[Liquid Metal Showdown] Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut vs Cool Laboratory Liquid Ultra / Pro

As some of you know, there is a new kid on the block, Grizzly Conductonaut that is also a liquid metal thermal compound with some impressive stats.

Below are the conductivity numbers for the top Liquid Metals and Traditional Paste:
(As we know the numbers don't mean everything, however, from all my tests done so far, Grizzly Conductonaut has always topped CLLU by an average of ~3C. Results may vary. However, because I am repasting, every drop in C's count. It could make all the difference in some scenarios. To each his own...)

Liquid Metals:
Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut - 73 W/mk
Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra - 38.4 W/mk
Coollaboratory Liquid Pro - 32.6 W/mk

Traditional Paste:
Gelid GC Extreme: 8.5 W/mk
Grizzly Kyronaut: 12.5 W/mk
ICD: 4.5 W/mk

I have a shot of Grizzly Conductonaut on the way and will be repasting my 17R3, yes both CPU and GPU.

Pre-Game Thoughts:

Well...numbers are numbers so we won't know until it's actually tested, but according to the conductivity numbers being almost double compared to CLLU/P....well? - As I've shared my thoughts with
@sirleeofroy, my theory is that the higher conductivity of GC could allow the AW to cool at it's maximum efficiency in respect to the laptops maximum ability to draw out the heat. So whatever that limit is, GC may allow that to happen even more effectively...who knows...however, if GC pans out to be even 1C better than CLLU/P, then it's good enough for me to switch. Why? Because when we're dancing in the territory where even 1C can make the difference of thermal throttling or not...well you get the drift. 1C equates to a lot in this sport.

What are your thoughts? Anyone else planning to try out the new cool aid? It's only ~$13 on Amazon...

* As a reminder, please refrain from any comments on the risks of liquid metal thermal compounds. We already know that lol...

Great Resources / Threads / How To's:

2016 Alienware 17 R3 Re-Paste Guide
(This is an excellent thread by: @jpowell490)

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And the Winner is?

I've just successfully completed my re-paste/re-thermal tape and the results are very impressive. About a week ago I had re-pasted using CLLU and following the same habits as I do with all my desktop re-pastes with CLLU, I had painted it on as usual. Upon firing it up, my Core #0 was being wacho and it was very apparent that there was not enough CLLU. Crap, I had thought....because I didn't want to open it back up again, however, since I had to anyway, this is what made me take a closer look at Grizzly's new liquid metal thermal paste, Conductonaut.

During my CLLU re-paste a week ago, I had notice the stock thermal pads looking like rubbish, therefore, I had ordered some thermal pads as well...

I took my time today in re-pasting / re-taping the laptop, making sure everything was done as perfectly as possible. As you can see from the pictures, I took some painters tape to mask off the surrounding areas when cleaning off the CLLU, which by the way came off very easily with just rubbing alcohol, although I did still use formula #1 and #2 of the Arctic cleaning solution...just because.



I didn't want any of the old CLLU to touch the PCB...




The thing that took the longest was polishing off the old CLLU off of the heat sink...


Re-taping was just as enjoyable as re-pasting, because the stock blue thermal pads are complete rubbish...


Work in progress...


Thermal Pads: Fujiploy 17.0 mK/w ~ $20 for a size 60x50x0.5mm. Buy this size as it is more than enough for the entire application and you'll have some left over.


Oddly enough the contact points on the heat sink for the thermal pads had a lot of adhesive on it, so I polished those areas off for the heck of it...


Instead of using whole strips of electrical tape, I took a strip of tape and cut them into 4 smaller strips to tape over the transistors around the GPU.


I had also wanted to keep the tape inside of the metal box area. Much cleaner...


Here is all four sides covered...


I wasn't going tape around the CPU at first but...my OCD led me to cut smaller strips to cover all the gold points...


However...my OCD got to the best of me and so then I cut small strips and placed them around the CPU anyway LOL...


Getting ready to re-paste with Grizzly Conductonaut! So the syringe comes with a cap, then you have to take that off and put on the end piece as you can in the picture below...


This stuff is noticeably more liquidy than CLLU and spreads much nicer.


This stuff is awesome....very easy to work with...oh and btw I did end up using the Q-Tip that came with the kit...it is much better than the one in the CLLU kit.


The Q-Tip is way more practical as the swab itself is very tightly packed so it doesn't shed cotton everywhere like regular Q-Tips.


All set and ready to be put back together...


Painted the heat sinks...


A little more generous than before with the CLLU...I'm a firm believer that you have to use a little more on laptops than on desktops....ie..."just painting it on," ain't going to cut it on laptops. (At least from my experience and the finished product (temps) shows that to be true...I'm staring at my temps right now and can't believe it....)



Tip:

When removing and/or putting the Mobo back into place, start with inserting the right side of Mobo first (USB C side) and make sure the PCB is under that little clip that you see in the picture. This will save a lot of unnecessary bending of the Mobo. Once you have the right side nice and clipped in, the rest will fall into place with ease. Hope this helps...Cheers



===========================Drum Roll Please===========================
And the winner is...Grizzly Conductonaut. I'm extremely happy with the results and the temps are holding strong...

Idle Temps: ~8C cooler than Grizzly Kyronaut.


CLLU Idle and Under load Temps:



Gaming Temps: 52-55C! That's ~8C to ~10C cooler than Grizzly Kyronaut.


Video Encoding: (Mostly all CPU)


wPrime Scores: Not too shabby...The 1024M run is at #2 World Ranking at the moment. Someone beat it! I'm all for that....the 6820HK is a beast!


Below are the BEFORE and AFTER temps after running wPrime v1.55 on both of my 17R3's. One of my 17R3 still has stock paste (for testing and temp data), while the other 17R3 has been repasted with Grizzly Conductonaut.

As you can see the package temp for example is a difference of 21C.

BEFORE: (Stock Paste on 17R3 #1)


AFTER: (Grizzly Conductonaut on 17R3 #2)

 

Why you should re-paste your CPU and GPU:







Enough said. Look at that factory rubbish gunk. Shame....

Stock Temps:


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Optional Insurance if you're paranoid:

1. Tape over any transistors around your CPU (if any) and GPU with electrical tape.


(Thanks @judal57 for the pic.)

2. Use a good quality electrical tape, not some cheap dollar store one. I prefer the Super 33+ as it is thinner / stretchier than the 88, while having the same heat rating of 105C.



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Is this your first time re-pasting? Not confident enough to use the liquid cool aid?

Then I'd recommend going with a traditional paste that is non conductive in this order.

Grizzly Kyronaut
GELid Extreme

That's it!
...

Anyone of those will do the job and is pretty much fail proof. Also for Skylakes, use the line method on the CPU and a pea dot on the GPU. You'll be good to go...

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How to clean your CPU / GPU: See Post #15

 

I would love to re-paste mine but after 2 mainboard failure replacements within a week of purchase I am now very nervous that it won't turn on again after putting it back together.

 

hah I know that feel. I was really up for it but after experiencing issues out of the box I've decided to wait a while until I'm more confident in the durability / longevity of the hardware.

 

The pic with the liquid ultra applied is actually iffy. I originally followed that picture when pasting mine and due to the thick nature of thermal tape, the heatsink was not making any contact because of the thermal tape laying on the surrounding bracket. Since the bracket is already slightly raised, putting additional thick material on top only further keeps the heatsink away from the die. If it works for you then outstanding, but if your machine heats up VERY quickly under load then that would be your number 1 culprit. It's best to cut out thin strips of thermal tape that ONLY covers the transistors. Kind of wedges in between. Your transistors will still be well protected and completely isolated without adding additional gap between die and heatsink. I'd post a pic but I forgot what thread I posted my process in.

Edit: Perhaps it's because I have the thicker type of thermal tape that caused all these problems. If you go with the thinner kinds you should be fine. But even then there's no need to be overlapping that area unless you're doing a seriously sloppy paste job. Probably need more than 1 tube if you're spreading it to the point where it reaches the surrounding frame.

 

I did exactly what you've mentioned in taping thin strips only over the transistors by taking a strip of tape and slicing it in half so that it only stays inside the metal rectangle housing of the GPU.

When I open it back up in a few days for my repaste (Grizzly Conductonaut) and thermal pad replacement, I'll be redoing everything again....

 

You forgot the other cheap alternative. Phobya Liquid metal(Thermal Conductivity: 40 W/mK).
There is no difference in the cooling capacity between them. Clu is still the better option as its easier to spread and is an slightly thicker liquid. Price isn't a problem as you don't need to reapply often.

 

Update: Okay fellas it looks like the Grizzly Conductonaut is out for delivery! I have to head out of town for the weekend, however, come Monday I will be re-pasting along with re-thermal padding. Now I can't wait until Monday!

Also, in the repaste guide thread, I had inquired about using the thermal pads to cover the transistors vs using electrical tape. I'll stick to using the electrical tape, however, due to my first application being too thin (I had just painted it on there like I have with all my desktop CPU's) I am going to be a little more generous this time. (Don't worry, generous doesn't mean creating a pool of liquid metal LOL...it just means a tiny bit more than what I had used before since the heatsinks on laptops are generally not as flush as desktop heatsinks.) My Core #0 seems to not have enough liquid metal on there as it has a mind of its own.

I'm all for cutting thin strips of electrical tape to only cover the transistors around the GPU; keeping the tape inside of the metal square box, however, I'm debating if I should even bother taping around the CPU? What do yall think? Honestly, I'm not too paranoid about taping it up, as I know it won't lava over like some think it does and am only doing it just because...for free insurance sake?

My AW sits on the desk 99% of the time so stays stationary. Even when I do take it with me occasionally on trips, I handle it pretty carefully / balanced, making sure to not hold it from the corner only to prevent any flex.

 

How much clu did you actually apply before spreading it around with the cotton swab?

 

I didn't use a cotton swap, instead a small brush that came with the CLLU. One of the most annoying things is finding strands from the cotton mixed in the liquid metal as you spread it around. I don't know what they were thinking of back then, including cotton swaps in the earlier kits to spread this stuff...

The amount was enough to cover the entire area of the CPU and GPU with a little small bead left over which I used to paint the heat sink. When I say that I probably put too little, I am referencing that to what I normally paint on my desktop CPU.