Dell D630 CPU upgrade. Help need to decide to do or not, thermal dilemma

I need some quick answers for this one as I cannot decide what to do.

Today I recieved a nice T9300 for cheap ($25), my Dell D630 current has a T7700 G0 stepping CPU in it and runs nicely.

Good thing is I have had the motherboard replaced (due to fault Nvidia GPU) a few months ago, as it was still under warrenty, and has about another 9 months remaining, so no worries there.

When the motherboard was replaced, Dell also replaced the entire heatsink assemably, and has been running nice cool temps after the work was done.

Now, if I put in the T7700 myself and replace with the T9300, will this affect the cooling, am I going to ruin the nicely seated new heatsink and destroy the new thermal pad?

I don't have any other thermal pads, therefore I will be just changing out the CPU with new thermal greese and reusing the same old thermal pad for the GPU.

1. Should I still upgrade from the T7700 G0 ruining the heatsinks thermal pads, and leave it like it is now for the GPU's cool running?

2. Otherwise I could upgrade a Lenovo T61 with T8300 (another good CPU) and Intel intergated GPU to the T9300?

 

I actually don't like thermal pads, just remove them and put on thermal paste.

A T9300 shouldn't be that much hotter than a T7700 as the T9300 is a Penryn Core 2 Duo while the T7700 is a Merom, so 45nm vs 65 nm, though the T9x00 series do run hot due to the clock speeds.

Whether or not to upgrade your ThinkPad, really depends. What do you mostly do with your laptop? There isn't much of an upgrade from a T8300 to a T9300 (more cache presents no normal usage benefits, maybe rendering/gaming).

 

ok with that I will leave the T8300 in the T61, and best to upgrade the D630 with the T9300.

I hear people here used copper shims in between the heatsink and the GPU of the D630. If that is the case there must be a small gap in between, therefore no making direct contact.

Gap = No Good

If I remove the thermal pads on the Dell D630, you know if it will leave a gap or not on either or both the GPU and the chipset?

 

There will be a gap. How big, I am not 100% sure.

 

Well I couldn't stand it any longer and had to install the T9300. Due to the thermal pads being new, it wasn't a problem re-installing the heatsink complete, only changing the CPU thermal compond.

I did find that there is a some what huge gap between both the GPU and chipset as where contact is made to the actual heatsink.

I cannot really figure out how much either, so making my own shim would be a waste of time without sercurely attaching it. Once under load and the GPU is hot the shim could slide out when moving the laptop around?

 

Does the heatsink use a thermal pad for the CPU, or is it pre-applied grease? If it's a thermal pad, I would've replaced it with Arctic Silver 5 grease. You'll be better off leaving the thermal pads on the GPU and chipset. If CPU heat is dissipated better, the rest of the cooling system will work better as well.

 

I have X9000 CPU on D630. It is hot, but still running good 24/7. I do not use it very often, most of the time download movies without clothes and copy out after that.

I am using the Nvidia NVS 135m too, both contribute to the heat but never crash/blue screen so far.

The whole notebook is assembled from zero, parts from all over the world. Screen is the rare 1440x900 (almost all the rest are 1280x800). No warranty of course for this DIY D630, but it is running solidly stable.

For the heatsink, the thick thermal pad can be used repeatedly, just don't let dirt stick on it during disassembly. There is some sort of oily stain from the thermal pad, that is normal. Not sure if you have NVS135m, the heatsink is different from Integrated GPU.

 

^^^ That was the kind of reply I was looking for, thanks heaps

I have the Nvidia NVS 135m for those that didn't work it out in the first post.

That X9000 sounds mighty good for a old D630, I want one. What type of temps can you get if you undervolt it when under load?

 

Unless you want to drop 200+ for an X9000, IMO I don't think that upgrade is worth it. You'd be better off with a T9300/T9500 and deal with less heat. Though you can overclock it, stock speeds are not going to yield a significant performance gain for normal use, maybe rendering.

Also any D_20/30 series laptop with the Nvidia chip is going to fail, the extra heat from the Core 2 Extreme is just going to expedite the death of your GPU.

 

The X9000 last time i got it for almost 400+ . It is hot, even under normal load. I will try running prime95 tonight and see how it goes. Shared heatsink between CPU & GPU is a bad design.

X9000 can be overclocked with throttlestop, but the D630 cooling design may not be able to handle it. I am putting it on dock station, which means there is ample space at the bottom for air circulation.

I did not pay much attention on undervolting or overclocking, the laptop is very seldom running on battery. The electricity at my place is completely free so i just let it always on beside my Desktop to check info during online game play, you know there are just too much things to check in MMORPG. It is a retired laptop before M4400, and even now the M4400 has retired.

Since the X9000 CPU is that expensive, I can't find a resonable price to sell the D630 and I don't think people will pay for that old laptop, so i just keep it for my own. The 1440x900 screen also cost me some money, normal 1280x720 is much cheaper.