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Is Sony's liquid metal TIM the new standard to follow for others in the industry (console and/or PC)? Poll Inside!

Is Sony's liquid metal TIM the new standard to follow for others in the industry (console and/or PC)


  • Total voters
    257
Have used both, liquid metal and thermal paste. Thermal paste is the way better option for longevity. Performance wise I noticed a 2 degree reduction using the liquid metal but it dried up twice on me in two seperate rigs and at one point almost fried my system because of it. It’s really a baffling decision from Sony because I have no idea how they expect this to function for the entire 6-7 year lifecycle. Maybe they’ve revolutionized it somehow, but as of right now we’ll just sit and wait.

Sounds like a case of user error to me. Plenty PC users (including myself) have used it without issues for years. Application is key.

Additionally they clearly have "revolutionized it" , that being the entire topic of this thread. I'm all for armchair engineering, but let's not overreact here. Sony isn't a someone at home experimenting with thermal compounds.
 
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Apple are hardware devs. Remember when Apple released the iPhone (5 I think?) antenna didn't work properly when you hold the phone normally?

Steve Jobs fucking told people to use the phone a special way or buy a fucking bumper cover or whatever it was called?

No king rules forever. I ain't saying this tech is bad or anything. But I don't blindly trust tech like this from Sony, Microsoft, Asus you name it.

Water cooling has also been in pc for ages. I sure as hell ain't getting any liquid shit in my pc, because if it goes wrong, man everything is destroyed.

Imagine the stupid stand breaks, your console slides down or something. If the fan dies, oh well might change that.

But what would you expect would happen if this liquid metal gets everywhere because somethings leaking. Say goodbye to your console.
I agree with everything, except I'm liquid cooled all the way, several years now. Definitely heard a few horror stories, but more with liquid metal.
 

vpance

Member
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Thermal paste with vapor chamber is like sticking Goodyear all seasons on a Porsche.
 
Also if you are dropping a PS5 hard enough to damage the gasket around the LM, I think the LM leaking is going to be the least of your worries. You guys are making it sound like its a reservoir of this stuff :messenger_tears_of_joy: It's a tiny coating to ensure a clean thermal connection. I highly doubt there will be any issues with the PS5 related to liquid metal.
 
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If liquid metal was state of the art, why wouldn't more people use it? I mean it's not much more than standard or even good thermal paste.

The fact that most people are already nervous about applying thermal paste which is non-conductive. Liquid metal is conductive and requires precision application and containment. Sony developed a way of ensuring that these issues are addressed with their unique design. The gasket will prevent any liquid metal from ever moving around and causing any issues and their application process probably would ensure that it wouldn't happen either way. They wouldn't be putting this in the system if they weren't confident about it. The stuff works better than standard thermal paste and will give some extra headroom. Clearly that was worth the investment for them as they decided to go with it in the final design.

However most home PC users aren't going to run LM on their CPU if it can destroy their PC if applied incorrectly, the risk outweighs the benefits. Sony isn't a PC user and were able to design a system that uses LM in a way where the benefits outweigh the risks. Pretty simple.
 
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The fact that most people are already nervous about applying thermal paste which is non-conductive. Liquid metal is conductive and requires precision application and containment. Sony developed a way of ensuring that these issues are addressed with their unique design. The gasket will prevent any liquid metal from ever moving around and causing any issues and their application process probably would ensure that it wouldn't happen either way. They wouldn't be putting this in the system if they weren't confident about it. The stuff works better than standard thermal paste and will give some extra headroom. Clearly that was worth the investment for them as they decided to go with it in the final design.

However most home PC users aren't going to run LM on their CPU if it can destroy their PC if applied incorrectly, the risk outweighs the benefits. Sony isn't a PC user and were able to design a system that uses LM in a way where the benefits outweigh the risks. Pretty simple.
You do realize it has nothing to do with who applied the TIM, as opposed to its ability to corrode heatsinks? You'd have to apply a layer or a few of non conductive material over the heat spreader to hopefully ensure no corrosion over the next few years. A foam pad is slightly laughable if you have any knowledge on "what could happen". Maybe Sony has done it right, but to think it's a night and day difference to basic thermal paste, or even good thermal paste, is disingenuous at best.
 
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You do realize it has nothing to do with who applied the TIM, as opposed to its ability to corrode heatsinks? You'd have to apply a layer or a few of non conductive material over the heat spreader to hopefully ensure no corrosion over the next few years. A foam pad is slightly laughable if you have any knowledge on "what could happen". Maybe Sony has done it right, but to think it's a night and day difference to basic thermal paste, or even good thermal paste, is disingenuous at best.

Never said it was night and day. You can look up the thermal properties yourself. Liquid metal is better at transferring heat and will result in a more efficient transfer to the heatsink which will ultimately help the console run cooler and perform better. When you are targeting performance it's not all about massive percentages. The little things add up. Sony did their homework with this design and I think the results will speak for themselves soon.
 
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ZywyPL

Banned
There's nothing to follow really, everyone aside PS fanboys knew as far as March 18th that those GPU clocks are stupidly high and nothing good will come out of it, and here we are - the weakest next-gen hardware (counting both consoles and Ampere and RDNA2 GPUs) has unarguably the biggest cooler, the biggest fan, and on top of that needs liquid metal, that's not what the industry should follow, rather the opposite, avoid at all cost, and thankfully and rightfully everyone else is using "slow" 1.7-1.9GHz to keep the temps in check.

Besides, there's barely any difference between liquid metal and standard TIM when applied on a naked die, we're talking about just 1-2, maybe 3 Celcius degrees less. The only real LM advantage is that it doesn't dry out when exposed to extreme temps over years, like in laptops for example, but that happens when the cooling design is insufficient in the first place.
 

Raonak

Banned
From my understanding the only flaws with liquid metal occur due to DIY applications.

I'm pretty sure a consumer product has done enough RnD to come up with a good solution.
 
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sinnergy

Member
There's nothing to follow really, everyone aside PS fanboys knew as far as March 18th that those GPU clocks are stupidly high and nothing good will come out of it, and here we are - the weakest next-gen hardware (counting both consoles and Ampere and RDNA2 GPUs) has unarguably the biggest cooler, the biggest fan, and on top of that needs liquid metal, that's not what the industry should follow, rather the opposite, avoid at all cost, and thankfully and rightfully everyone else is using "slow" 1.7-1.9GHz to keep the temps in check.

Besides, there's barely any difference between liquid metal and standard TIM when applied on a naked die, we're talking about just 1-2, maybe 3 Celcius degrees less. The only real LM advantage is that it doesn't dry out when exposed to extreme temps over years, like in laptops for example, but that happens when the cooling design is insufficient in the first place.
Well said, but you gotta brag about something.. and it's kinda a nice feat that they got it working for them. Cause they needed to run at those clocks.
 

reptilex

Banned
It does not have to do anything in common, liquid metal is conductivity medium between chip and cooler (which then can be anything). This is like a more advance thermal paste.

Was not talking about Liquid Metal or Paste, but Vapour Chamber vs. Heatsink.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Was not talking about Liquid Metal or Paste, but Vapour Chamber vs. Heatsink.
Oh, vapor chamber is more conductive due to bigger surface of the evoporation. Let say it's something like thousands of little heatpipes on the flat surface. It's generally better.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Is it more efficient in terms of size?
Well you have to still radiate that heat so I would say it is, because it's basically pad below the cooler itself and have much greater surfae area then heat pipes. You can easily cover with it, chip and vrams with same cooler, which is what is happening with XSX. It's also probably more efficient due to the fact, that most heatpises are routed through the...now I am not sure how to say it in English correctly...spikes I guess? Vapor changer is belowe those heat radiating spices/scales, so those scalles are utilised way more efficiently through their whole height.
 
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