Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut Thermal Grease - 1 Gram Set + 3X Extra Applicators - Liquid Metal Thermal Paste for Cooling The CPU, GPU

I recently got an MSI GF67 Stealth (i5-10300H, 1650Ti) for college and gaming. I noticed that it ran fine in games, but like most gaming laptops, would attempt to go "balls out" in class decompressing a file or installing something, and just due to the nature of the CPU, it put off a lot more heat for the same task. Especially considering it was in one quick burst, it would get really loud. I suspected thermal paste, seeing as it's an easy thing to cheap out on and not list in specs, but also since the time taken to return to normal temps was longer than expected.My quest to silence my laptop lead me to finding the highest thermal efficiency paste I could find. Which turned out to not be a paste, instead, it was this liquid metal. It has a conductivity 6x greater than its own offering Kryonaut, and even better than others available, presumably like what was installed at the factory.I removed the back of the laptop, disconnected the battery, removed the heatsink assembly, and wiped the old paste off the heatsinks and pads. I did this for both the CPU and GPU. I then used the micro applicator to put a small dot on each pad of the processor, then spread it out. It took a little coaxing to get it to spread flat from being a bead, but after this, it went smoothly. Even as a first time repasting anything, and only knowing the theory, it was quite easy. I replaced the heatsink assembly, reconnected power, replaced the back, and turned it on.Yay! I didn't short my computer! The real question though, what are the temps? I initially didn't know the difference, but this was due to the computer booting up. Once it sat for a bit, my idle CPU temps were at 38°C, instead of the usual 45°C. Impressed, I ran the FurMark CPU torture test AND the GPU stress together, just as I did before the surgery. The CPU was now unable to cross into the 70°C range, instead sticking to 69°C (nice), and the GPU was unable to exceed 56°C. Turns out they were both sucking down as much power as they physically could, and wouldn't run hotter.Sadly, my CPU is locked in the overclock department, but I did add an overclock to the GPU in Afterburner of +280MHz core and +250MHz VRAM. The CPU still holds steady at 69°C under fire, and GPU returned to its usual 70°C, but with the overclock factored in.This product has allowed me to get my CPU running 25°C cooler under full load, 7°C cooler at idle, and overclock my GPU while retaining the same temperature. It runs quieter during day-to-day tasks, gaming, and even when exerting itself to the limit.Make sure to disconnect all power and drain it. Be extremely careful when you apply it as well. This is metal, and as such, it will conduct electricity, shorting anything it touches unintentionally. Do not use with aluminum ANYTHING, liquid metal is primarily made with gallium, which punches through the protective aluminum oxide layer and forms a brittle and problematic alloy, along with hydrogen gas.That being said, if you know the risks, have copper heat pipes, and you take caution when applying this compound, your thermal performance can be vastly improved for about twenty bucks and a half-hour or so. I will absolutely be using this in every computer I own and intend to regularly use from now on.

A recent need to repair my cooler brought about the chance for my first forray into liquid metal and an opportunity to pit two heavyweights of the liquid metal world against one another. Those two are Grizzly's Conductonaut & Coollaboratories' Liquid Pro.My test setup:CPU: AMD FX-9590 - the last of the vanguards and a known oven that will instantly heat up to 70+ celsius and shutdown PCs without proper coolingMotherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula-ZCooling: Corsair - H115i - An AiO watercoolerRam: 16GB (2x8GB) G.Skill Trident 2400mhzGPU: EVGA 980 Ti Classified EditionThings to note about liquid metal usage:DO NOT USE WITH ALUMINUM! Liquid metal can and will bond with other metals, leaving some scarring or even worse pitting where the metal essentially "rots." This is why there are "DON'T USE ON ALUMINUM!" signs everywhere. On top of that the aluminum dust created from this compound can just "explode" since the chemical reaction creates water. So yeah... Don't use on aluminum surfaces. Nickel and copper are fine though as both either have none or with the latter very minimal damage when reacting with liquid metal (usually light-medium stains.)Soldered CPUs will have minimal temperature changes. Due to them directly soldered, they are already setup for maximum thermal efficiency. With liquid metal, you get maximum thermal efficiency from delidding the CPU and having the delidded CPU die directly touch the heatsink, something which can't be done with AMD or any other solder CPUs like Intel's 9980XE.The whole delidding and scarring from liquid metal that defaces the CPU voids the warranty as most manufacturer's warranty is voided once the serial number of the CPU can no longer be seen.You want to apply as thin a layer of liquid metal as possible. If you see any bubbles or if it moves when you turn it to the side, you put too much. Just use one drop and "paint it on."Application:For this test I applied the Conductonaut to both my CPU & GPU. It's packaging is just fantastic. Grizzly has done almost everything possible to make things as easy as possible. It comes with two black japanese q-tips. These are tightly wound and won't fall apart with use which is EXTREMELY important as it means they won't compromise the compound. There is also an curled applicator tip for the syringe as well as an suction tip for retrieving extra liquid metal. It also comes with two 70% (yuck) isopropyl alcohol pads.As far as differences from the Liquid Pro there are a good number. Conductonaut is much easier to spread and does so beautifully. The q-tips don't fall apart and work fantastically. You can even put the q-tips in a plastic bag and reapply the left over metal next time. The curled tip works wonders as you don't have to awkwardly hold the tube vertical over the CPU to apply. It also doesn't just squirt out like the liquid pro, you're able to control the amount that comes out much better. The alcohol pads were a bit too small and a little too wet, but aren't comically oversized like Coollaboratories' pad and I didn't have to wring them out either unlike Coollaboratories which was soaked in way too much alcohol.Testing:Cold boot and idle temps took me back, upon boot it was 39 celsius and once idle in OS my temps were 28 celsius. I haven't had idle temps this low since I first applied diamond thermal paste years ago on my FX-8350. The 9590 has even worse heat dissipation as well as .7 GHz higher base clock and matches those temps which is impressive. So far this is a record on my 9590 as I don't believe I ever went under 36 with my diamond paste. The GPU sits at 38 celsius idle, down from the previous low 50s it sat at before.I ran a torture test on Prime95 for over an hour. Temperatures hovered around 41-42 celsius and never rose above 45.During a normal gaming session which consists of running a streaming client, chatbot, chat program, discord, stream preview through chrome and of course Monster Hunter World on 1080p high the temps stayed strong at 41-42 celsius on the CPU, down from the normal temps of 64 celsius of previous setups. The GPU held itself to 60 celsius, an 8 degree drop from the previous 68 celsius held by Liquid Pro and IC7 Diamond.Overclocking Tests:I was able to easily overclock the FX-9590 to 5.02GHz without any issue. Idle CPU Temps range from 29 celsius to mid-30s which is amazing.Launching another streaming sessions Conductonaut shows liquid metal's strength, it becomes more efficient as the temps go higher. With the 5.02GHz overclock CPU temps settled around 36 celsius, 5 degrees lower than when it wasn't overclocked!The GPU held itself to 62 celsius this time around. I added +551 MHz overclock to the memory clock and +88 MHz to the GPU base clock. Keep in mind the 980 Ti classified comes pre-overclocked so things are getting crazy!I fired up Uniengine's Superposition benchmarks. On 1080p high GPU temps jumped to 70 celsius, well below the 85 they used to be. Average FPS was 77 with a max of 94 fps. Score ended up being 10251 with no errors which puts it at #7 as far as single 980 Ti rankings on high. Not bad considering its getting beat by Ryzens and 8700Ks.Pushing my luck I added another +100 MHz to the mem clock and pushed the GPU clock to +128MHz. With a +651 MHz mem clock and +128 MHz GPU clock, the anomaly filled test crashed. I lowered the mem clock to +600 MHz and GPU clock to +115MHz. There were still some anomalies, but it survived with temps never going above 61 celsius (fans were at 100%.) A score of 10459 bumps me up to #6 with #1 being 10938.Now on to the torture tests on the CPU. Prime 95 failed miserably. Immediately 2 cores failed. Upon restarting the test the entire PC froze. I upped the CPU voltage from 1.48 to 1.5 to see if it's a power draw issue. Minimum temps rose 2 degrees from this change ,but maximum temps stayed the same. The test stayed on for a few minutes before freezing again. After increasing to 1.51 it still did the same. Lowering the voltage back to 1.47 and the overclock to 4.92GHz things were stable once again and Prime95 ran without issues for an hour. CPU temps never got past 42 celsius during the test. Not quite the triumphant thrill of breaking that 5GHz wall, but I'll take it!Overall Conductonaut shows why it is #1 in the liquid metal market. The competition isn't even close. From ease of application to performance Conductonaut leaves everyone behind with no hopes of catching up in its wake. Tests show considerable drops in temperatures vs. the competition, almost 20 degrees in some cases. This is going to be my only liquid metal supplier until someone dethrones them since I'm pleasantly surprised by the results.