I have a cutom loop for my cpu for about a year now. At first I had an AMD FX8350 which ran at 4.8Ghz at great temps thanks to my 4x120mm radiator. I used a liquid metal thermal paste which worked great until I upgraded my system to X99 and an 5820k. The liquid metat gets solid over time and you can not get it fully removed because it is so deep in the material. The manual tells you to sand it down with a included stellwool thing, which i did. Because I don't like this very much, I decided to use "normal" thermal paste on my new system. The waterblock is still the same EK supremacy but it has this unremovable layer off the old thermal past still on it.
My problem is that my 5820k runs pretty hot, even at idle: about 40 degrees celcius. Is there any way of improving my temps other than replaycing the waterblock?
Edit: Does someone any experience with this type of thermal paste?
btw I'm german so english is not my primary language
Can you post pics of the bottom of the water block? I imagine that the layer of metal paste that was left was rather jagged and is obstructing good contact from being made with the new chip. MY initial reaction would be to sand down the water block to a smooth shine with none of the old paste still visible.
Unfortunatly I didn't take any pics of it. But it does look more like a discoloration rather than an addition layer on top of the copper. When I builded the new system I thought about sanding it further down but I didn't have the time because I needed the system back up and running. So I ended up just sanding it down so far that it is an flat surface because it was quite rough.
I think that it is probably the best thing disasable the loop and sanding the block on the weekend.
A few things.you will want high grit sand paper, 400 up to about 2000 if you can find it. That will polish it and not take much off. Stick the sandpaper to a flat surface with some.two sided tape and move the block flat along the paper. This will keep it perfectly flat.
Edit never mind you have a link for this. Carry on.
The old CPU is not the actual Problem because I sold it to my sister and its not overclocked so it is running good enoght. If I have some extra time it is working out great at my block then I will take her System apart to clean the CPU. So the next step is to get some 2000 grit sandpaper. I'll post an update after I polished it to share the results.
It is made from Gallium, and tin (Galistan). Whatever you do don't touch Aluminium with it, or leave the residue on aluminium (its funny to shake a can of coke and put it on though).
The easiest way to get it off is to place the block in warm water. I'm not sure why, but it seems to separate out after a while. Gallium melting point is 30 degrees. Heat it over this and it turns runny.
Some of the material will have reacted with the Nickle on the block and bonded. As the others said just lap it down with sand paper. To be honest, I tested my block (EK) without fine sanding and there was absolutely no change in temp, so you don't have to go to mad. I will never use liquid metal again though... It simply isn't worth it, and I got high temps after about a year too. I think it separates and hardens.
Gallium does react with copper, but veeery slowly and not in a major way. Gallium is solid under 30 Celsius, so if you're removing it heat the part underneath your sink, warm water flowing over it melts it rather quickly, then you can just wipe it off with toiletpaper/cloth.
If it has alloyed with your copper heatsink, its likely just minor stuff on the surface, though it shouldn't affect the performance in any measurable way.
Also, lapping your heatsink/cpu never hurts, you can improve temps by a huge amount, knocked 10c off mine after lapping it.