The World of Thermal Management: Liquid Metal and Phase Changing Materials

In the world of high-performance computing, thermal management is a crucial aspect that can make or break the success of a product. The quest for optimal performance has led researchers to explore innovative materials that can help mitigate heat-related issues. Two such materials have gained attention in recent years: liquid metal and phase changing materials like PTM 7950. In this article, we'll delve into the world of thermal management and examine these cutting-edge solutions.

One of the most exciting developments in thermal management is the use of liquid metal. Liquid metal has been around for a while, but its recent applications in high-performance computing have sparked significant interest. Intel's efforts to create an 80-degree target temperature using liquid metal are a prime example. The company's research team successfully developed a pad that liquefied at temperatures above 60 degrees Celsius, allowing the chip to maintain its turbo speeds more consistently. This achievement demonstrates the potential of liquid metal in thermal management.

However, working with liquid metal comes with its own set of challenges. One major issue is safety concerns; handling liquid metal can be hazardous due to its toxic nature and risk of spills. Additionally, the cost of liquid metal products can be prohibitively expensive for some users. In contrast, phase changing materials like PTM 7950 offer a more accessible alternative.

PTM 7950 is a phase changing material that was developed by Honeywell specifically for high-performance computing applications. This material has been extensively tested and proven to provide exceptional thermal performance. The company's test reports reveal impressive results, including a temperature cycling test that alternates between -55°C and 125°C, with the material maintaining its thermal properties after 1000 cycles.

One of the most significant advantages of PTM 7950 is its long service interval. Unlike traditional thermal materials, which may need to be replaced every few years, PTM 7950 can provide consistent performance for an extended period. This characteristic makes it an attractive option for industries that require reliable products, such as laptops, graphics cards, and lighting.

The availability of PTM 7950 has also sparked interest in various industries beyond high-performance computing. Its use in automotive applications, where long service intervals are crucial, is a notable example. Furthermore, the material's ability to provide consistent thermal performance over an extended period makes it an attractive solution for other sectors, such as lighting.

In our quest for optimal thermal performance, we've experimented with various materials and techniques. One of the most memorable experiences was when we attempted to lower temperatures by smearing paste all over a laptop and GPU. While the results were impressive, the process was messy and not recommended for home users.

The science behind PTM 7950 is fascinating, and it's worth exploring further. This phase changing material can be applied once and provides almost peak-tier thermal performance for the entire life of a device. While liquid metal may still offer superior thermal management capabilities, PTM 7950 is an attractive alternative that addresses safety concerns and cost issues.

In conclusion, the world of thermal management is evolving rapidly, with innovative materials like PTM 7950 offering promising solutions. As we continue to push the boundaries of performance and efficiency, it's essential to explore new technologies that can help us achieve our goals. Whether you're a enthusiast or a professional, understanding the latest advancements in thermal management can help you make informed decisions about your devices.

War Thunder: The Ultimate Vehicle Combat Experience

As we conclude our exploration of thermal management materials, it's worth mentioning another industry leader that's pushing the boundaries of realistic gaming experiences: War Thunder. Developed by Gaijin Entertainment, War Thunder is a comprehensive vehicle combat game that offers an unparalleled level of realism and immersion. With over 2,000 vehicles to choose from, including tanks, planes, helicopters, and ships, players can engage in tactical and strategic combat across various historical periods.

One of the most impressive features of War Thunder is its damaged X-ray system, which simulates the actual damage done to vehicles during combat. This level of realism creates a more engaging experience for players, as they must manage their resources carefully to maintain their vehicles' effectiveness.

War Thunder takes attention to realism to a new level by using this innovative system. The game's developers have also implemented other realistic features, such as weather effects and day-night cycles, which further enhance the overall gaming experience.

To get started with War Thunder, players can access the game for free on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. With cross-platform play available, players from different platforms can join forces and engage in epic battles together. The best part? Players don't need any additional external components to enjoy the game; they can simply log in with their keyboard and mouse.

Conclusion

The world of thermal management is a complex and fascinating field that continues to evolve rapidly. Liquid metal and phase changing materials like PTM 7950 offer promising solutions for high-performance computing applications. While liquid metal may still hold an edge in terms of thermal performance, PTM 7950 addresses safety concerns and cost issues, making it an attractive alternative.

As we continue to push the boundaries of performance and efficiency, it's essential to stay informed about the latest advancements in thermal management. War Thunder, on the other hand, offers a unique gaming experience that simulates realistic combat scenarios. Whether you're a gamer or a professional, there's no denying the importance of understanding the latest developments in thermal management and game development.

In the world of thermal management, innovation knows no bounds. As we continue to explore new materials and technologies, one thing is certain: the future of high-performance computing will be shaped by cutting-edge solutions that prioritize performance, safety, and accessibility.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhether it's your laptop your PC or your phone personal electronics get hot and we're always looking for new ways to make them more comfortable to use which led us to a fascinating new trend on Reddit some Intrepid users have been buying industrial grade cooling pads and putting them in their laptops and the more I learned about these things the more I needed to know see the thing is they go on like a normal thermal Pad but they're designed to melt as soon as your device heats up then return to a solid state once it cools and this is without seeping out and frying your circuits like we've seen with other exotic thermal interface materials but there's always a catch isn't there yes there is and PTM 7950 here has got a few of them and I'm going to show you what they are but first I'm going to catch you off guard with this message from our sponsor War Thunder War Thunder is an immersive and detail-focused Online vehicle combat game that allows you to choose from over 2 000 different machines you can pile it click the link below to snag some bonus items today PTM 7950 comes to us from multinational conglomerate Honeywell and while it's designed for industrial use and they don't sell it directly to Consumers there are obviously ways to get it as evidenced by the fact that I'm holding some and by this post we found on the framework Forum where user Michael underscore Wu posted some impressive thermal results after swapping to PTM 7950 from a more traditional thermal paste and right out of the gate the spec sheet raises some serious questions most importantly what the heck is a PCM or phase change material well simply put it's a substance that can change from one state of matter to another you know like how a liquid like water becomes solid ice when cooled or gaseous steam when heated with that said the fact that water can do it is an indication that changing phases is not that special what is special about this particular PCM though is the temperature at which it changes from one phase to another its melting point is 45 degrees Celsius which happens to be a perfect sweet spot where it would never accidentally melt in a controlled environment like a manufacturing plant let's say but pretty much the second an electronic component started to do any real work it should immediately begin to change from a solid to a liquid dramatically decreasing its viscosity aiding thermal transfer it's not that different from the operating principle of liquid metal whose biggest Advantage aside from being metal and therefore very thermally conductive is that it is so thin and so viscous that it's able to easily fill any tiny air voids between your CPU and your heatsink air is an extremely poor heat conductor which is why our fluffy retropolar fleece is so great at keeping you warm before we go any further I want to see this thing in action because I'm just curious like how much exactly does it melt what do you feel in Brandon a strip or a square hip to be square oh spoke cut my thumb off there it's like oh oh no all right I didn't do it right okay let me give it a little stick then for a comparison we'll take some regular old nth2 maybe I'll just kind of spread it around a bit or something I don't know sure um can confirm fire is hot and let's see what happens to the my little pens here oh we're already at uh around 75 degrees 16 45 okay oh it's starting to sweat Brandon come check this out given the surface it's sitting on is well over 45 degrees that's not as melty as I expected it to be why don't we give her a little more juice okay now she's liquid come check this out see that actually I think we might have gone a little too far it's uh greater than 130 degrees two is still quite pasty I mean that's not really as liquidy as I expected it's certainly different than it was before but we've been informed that it's at its most liquid when it's under pressure which would be the case if it was installed between a heat sink and a processor okay see oh yeah it get Interesting Man the second you touch it it does get quite liquid there we go oh oh my cold stick was carrying away too much of the Heat it does turn liquid that was super interesting but it doesn't necessarily indicate that PTM 7950 is going to work well so for our performance comparison we obtained not one but two samples of PTM 7950 from two different sources and I will explain more about that later for now we just want to see this phase changing in action versus a standard thermal paste to start with we'd recommend storing it in your fridge for at least a couple of hours before you begin maybe you could keep it next to your photo film it helps make the material a little bit more workable the first thing you'll need to do is clean both the core or heat spreader of your processor and your cooler then after measuring the approximate Dimensions cut up your pad with a pair of scissors you don't have to get this exactly right because PTM 7950 is non-conductive and shouldn't damage anything if it seeps over the edge next peel one side of the pad and we recommend sticking it to the processor rather than to your cooler apply pressure evenly over the pad to help with the next step then peel the other side with a pair of needle nose pliers or or tweezers finally install your cooler compared to my experience with liquid metal particularly clean up if you make a mistake this was not bad but there's no doubt in my mind that it is a lot more finicky than just squirting out some thermal paste even in an unmelted State I feel like the term PAD is being used pretty generously here PTM 7950 seems to me more like a thin layer of schmoo between two pieces of plastic film that make it a little easier to work with and by a little easier I really do mean a little easier but if the performance is good enough we know that enthusiasts won't hesitate to go through a process like that so to find out we sent this knock to Edition RTX 3070 over to our lab where they put our PTM up against not to his finest thermal paste their nth2 and thermal Grizzly conduct a knot and if the conventional wisdom holds true that pads do not perform as well as pastes and certainly not as well as liquid metal then it should lose to both of these pretty handily and it does until it doesn't look at this for the first five minutes PCM 7950 totally sucks like you might as well put cheese whiz on your GPU but then the magic happens you can see it it starts to change from solid to liquid and five minutes later it's on par with the nth2 then five minutes after that it pulls ahead we tried it on a desktop CPU as well and while we couldn't show any difference in temperature thanks to Intel's 80 degree Target we did see a measurable increase in power draw as the pad liquefied which allowed our chip to maintain its turbo speeds ever so slightly more consistently now to be clear all of these are very high performance solutions and the difference between the best and the worst of them is so small that unless you're chasing every possible Edge you'd probably consider it to be a tie but that alone is very impressive and it comes without the risk of getting liquid metal all over your stuff which can kill it and guess what it gets even better take a look at the industries that are using this product laptops graphics cards sure but also lighting and Automotive all of which have one thing in common very long service intervals that means that even if you don't care about a degree or two of extra performance the real win here is that you won't need to replace this pad for the entire life of your device and we're pretty confident about that one good thing about products that are designed for highly regulated Industries is that you can expect extremely detailed manufacturer test reports and the one that Honeywell provides for PTM 7950 is a doozy of interest to us in particular is the temperature cycling test which alternates between negative 55 and 125 degrees Celsius 1000 and times PTM 7950 not only passes this test easily but actually manages to improve its thermal impedance after those 1000 Cycles compared to when it was new that's probably why Lenovo started pre-applying this stuff to their Legion 7 laptops in the last year or so to our knowledge they were the first to use this product in a personal Computing device but given how secretive the industry tends to be about material sourcing it actually wouldn't surprise me if other vendors have been quietly using it for years the earliest data sheet we found from Honeywell referencing PTM 7950 is actually from all the way back in 2016 which is great but there are a couple of loose ends that we haven't tied up yet starting with how the devil you're supposed to get it well remember how I had two different versions of the pad well all the results we've shown are from the better one of the two which we believe is the authentic Honeywell version the thing is unless you want to actually order a thousand of these your only choice is to buy it from someone who did order a thousand of them with the markup that comes along with it and most of the ones that we found are from Rando third-party Marketplace sellers our slightly worse one came from AliExpress while our slightly better one came from E by seven but your mileage may vary and if you guess wrong it might be a pretty tough pill to swallow because problem number the second PTM 7950 is not cheap a single eight centimeter by eight centimeter pad like this one that might get you what a handful of applications cost the same as a whole tube of nth2 or cost as much as three tubes if you want to take the safe route and go for a definitely authentic one from Mod DIY finally I mean it's not like we reinvented the wheel here if you're after the ultimate in thermal performance liquid metal is still the way to go even if it's only by a hair but if you want something that you can apply once and have almost Peak tier thermal results for the entire life of your device well maybe it's time for a phase changing material like PTM and maybe it's time to end this video with a Segway to our sponsor War Thunder War Thunder is the comprehensive vehicle combat game that is free to play on PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One and series X with crossplay available they've got a selection of over 2 000 Vehicles including tanks planes helicopters and ships and over a hundred years of historically accurate very detailed war vehicles that are available to choose from there's going to be something for you no matter what your taste is if you want to enjoy some tactical and realistic PVP or if you're more of a fast-paced action-focused combat person War Thunder has got you and War Thunder takes attention to realism to a completely different level by using a damaged x-ray system showing the actual Damage Done to Vehicles during combat instead of a traditional hit point system the best part of all there's no need for any additional external components and you can hop right into the action with just a keyboard and a mouse so what are you waiting for click the link below oh and start playing War Thunder for free with some premium vehicles and boosts go check it out I really think the science behind this material is fascinating I hope you did too if you like these kinds of weird thermal solutions that come from other Industries maybe check out the time we lowered temperatures by smearing paste all over our laptop and a GPU that stuff was very messy good but very messywhether it's your laptop your PC or your phone personal electronics get hot and we're always looking for new ways to make them more comfortable to use which led us to a fascinating new trend on Reddit some Intrepid users have been buying industrial grade cooling pads and putting them in their laptops and the more I learned about these things the more I needed to know see the thing is they go on like a normal thermal Pad but they're designed to melt as soon as your device heats up then return to a solid state once it cools and this is without seeping out and frying your circuits like we've seen with other exotic thermal interface materials but there's always a catch isn't there yes there is and PTM 7950 here has got a few of them and I'm going to show you what they are but first I'm going to catch you off guard with this message from our sponsor War Thunder War Thunder is an immersive and detail-focused Online vehicle combat game that allows you to choose from over 2 000 different machines you can pile it click the link below to snag some bonus items today PTM 7950 comes to us from multinational conglomerate Honeywell and while it's designed for industrial use and they don't sell it directly to Consumers there are obviously ways to get it as evidenced by the fact that I'm holding some and by this post we found on the framework Forum where user Michael underscore Wu posted some impressive thermal results after swapping to PTM 7950 from a more traditional thermal paste and right out of the gate the spec sheet raises some serious questions most importantly what the heck is a PCM or phase change material well simply put it's a substance that can change from one state of matter to another you know like how a liquid like water becomes solid ice when cooled or gaseous steam when heated with that said the fact that water can do it is an indication that changing phases is not that special what is special about this particular PCM though is the temperature at which it changes from one phase to another its melting point is 45 degrees Celsius which happens to be a perfect sweet spot where it would never accidentally melt in a controlled environment like a manufacturing plant let's say but pretty much the second an electronic component started to do any real work it should immediately begin to change from a solid to a liquid dramatically decreasing its viscosity aiding thermal transfer it's not that different from the operating principle of liquid metal whose biggest Advantage aside from being metal and therefore very thermally conductive is that it is so thin and so viscous that it's able to easily fill any tiny air voids between your CPU and your heatsink air is an extremely poor heat conductor which is why our fluffy retropolar fleece is so great at keeping you warm before we go any further I want to see this thing in action because I'm just curious like how much exactly does it melt what do you feel in Brandon a strip or a square hip to be square oh spoke cut my thumb off there it's like oh oh no all right I didn't do it right okay let me give it a little stick then for a comparison we'll take some regular old nth2 maybe I'll just kind of spread it around a bit or something I don't know sure um can confirm fire is hot and let's see what happens to the my little pens here oh we're already at uh around 75 degrees 16 45 okay oh it's starting to sweat Brandon come check this out given the surface it's sitting on is well over 45 degrees that's not as melty as I expected it to be why don't we give her a little more juice okay now she's liquid come check this out see that actually I think we might have gone a little too far it's uh greater than 130 degrees two is still quite pasty I mean that's not really as liquidy as I expected it's certainly different than it was before but we've been informed that it's at its most liquid when it's under pressure which would be the case if it was installed between a heat sink and a processor okay see oh yeah it get Interesting Man the second you touch it it does get quite liquid there we go oh oh my cold stick was carrying away too much of the Heat it does turn liquid that was super interesting but it doesn't necessarily indicate that PTM 7950 is going to work well so for our performance comparison we obtained not one but two samples of PTM 7950 from two different sources and I will explain more about that later for now we just want to see this phase changing in action versus a standard thermal paste to start with we'd recommend storing it in your fridge for at least a couple of hours before you begin maybe you could keep it next to your photo film it helps make the material a little bit more workable the first thing you'll need to do is clean both the core or heat spreader of your processor and your cooler then after measuring the approximate Dimensions cut up your pad with a pair of scissors you don't have to get this exactly right because PTM 7950 is non-conductive and shouldn't damage anything if it seeps over the edge next peel one side of the pad and we recommend sticking it to the processor rather than to your cooler apply pressure evenly over the pad to help with the next step then peel the other side with a pair of needle nose pliers or or tweezers finally install your cooler compared to my experience with liquid metal particularly clean up if you make a mistake this was not bad but there's no doubt in my mind that it is a lot more finicky than just squirting out some thermal paste even in an unmelted State I feel like the term PAD is being used pretty generously here PTM 7950 seems to me more like a thin layer of schmoo between two pieces of plastic film that make it a little easier to work with and by a little easier I really do mean a little easier but if the performance is good enough we know that enthusiasts won't hesitate to go through a process like that so to find out we sent this knock to Edition RTX 3070 over to our lab where they put our PTM up against not to his finest thermal paste their nth2 and thermal Grizzly conduct a knot and if the conventional wisdom holds true that pads do not perform as well as pastes and certainly not as well as liquid metal then it should lose to both of these pretty handily and it does until it doesn't look at this for the first five minutes PCM 7950 totally sucks like you might as well put cheese whiz on your GPU but then the magic happens you can see it it starts to change from solid to liquid and five minutes later it's on par with the nth2 then five minutes after that it pulls ahead we tried it on a desktop CPU as well and while we couldn't show any difference in temperature thanks to Intel's 80 degree Target we did see a measurable increase in power draw as the pad liquefied which allowed our chip to maintain its turbo speeds ever so slightly more consistently now to be clear all of these are very high performance solutions and the difference between the best and the worst of them is so small that unless you're chasing every possible Edge you'd probably consider it to be a tie but that alone is very impressive and it comes without the risk of getting liquid metal all over your stuff which can kill it and guess what it gets even better take a look at the industries that are using this product laptops graphics cards sure but also lighting and Automotive all of which have one thing in common very long service intervals that means that even if you don't care about a degree or two of extra performance the real win here is that you won't need to replace this pad for the entire life of your device and we're pretty confident about that one good thing about products that are designed for highly regulated Industries is that you can expect extremely detailed manufacturer test reports and the one that Honeywell provides for PTM 7950 is a doozy of interest to us in particular is the temperature cycling test which alternates between negative 55 and 125 degrees Celsius 1000 and times PTM 7950 not only passes this test easily but actually manages to improve its thermal impedance after those 1000 Cycles compared to when it was new that's probably why Lenovo started pre-applying this stuff to their Legion 7 laptops in the last year or so to our knowledge they were the first to use this product in a personal Computing device but given how secretive the industry tends to be about material sourcing it actually wouldn't surprise me if other vendors have been quietly using it for years the earliest data sheet we found from Honeywell referencing PTM 7950 is actually from all the way back in 2016 which is great but there are a couple of loose ends that we haven't tied up yet starting with how the devil you're supposed to get it well remember how I had two different versions of the pad well all the results we've shown are from the better one of the two which we believe is the authentic Honeywell version the thing is unless you want to actually order a thousand of these your only choice is to buy it from someone who did order a thousand of them with the markup that comes along with it and most of the ones that we found are from Rando third-party Marketplace sellers our slightly worse one came from AliExpress while our slightly better one came from E by seven but your mileage may vary and if you guess wrong it might be a pretty tough pill to swallow because problem number the second PTM 7950 is not cheap a single eight centimeter by eight centimeter pad like this one that might get you what a handful of applications cost the same as a whole tube of nth2 or cost as much as three tubes if you want to take the safe route and go for a definitely authentic one from Mod DIY finally I mean it's not like we reinvented the wheel here if you're after the ultimate in thermal performance liquid metal is still the way to go even if it's only by a hair but if you want something that you can apply once and have almost Peak tier thermal results for the entire life of your device well maybe it's time for a phase changing material like PTM and maybe it's time to end this video with a Segway to our sponsor War Thunder War Thunder is the comprehensive vehicle combat game that is free to play on PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One and series X with crossplay available they've got a selection of over 2 000 Vehicles including tanks planes helicopters and ships and over a hundred years of historically accurate very detailed war vehicles that are available to choose from there's going to be something for you no matter what your taste is if you want to enjoy some tactical and realistic PVP or if you're more of a fast-paced action-focused combat person War Thunder has got you and War Thunder takes attention to realism to a completely different level by using a damaged x-ray system showing the actual Damage Done to Vehicles during combat instead of a traditional hit point system the best part of all there's no need for any additional external components and you can hop right into the action with just a keyboard and a mouse so what are you waiting for click the link below oh and start playing War Thunder for free with some premium vehicles and boosts go check it out I really think the science behind this material is fascinating I hope you did too if you like these kinds of weird thermal solutions that come from other Industries maybe check out the time we lowered temperatures by smearing paste all over our laptop and a GPU that stuff was very messy good but very messy\n"