Playstation5 - Liquid Metal or Graphene?

In this article we will address this delicate topic. Has the time come to perform maintenance on your Playstation5, because the Liquid Metal inside has degraded/shifted and the console shuts down when it's hot? The solutions to resolve this are potentially two:

• complete disassembly of the console and liquid metal renewal/oxide removal between parts
• complete disassembly of the console and replacement of old liquid metal, oxide removal between parts and upgrade with graphene pads

Advantages/disadvantages of both solutions:

Liquid metal

• Advantages: better heat conduction (in fact.. it has no thickness, being liquid it only fills the gap between the heatsink and APU surface)
• Disadvantages: especially on consoles in vertical position it tends to shift over time, and when it shifts the two surfaces oxidize, worsening heat exchange and creating hot spots that cause the console to shut down when particularly stressed.

Graphene pads

• Advantages: does not degrade over time - definitely recommended for those who plan to use the console in vertical position.
• Disadvantages: worse heat conduction compared to liquid metal, as the graphene sheet has a thickness (0.1mm), while liquid metal in fact... has no thickness. PS although theoretically graphene could have a thickness of a single atomic layer of only 0.34 nanometers, in fact it would be a surface impossible to manipulate to position it, so current graphene sheets for this type of use have thicknesses around 100 micrometers (0.1mm). The graphene sheet also has a higher cost compared to the same quantity of liquid metal necessary for a single application.

So.. which one to choose? It depends! Generally speaking, a liquid metal replacement intervention has a lifespan of a couple of years, while the graphene sheet should have a virtually unlimited lifespan. On the other hand, the APU working temperature remains 5/10 degrees higher.