have hard metal between the CPU and cooler. I've heard of people basically ripping their dies out or pulling the IHS totally off the processor when trying to remove it. This, of course, ruins the processor.

I never considered using the stuff this way after I heard those things.

Whether or not you want to risk it is up to you. It should provide superior thermal performance, and definitely lower temperatures compared to any other available thermal paste. But regardless, you may be risking your components.

* Disclaimer: I have never used Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra on a CPU or GPU myself. Everything I've said has been from word of mouth and reviews. So take it with a grain of salt and decide for yourself.
After looking into it some more, this is definitely something that needs to be considered. I probably wouldn't use it on a GPU at all in this case. This review also points out the difficulty of removing after use, and points out how difficult it is to remove from the IHS.
 
#8 ·
Well I just delidded my cpu, so even if the clu would stick to my water block pulling the ihs with it it's fine cause my ihs won't be attached to cpu

As for my gpu I won't be using a water block on it (only the CPU, so my clu application on the gpu would be permanent, no need to worry about having to remove the Cooper again on the gpu)
 
#9 ·
I use CLU on my delided 4790k and ek supremacy evo waterblock and mount the waterblock directly to the die using the naked ivy kit. i recently cleaned it off and checked it and both cpu and waterblock are just fine. there's very fine marks on the waterblock that might possibly be from the CLU but by no means does it looks damaged or anything.
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by IMI4tth3w View Post

I use CLU on my delided 4790k and ek supremacy evo waterblock and mount the waterblock directly to the die using the naked ivy kit. i recently cleaned it off and checked it and both cpu and waterblock are just fine. there's very fine marks on the waterblock that might possibly be from the CLU but by no means does it looks damaged or anything.[/quote

Naked Ivy kit?
 
#12 ·
Just have to pre-heat your card before you remove the cooler again.
Basically un-plug fan if using air cooler and run until heat sink feels warm to hot.
With water block remove from loop, Fill block with hot tap water (asuming your hot tap isnt stupid hot)
Used it in the past and was a nightmare to clean up when returning the card to stock for sale.
 
#13 ·
One of the few reasons to not CLU (or alike) on the GPU is -besides it being difficult separating cooler from chip when cold- that it leaves lots of residue.

For a CPU that is easy to sort out: a few passes of the CPU and coolerblock over 300 grit sandpaper and the CLU residue is gone.

While not impossible to do this with a GPU, it is waaaaaay more difficult to do that without "breaking something" on the board.

Now, if you have a (small) CNC machine, you can attach sanding & polishing heads/bits and program it to evenly move over the 2 inch square chip
smile.gif


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#14 ·
You guys sure you're not confusing CLP with CLU? CLP is the older version and I read it had the issues mentioned here, but never had issues with CLU. Used it for about 2 years on my 4770k and every time I removed the waterblock (max of 4 or 5 months between removals) it was still a liquid. Cleans off the die fairly easily with isopropyl and Q-tip, never left any kind of residue on the die.

It did however "stain" my waterblock. Where it contacted the copper is now silver. I'm not sure if this is a reaction where it bonded to the copper or if it simply worked its way into the micro gaps and filled them in causing the surface to be silver or whatever (less likely the latter as it should have cleaned off in that case). In any case, the block is fine and performs as intended, no need for sanding/lapping.

I think the only thing I'd be worried about using it on the GPU is having a stray bit of it roll off the die while applying and shorting out those resistors (or whatever they are that are usually around the die). Of course you can do like people do when delidding and just coat them with nail polish or something similar to prevent that.

Just my
2cents.gif
 
#15 ·
I used CLU on a delidded 3770K with an H100. Did great. CLU directly on the core / IHS, then CLU on the IHS / H100. Temps dropped considerably over Arctic Silver 5. I didn't have any issues removing it, which had been on there for about 8 months. I did notice some very light scratching on the CPU die, but it was probably more my fault for not being careful enough upon removing.

It didn't affect the CPU tho, same temps after re-applying and ran great.
 
#16 ·
The other issue is that in most reviews of thermal paste, CLU or CLP have only 3-5C cooler temperatures under load compared to the best modern thermal pastes on the market like Arctic MX-4, Prolimatech PK-3 Nano, Gelid GC-Extreme, Kyronaut Thermal Grizzly, IC7 Diamond and others.

This is a bit older but you can see the majority of the pastes I mentioned compared to Coolabratory Liquid Ultra here.

As mentioned, people have said it's:

1. Hard to get off
2. Conductive; if you get it on resistors around a chip you can short them
3. Can discolor the IHS
4. Expensive for a small amount

Most of the modern pastes I mentioned above perform nearly as well, and have none of those drawbacks.

Ultimately, it's your guys call. If you're curious, I use Prolimatech PK-3 Nano myself, which is consistently a top performer and within a few degrees of CLU, yet much cheaper. (I paid $35 for a 30 gram tube of it 3 years ago. And having done numerous applications of it across 4 different computers, I still have the majority of the tube left. Talk about value for money.)
 
#17 ·
Like neurotix said, benefit is not worth the hassle/risk on GPU. Liquid metal is worth hassle when delidding to put between die and IHS where surface area is very small, and resulting 20C+ temp lowering from replacing intels tim1. But GPU or CPU between IHS and block, both of those are relatively large surface areas where difference is only a few C between liquid metal and nonconductive paste.. So up to user whether a few C is worth it on GPU and CPU (ihs to block).

Since I can be sloppy applying tim and drop some on mobo or gpu components, I only use liquid metal on delid cpu die (and applied away from mobo). I use PK1, PK3, NTH1 or any other good nonconductive paste for all else. never would use liquid metal on $1000 gpu, when benefit is only a couple degrees on those large surface areas.
 
#19 ·
Thanks guys. I decided to go with Gelid extreme on the waterblock block (well on the ihs to be precise)

And liquid metal on die. I must say I still think (with all that you guys said) that it would have been worth using clu on the ihs but I could foresee some trouble trying to remove it. Especially considering my water block is entirely made of copper which would have slowly discoloured with the use of clu

Not a big deal too but yeah, I'm thinking I'll use clu in both places when I upgrade to a very high end cpu. Something the likes of i7 6850k
 
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