Beware: Intel voids warranty for liquid metal, even for crashing CPUs

“Liquid metal” thermal paste, which replaces the usual chemical compound with a metallic alloy, can increase the thermal conductivity between your CPU and cooler. That’s why it’s popular with overclockers and other dedicated PC modders. But it comes with a healthy dose of risk, and Intel isn’t keen to take any more of it.

According to an investigation from HKEPC (machine-translated and spotted by Tom’s Hardware), one user got a nasty surprise when making use of that generous extended warranty for the failure-prone Intel Core i9-14900K. Despite being a lot more forgiving with warranty service after months of highly public issues with crashing 13th- and 14th-gen processors, Intel denied one user a replacement or repair because the liquid metal cooling they used had corroded the processor’s top plate to the point that its original printed label was gone.

This is a known problem with liquid metal paste alternatives — the alloys are mildly corrosive. Most of the time that isn’t enough to actually damage hardware, but wiping away the chip’s markings is a pretty telltale sign that liquid metal has been used. Intel and its competitors specifically say that using liquid metal will void the warranty, for both its corrosive properties and the danger of conducting electricity to other parts of the CPU or motherboard if it’s improperly applied. Standard thermal paste conducts heat but not electricity, so it doesn’t have that problem.

The warranty issue isn’t a new one. Unless you have a laptop, pre-built desktop, or other component where the liquid metal thermal conductor was applied in the factory, it’s not covered under warranty. (And yes, that goes for AMD, too.) The proximity to the big kerfuffle around Raptor Lake CPU failures is the only thing that makes this particular case notable.

So maybe don’t be tempted to push that high-end Intel processor past its limits, even if a three-year warranty is making you feel a little more confident than usual.