PS5 Liquid Metal Replacement: Why It Matters and When To Do It

Unlike almost every console before it, the PS5 does not use regular thermal paste between its processor and heatsink. Sony used liquid metal, which transfers heat brilliantly when it is fresh. The catch is that over years of heat cycles and especially in consoles stored vertically, the liquid metal can pump out, dry at the edges or pool unevenly, leaving parts of the chip poorly covered.

Symptoms of degraded liquid metal

• The console runs hot and loud even after a full dust clean
• Random shutdowns during demanding games
• Fan ramping to maximum shortly after starting a game
• An older launch console that has spent years standing vertically

What the service involves

A liquid metal reapplication is a full teardown. We remove the board, carefully clean away the old liquid metal from the chip and heatsink plate, and reapply fresh liquid metal with the correct barrier in place. We do it as part of our PS5 Overheating Package, together with a full internal clean, which resets the cooling system to close to new.

This is not a DIY job. Liquid metal is electrically conductive, one stray drop on the board can kill the console, which is exactly why we handle it in a controlled way with the practice of having done it many times.

When is it worth doing?

If your PS5 is three or more years old, runs hot, and a standard clean has not fixed the noise or shutdowns, liquid metal is the likely culprit. Our PS5 Overheating Package covers the clean and the fresh liquid metal together for $150 in Perth, backed by our 3 month warranty. If your console has only got louder, the $80 Internal Clean is the smaller job.