ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 Liquid Metal Thermal Paste Upgrade: 20-30% Performance Boost!

ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 thermal issues improved significantly after liquid metal reapplication, boosting performance by 20-30%.

### Liquid Metal Laptop Overclocking: A Dramatic Performance Boost!
* 🛠️ Rimzler, experiencing thermal issues (**95°C CPU**) on his ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17, attempts liquid metal cooling.
* 🌡️  He discovers subpar factory application of liquid metal on the CPU and **dry thermal paste** on the GPU.
* 🔬  Carefully applying liquid metal to the CPU and thermal paste to the GPU, emphasizing safety precautions.
* 🔄️  After reassembly, Geekbench scores show a significant improvement: **+2000 points**, with multi-core jumping from 6400 to 8456.
* 🚀  Clock speeds increased dramatically, from 2.7-3.5 GHz to 4.2-4.6 GHz on all eight cores, exceeding stock performance.
* 📉  Maximum temperature dropped from 95°C to 85°C, eliminating thermal throttling and resulting in a **20-30% performance increase**.
* 🤔 Rimzler questions ASUS's factory cooling solution, suggesting others with similar laptops might see similar improvements.
* 💻  He plans further modifications, including adding a wire mesh for better airflow and creating a hole for the USB-C port.

Hi everybody and welcome back to my basement. Once again, today I have my laptop and I have issues with thermals.

I already made a video when I did this with holes on the bottom to allow more airflow, but it didn't really help with

the CPU cooling, and I have my CPU sitting constantly at 95 degrees. Bear in mind, this laptop is a Rock

Strix Scar 17, and it's liquid metal cooled, both in GPU and CPU. You're gonna see in a moment,

but I believe ASUS didn't really do a good job on the CPU side. So what I did

is I bought some liquid metal today. I'm going to open it, add more liquid metal, and see if it works or not. This is a

desperate attempt, and I'm going to try it. Let's see if it works. Perfect! Now it's open. I've removed the

battery, and it's time to remove the cooling.  And this is kind of a surprise to me,

because I thought both of them had liquid metal on them. The CPU was liquid metal; the GPU has thermal paste, and it's

freaking dry! So yeah, it was time to change it for sure. And also, the application job on the CPU was not the

best, really. And I see there's room for improvement. Be careful with liquid metal, because thermal paste is not

conductive. If it goes on your motherboard, no issue. This one is nasty, and you will fry your motherboard, so

really, really be careful with it. And don't use it on aluminum; only use it with copper or nickel-plated copper, like

this one. I don't know why they didn't go with copper directly, but I'm going to start from the CPU.  I'll understand

how liquid metal works because I've never done it, and then maybe I'm going to put it on the GPU as well. We've got some conductor

Note here from Thermal Grizzly, and I guess this is the best one to use. I'm going to use the alcohol pad they give you

and clean everything up. It just bolts together, like you can see there. Oh my god, it's like mercury; be careful with

those little bolts. As you can see, some of it has gone outside, and this is a big issue, I think.

I'm going to use some solder removal pen because, yeah, sucked it right out. Nice! Boom! It's shiny clean right now, and I'm

going to proceed. Oh my god, I'm kind of nervous. So, as I understand it, you just drop a ball

in the middle... no, maybe it's too much. Can I suck it back in? Wow! Well, this stuff, I gotta say, it's kind of cool, and

then with the spreader here, you just spread it around. And you also need to apply it on the

heatsink radiator. Boom! I sprayed it everywhere, and now it's time for the GPU, and I'm scared.

And I think I'm going to use regular thermal paste on it because it's not set up to use liquid metal, and I

don't want to destroy my laptop. And really, the GPU was fine; it was at 70 degrees with that old

crappy thermal paste. With my MX Arctic... it will be just fine. I'm going to get it and put it there, and boom! This is the

MX-4 from Arctic, and this is a couple of years old, but I guess it's going to be fine

because it's sealed in the tube. And I don't remember how to use the thing... I guess you gotta

cross it like this, you know? I'm just going to spread it; I don't care if it comes out.

I want to just be sure it works. Everything's set. Time to put the heatsink back on, and I hope it doesn't drip.

Need to be super precise. Let me check one last time, and boom, it's done! Time to put the cover

back on and test the performance before I put the screws in. Let's see if it turns on... Yeah, it turns on! Super nice. I...

I hope... yeah, the LEDs are on. The screen is not... I'm scared. Okay, okay, it decided to turn on.

Everything is fine. I removed the battery, so maybe it had a little hiccup. Let's see if it boots.

Perfect! And you can see me; I'm super excited because I just ran Geekbench again, and the results are way above what

I imagined. Just look at them! Just look at them! Boom! Gonna put them on the screen, but we got more than 2000 points more

on Geekbench, and that's a lot! Before, we had 1009 on the single-core score; now we have 1315.

It's a little bit better, but the multi-core: 6400 before, 8456 now. It's... it's crazy!

It's just crazy! And for this CPU, stock values are around 7000, so we are 1456 more than stock.

Before, I was going a little bit less than stock; now I'm exceeding the average by a lot... a lot of margin.

Actually, and I can just feel the heat being a lot hotter around here. And I watched the clock speed

with a CPU stress test—basically, stresses all cores together. Before, it was running at 2.7

to 3.5 GHz. Now, eight cores; you can run them at 4.2, 4.6.

Which is a ton better! It depends on the situation; if the GPU gets used, you lose a little bit of

thermal dissipation here because you also have to cool the GPU as well. But I'm super, super, super

Excited about this! I can feel the difference; it's much snappier, faster, and cooler, and it

doesn't thermal throttle all the time. The max temperature I've seen now is 85 degrees; before, it was 95, even if it

was like this doing nothing. And really, I mean, ASUS, what the hell did you do? This is the way to cool a laptop! And if

you have a laptop like this and you feel your performance isn't the best, maybe after the warranty is over, of course, try

to get a look in the CPU/GPU department; maybe you will get a lot of extra performance out of it. I mean, it's

a new laptop—it's 20–30 percent faster now! And that's basically a year; every product, you know, every year it's

30 percent faster than the year before, on average. So yeah, new laptop, 2022, and I'm super excited about this. And as

always, remember to like, subscribe, and comment on this video. Let me know what you think about this craziness I've

been doing. I want to rock this cover, but I need to find a wire mesh to put on here and some way

to glue it, actually, because I need to glue it; I'm scared something is going to damage my fans.

Looks cool now! And also, I need to make the hole for the USB-C, even if I'm not using it that much.

And as always, stay safe and happy overclocking! Bye!

Liquid metal cooling my laptop... You will not believe how fast it runs now!

Rimzler

Laptop Thermal Issues and Initial Assessment

Rimzler discusses his laptop's thermal problems, specifically high CPU temperatures (95°C).

Previous attempts to improve airflow were unsuccessful.

The laptop is an ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17, already liquid-metal cooled (GPU and CPU).

Rimzler suspects ASUS's CPU cooling implementation is subpar.

He plans to add more liquid metal to attempt to fix the issue.

Disassembly, Inspection, and Liquid Metal Application

The laptop is opened, and the cooling system is removed.

Unexpectedly, the CPU has liquid metal, but the GPU only has dried-out thermal paste.

The CPU's liquid metal application is deemed suboptimal.

Rimzler cautions about liquid metal's conductivity and proper application.

He cleans the components using alcohol pads and applies liquid metal to the CPU.

Regular thermal paste is used for the GPU due to incompatibility with liquid metal.

Geekbench results show significant performance improvement (over 2000 points).

Specific improvements are noted in both single-core and multi-core scores.

CPU clock speeds are now significantly higher (4.2-4.6 GHz).

Rimzler expresses excitement over the improved performance and lower temperatures (max 85°C).

He criticizes ASUS's cooling solution and suggests others with similar laptops might benefit from this modification.

The performance increase is estimated to be 20-30%.

Future plans include adding a wire mesh to the laptop cover.