Hardware Exchanging thermal paste?

[CallmeBerto]

Awesome stuff @MrBland

I will be doing LM in the future.

Will await your results.

 

[leerpsp]

Seen so many of these post on here that i'm gonna take the time to change my thermal paste/also add more thermal pads on mine as well. (also another thing to add when I get an extra Nintendo switch to mod I plan on trying to do a new cpu fan cooling mod by installing a bigger and better fan in it. I have a 3d printer to help with the mod.)

 

[Michael Morsette]

Observations:
I played the system before and after the mod trying to get frame drops. Namely running into the Korok forest and spinning. I noticed frame drops before and after the mod. Subjectively I wasn't able to tell a difference maybe after we get some tools with CFW I can do accurate measurements of post-mod anyway. The modded system did seem cooler and the fan seemed to run less post-mod.

In my comparison of an un-modded system vs the modded I did not see a noticeable difference in frame drops. However there was a significant difference in the fans and temp of back casing. The modded system system is cooler and fan runs a lot less.

I won't know if the liquid metal is damaging the heat sink unless I do another mod, or the system noticeably breaks, so I have no idea if the sink is safe for LM or if it has/is aluminum.

 

[guily6669]

Maybe its not making full contact? Thanks for the info...

Anyway I don't think the pipe metal below is copper, liquid metal eats other metals very fast in like a day it turns into like metal dust...

That's why probably just using a good thermal compound is more efficient than using liquid metal because if the bottom part of the copper heatpipe is aluminum, you can only use liquid metal below the copper shim and then another thermal paste again above it loosing efficiency since its better just direct heatpipe contact than having 2 heat transfer thermal paste based points.

But anyway in the video of the guy in youtube that reported less lag in the forest he made other mods too like cutting the back for a airflow boost.

 

[Michael Morsette]

No, contacts are good, like I pointed out it is a lot cooler than the unmodded. While I don't have actual measurements it seems cooler post mod compared to pre-mod also (it is easier to compare systems side by side than comparing what I remember of pre-mod to post-mod).

You have a point on possible damage however if it is zinc (strong possibility) then it is fine, aluminum and there will be damage. I'll open it after a while and see if it is damaging it.​

 

[codemasterv]

deleted

 

[guily6669]

No, contacts are good, like I pointed out it is a lot cooler than the unmodded. While I don't have actual measurements it seems cooler post mod compared to pre-mod also (it is easier to compare systems side by side than comparing what I remember of pre-mod to post-mod).

You have a point on possible damage however if it is zinc (strong possibility) then it is fine, aluminum and there will be damage. I'll open it after a while and see if it is damaging it.​

Please report then.

Mods need to lock this thread.

AS5 is a thermal paste, Its literally thermal paste with ground silver to help with heat transfer. Meaning adding the silver to the paste makes it a better heat conductor.

It is not Liquid Metal. That would be Mercury.

mercury is the only metallic element that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure; the only other element that is liquid under these conditions is bromine, though metals such as caesium, gallium, and rubidium melt just above room temperature.

I cant wait to see a bunch of pleb posts talking about "shorteded muh switch with liquids metals" because of over applying it.

Lock the thread why?

No one is recommending Liquid metal lol... He just tested and is reporting the results, everyone recommends a safe thermal compound like Artic MX-4 or any other...

Artic Silver 5 is kinda safe, but not 100% safe too as MX-4.

 

[codemasterv]

deleted

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Mods need to lock this thread.

AS5 is a thermal paste, Its literally thermal paste with ground silver to help with heat transfer. Meaning adding the silver to the paste makes it a better heat conductor.

It is not Liquid Metal. That would be Mercury.

mercury is the only metallic element that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure; the only other element that is liquid under these conditions is bromine, though metals such as caesium, gallium, and rubidium melt just above room temperature.

I cant wait to see a bunch of pleb posts talking about "shorteded muh switch with liquids metals" because of over applying it.

Liquid metal in this case refers to an alloy of Gallium, Indium and Tin that melts at a far lower temperature than any of the individual elements, IIRC its like - 17C (so it can solidify if it's cold enough such as if it's left in a car in the winter which could mess with things) although that depends on the exact ratio of the alloy.

 

[GBADWB]

Mods need to lock this thread.

AS5 is a thermal paste, Its literally thermal paste with ground silver to help with heat transfer. Meaning adding the silver to the paste makes it a better heat conductor.

It is not Liquid Metal. That would be Mercury.

mercury is the only metallic element that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure; the only other element that is liquid under these conditions is bromine, though metals such as caesium, gallium, and rubidium melt just above room temperature.

I cant wait to see a bunch of pleb posts talking about "shorteded muh switch with liquids metals" because of over applying it.

The one thing you fail to point out in your statement on why your mislead thinking mercury is the only option is that you fail to mention pressure in context of the die. Your statement holds true iff the pressure is at one atmosphere. The pressure inside a syringe as well as the pressure when you have a huge heatsink bolted down on top of you is NOT 1 atm. This part of the reason why you can have a liquid metal gallium paste compound.

the latter part of the statement is also why once you apply liquid metal, you arent supposed to take the heatsink off unless you are going to reapply it again, as you are breaking the seal that it created between the two contact surfaces, Removing it and putting it back on then creates a non ideal seal


Signed by guy who has a delidded processor using liquid metal

 

[Jungle_Jon]

Mods need to lock this thread.

AS5 is a thermal paste, Its literally thermal paste with ground silver to help with heat transfer. Meaning adding the silver to the paste makes it a better heat conductor.

It is not Liquid Metal. That would be Mercury.

mercury is the only metallic element that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure; the only other element that is liquid under these conditions is bromine, though metals such as caesium, gallium, and rubidium melt just above room temperature.

I cant wait to see a bunch of pleb posts talking about "shorteded muh switch with liquids metals" because of over applying it.

What a moronic comment.

Besides you not knowing what Liquid metal actually is, You are calling for censorship of a thread on of an internet forum (Forum being defined as, a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged), which doesn't break any site rules and is completely on topic.

If an inexperience reader of this thread, goes and buys "liquid metal" at the first mention of it in this thread, without at least reading the rest of this thread, and / or doing offsite additional research and then just opens up his switch and breaks it, that is not the fault of this thread but the user them selves.

This thread is a very valuable collection of information and discussion on this (totally optional, if you don't like it don't read it) cooling mod.

The only thing in this thread that should be "censored" are your posts.

Edit: @MrBland When you removed the copper shim and reattached the copper heatsink pipe, im guessing it made very good contact with the SoC ?

 

[Michael Morsette]

It seemed too; honestly hard to tell. I "painted" both the sink and the SoC with liquid metal and tightened the screws down well. I assume because I removed the copper shim that there will be more slack (for lack of a better word) where the surfaces meet than before; however the liquid metal should be insuring a good contact between the two surfaces.

My kids have been playing Fortnite on the system for MANY hours now lol and the system stays nice and cool, so the mod seems to be working well. I've heard the concerns of people saying that the liquid metal may go where is isn't supposed to during rough handling, we'll see. My kids are ages 4,6,8,10 and 12, all play the Switch and aren't as careful as I am. We will see how it holds up when I re-open it.

I am considering opening it again this weekend to inspect it.

 

[JjJjJjJj]

It seemed too; honestly hard to tell. I "painted" both the sink and the SoC with liquid metal and tightened the screws down well. I assume because I removed the copper shim that there will be more slack (for lack of a better word) where the surfaces meet than before; however the liquid metal should be insuring a good contact between the two surfaces.

My kids have been playing Fortnite on the system for MANY hours now lol and the system stays nice and cool, so the mod seems to be working well. I've heard the concerns of people saying that the liquid metal may go where is isn't supposed to during rough handling, we'll see. My kids are ages 4,6,8,10 and 12, all play the Switch and aren't as careful as I am. We will see how it holds up when I re-open it.

I am considering opening it again this weekend to inspect it.

How is the fan noise?

I would consider a thermal paste swap if it reduces the fan speed. Did you notice a significant difference between the modded switch and the unmodded switch?

I'm not worried about frames or throttling or temperature too much, but the loud fans can be annoying so that's my #1 goal.

 

[Michael Morsette]

Yes the fan runs less.

 

[Jungle_Jon]

I did this last night (Removed copper Shim, placed .5mm Thermal pads directly on RAM, 1mm on Heatsink and reapplied ARCTIC MX-4 on to SoC and "Heatsink" and then put 1mm pads on the metal case) and since i have been playing L.A.Noire in handheld mode, I don't think the fan has spun yet and the console do feel slightly cooler. Arguable if needed or what impact this has had.

 

[Huntereb]

Went ahead and did what you recommended @CallmeBerto and took off the lid over the RAM and CPU/GPU, applied new paste, and put some thermal pads over the RAM. Can't say I'm noticing anything stunningly better, but I can rest easy knowing I won't have to open this thing back up for a very long time.

I also swapped the tri-wing screws with some philips like I mentioned before, much easier for removal in the future!

 

[ginryu]

Are the thermal pads really necessary?? I have some good thermal paste around but no money to buy the pads so I would like to know.

Thx.

 

[CallmeBerto]

Are the thermal pads really necessary?? I have some good thermal paste around but no money to buy the pads so I would like to know.

Thx.

Unlikely they will do anything at all. MAYBE 1C differences on the memory chips MAYBE

 

[ginryu]

Unlikely they will do anything at all. MAYBE 1C differences on the memory chips MAYBE

Will have to try it then, if the fan spins less it will make the battery last a little more.

 

[JiveTheTurkey]

Do you guys think that using a oven thermometer (not sure how they're called, you hover the scanner over the heat and measure temp) could be useful for testing before and after?