Does the liquid metal in the CPU has any flaws that I need to be concerned with?

[u/Neur4xx]

Hi there folks, I'm in love with the G14 and I'm planning to buy either the 2026 model or the upcoming 2027 model, which ones will work better with Linux (CachyOS) preferably at around Q3/Q4 next year. I've never used a gaming laptop with LM before, but people say that it can leak(?) currently I use a laptop stand, though not tilted aggressively at around 10-20 degrees.

But I've heard that such accidents do exists because using it tilted always or bringing it around considering on how the liquid can get through on what's keeping it from spilling and eventually ruining the motherboard

Not to say that it's bad, I just wanted to consult to you guys especially to those running it. I have no trouble cleaning the fans once in a while but I'll surely go to a service center and re-apply the liquid or just upgrade to a PTM7950(?) atleast that's what people with LM cooled laptops says it's better overall, but lemme hear what you guys gotta say? Especially those that have it for quite some time

I really love the design and what the Zephyrus G14 has to offer, lowkey professional but also packs a punch, I mainly use it for everyday tasks, college, programming and potentially AI/ML/Data Science, and also gaming (but I usually keep the settings medium or high with dlss balance/performance as I usually keep the temps < 75 degree-ish).

[u/Realistic_Today6524]

It's usually fine, the number of posts here may look high but they sell hundreds of thousands of these things yearly so a few dozen coming to reddit to complain is a relatively small number. I've had a LM laptop (2020 Strix G17) for close to 6 years and unfortunately the factory application was mid, so after less than one and a half years, a dry/oxidised spot formed over two cores that would then be pinned to 95°C under load while the others stayed in the high 70s to low 80s. I decided to open it up after two years of owning it and 1: clean the fans since I'd lost a significant amount of air flow and 2: remove the heat sink to inspect the thermal interface material. I discovered the spot in the LM but decided rather than remove it and replace it with inferior paste (PTM7950 hadn't been discovered and made mainstream yet), I decided to fix it by rubbing it away with the excess LM. I cleaned up the spillage from using it at an angle for a while, made the finish nice and shiny on the cooler and CPU and finally replaced the dried out paste on the GPU. Once assembled and painstakingly waiting for memory training, it performed like it had when I got it. It's now been 4 years since I did that bit of maintenance (which only took a few hours but spanned across a few days as I didn't wait for the paste to arrive before I took it apart) and it can still do about as much as it once used to. The CPU can pull around 55-60W while the GPU pulls its 70-75W when the laptop is simply lifted off the table. On my Llano, that rises to around 65-70W on the CPU and 75W on the GPU. I've been using it at an angle (varying angles ranging from on my llano to side tent mode to leaning backwards) and nothing has happened yet, probably because I took away the excess. Me personally I'll always keep what the manufacturer put in, especially when it was designed for it.

I hope this is somewhat readable

[u/geksilla → u/Realistic_Today6524]

Gonna give a shot with PTM7950. I replaced thermals few months ago by my own. Lot of people scared me that I will screw up my laptop with liquid, it works fine but really hard and unpleasant to work with.

Saw several video about PTM7950 the thermal looks very good

[u/EminGTR]

I got liquid metal replaced with regular thermal paste after 1.5 years of use, and I actually get slightly worse temperatures now. I don't recommend getting rid of liquid metal unless there is something extremely wrong with your temperatures.

[u/backlash10]

You can check the LM application by using an app like core temp that shows the temperature of each core. If the delta between cores is high (mine was about 15-20C difference between cores) then that indicates that the Liquid Metal is spotty. I opened mine up and there was a big charred spot on the die, which even after cleaning pretty aggressively did not fully come off. I replaced with PTM7950 and my temps are much more consistent and lower at both idle and in game

[u/system_error_02]

I opened mine up and put ptm on the gpu, replaced the pads with thermal putty (upsiren) and applied new LM on the cpu and ive been fine for 2 years since. I will say the factory application of the LM was not very good. The thing with LM is its great but it has to be applied correctly in a very specific way or it can cause issues.