M17x R2 full internal cooling mod - huge improvement!

This post will be updated with the latest info as we get it.

To start, we need to identify a few parts so you know what to look for.

GPU Die

This is the GPU core. Be careful, its fragile. The HD5870m wont have a metal bumper around the edge, this is just an example image.

Retention Clip

Also known as a retention arm, retention bracket, etc.
This holds down the GPU cooler to the GPU die and ram.

C-Clips, AKA 3/4 washer

These are attached to the screws on the retention clip. They keep the screws held ONTO the retention clip so they dont fall off.

So, to begin.


The "Problem"

I use the term "problem" lightly, as the heat of the HD5870m is within specification. The problem I think is that the default GPU cooler is not being used to anywhere near its full potential.

We will be using Furmark to measure worst case scenario temperatures. No game will ever reach these temperatures, they will in fact run the cards much cooler. But this gives us a good benchmark to work off.

Here is the average temperatures of a user (TurbodTalon) in the forum running furmark before the mod:



71.5c on the display i/o temp, 92.5c on the memory i/o and 82.5c on the shader cores.

These are actually very good temps. My temps before this were ~80c, ~105c, ~90c respectively, as it is winter here and I run the heating pretty high.


If you do ALL of the mods listed here, you will get something like:

61c on the display i/0, 69.0c on the memory i/o and ~65cc (the above screenshot has min accidently ticked instead of max) on the shader core. Keep in mind, my ambient temps are around 27c in the above screenshot (higher than TurbodTalon's) - your result will probably be lower again.

This is a temperature drop of 10c, 24c, and ~22c respectively.

This is huge - and all we are doing is rearranging some things and doing some ghetto.

First you need to know straight up - depending on your country this may or may not void the warranty of your graphics cards!

Now, how to do it?

First, this is what you need.

1. AS5 or similar THIN thermal paste
2. TX-3 or MX3 or similar THICK thermal paste
3. Electrical tape or similar heat resistant tape that doesnt leave residue
4. Time
5. Courage

We will begin from easiest mod to hardest.

DUCTING MOD


All of the heatsink ducts dont sit flush or sealed against the fan ducts. This means air goes out the sides, and doesnt go 100% through the fins. Inefficient, lots of noise and no cooling.
I used duct tape to fix this. Same with CPU cooler (optional). I recommend electrical tape to avoid any residue that may hamper your warranty.

Its fiddly getting it all in for the cards - what I did (optional!) is removed ONE screw from each graphic's cards blower fan assembly.
The screws to remove are the ones you CANT see when the card is in place slotted into the MXM slot.
Obviously, you cant screw this screw, so you need to remove it.
The other 2 should be accessible when you place the card into the mxm slot.
This essentially makes the fan/heatsink/gpu one part, and easier to manage.

What this mod achieves is slightly quieter fan noise and more air through the copper fin arrays.

THERMAL PAD MOD

Here is a rough diagram of how the dell GPU heatsink sits on the Graphics cards:

The pink area in the above diagram is the rather thick and nasty thermal pads that dell use on their cooling block.
The blue area is the OEM dell thermal interface material that dell use.
As you can see, the height of the thermal pads on top of the memory actually increases the gap between the GPU die and the GPU core.

What we want is:

Here we have removed the thermal pad, and replaced the bad thermal interface material with something thinner (AS5 in my case).
This provides much better contact with the GPU core, and reduces the gap between GPU and RAM to < 0.5mm.

So, heres the step by step.

STEP 1:
Remove the heatsink and clean off all the thermal interface material.
Save the thermal pads somewhere safe, in case you ever need to RMA
Put them in a ziplock bag so no dust gets on them.

STEP 2:
Remove the thermal interface material from the GPU die and RAM chips of the card.

STEP 3:
Place a half grain of rice size drop of your THIN thermal interface material on your gpu die.

STEP 4:
Place a full grain of rice size drop of your THICK thermal interface material on each ram chip.

STEP 5:
Replace the heatsink and screw it down, then replace the cards.

RETENTION CLIP MOD

This one is not for the faint of heart. If you are not careful you could crush your GPU die, and then its GG to your GPU.

This mod is done to increase the pressure of the heatsink, so it contacts the GPU Die better, and contacts the ram better.

This mod should be done at the same time as the thermal pad mod, and requires the thermal pad mod to work.

STEP1:
Remove the c-clips from the screws on the retention clip. An easy way to do this is to stick a small hobby probe or screwdriver into one of the 2 gaps on the inner ring of the c-clip, then push the c-clip away from each screw. It will pop out easily, but make sure you direct it towards something that will catch it.
I lost one that decided it wanted to be an astronaut.
I hope it has a safe voyage.

STEP2:
Remove the screws from the retention bracket.

STEP3:
Re-attach the c-clips to the screws while they are OUT of the retention clip.

STEP 4:
Re-attach the heatsink to the pre-thermal pasted GPU board.

STEP 5:
VERY CAREFULLY put the screws with c-clips attached back into the retention clip, and then screw each screw in numbered order just enough to grip without coming back out. This should be 2-3 turns at most. No more, or you may crack the GPU die.

STEP 6:
Check to make sure the board isnt warping to much on one corner. If it is, you have screwed that screw too tight. The board may bend a little, but it will be barely noticable. What will bend the most is the GPU Heatsink. We want this, as it closes the gap between the ram and heatsink even more.

And you are done.

With all of these mods, not only will you get better temps, but the GPU fans will never spin higher than 30%

Cooler AND quieter, with just a bit of fiddling.

And now for the legalese:

WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU SCREW UP! IF YOU CRACK YOUR GPU DIE OR BREAK A SOLDER TRACE BY ACCIDENT ITS ON YOU!

That said, this mod will most probably increase the lifespan of your card, so it is beneficial if you feel like taking the risk.

I did, and I couldnt be happier. The GF is happier too, as my fans are always in low speed mode now - the cards never get hot enough to kick up to high speed.

Thanks for reading!

This post will always be updated with the latest info, but read the thread through anyway.

-Ash

 

simply AWESOME!!!!!

 

Yeah Awesome, how the Alienware "techniciens" didn't see that ?

 

Awesome job. If it wasn't for the warranty (which I've used extensively), I'd be right on this or have investigated it myself already. Once I get close to/out of warranty I'll definitely be going this route.

 

Its cheaper NOT to do the ducting, and more fiddly when it comes to dissassembly.

As for the thermal pad thing - im not sure how they borked that. They would just have needed to do a little testing and they would have realised that using thinner thermal pads on the ram would be infinitely better (almost 2x better) for overall GPU temps.

In fact, the GPU temp should have gone UP doing that mod because more heat is being dumped into the block - but it didnt, it went down. This means the gpu was never getting proper contact in the first place.

I will have to retest the temps when the AS5 sets. We will see just how low it goes.

Ill also check out CPU temps tonight. Before the mod I was getting 99c at 1 core@ 4ghz on my 920xm.

-Ash

 

great reverse engineering. I too have a really good warranty and don't want to mess that up but... as soon as it's close to being out, this definitely is the route to take.
1 Question - does duct tape not melt at the temps the gpu reaches? I know it's not in direct contact with the heatsink but it is blocking hot air flow from leaking. And would there be a better type of material to use in its place that wouldn't be affected by the close proximity of the heat?
I guess that was two questions, sorry. Just curious as I do not have the courage to go inside like that until my warranty runs out.
Keep up the good work.

 

As for your question:
The duct tape stops the COLD air coming straight from the fan from escaping BEFORE it goes through the hot fin array.
The fin array will always be colder than the GPU, and seeing as I hit a max of 66 (on the mem, mind you) in furmark of all things, the duct tape should hold up well.

The CPU is particularly badly ducted, as the primary exhaust point for the fan points straight at a 1cm gap in the ducting - very very inefficient.

Ill have to see if my temps get less than 99c (overclocked) tonight to see if it helps on the CPU side of things.

-Ash

 

Ash,

Great work man!! You will definitely have to keep us posted on your findings as far as the reliability of the mods performance over time. I will definitely go this route after my warranty expires but this truly questions if Dell did this intentionally just to make more money off of the warranties that they offer. I have faith that you mod will probably be the best for cooling efficiency so plus rep +1 on this!!

 

Thanks for the good tip! Dell's cooling pads (i.e. the plastic little sponges) are complete junk, I completely agree. They had it on their m1330 xps, so replacing those was the key to prevent the laptop melt. The record high I got for GPU temp was 65 C playing WoW, with the ambient temperature of around 33-35 C. I don't wanna do this exactly due to the warranty - as I don't trust the hinges and am worried the laptop will literally fall apart.

But.. how are you measuring the temperatures on the memory of the GPU?

 

Guys I had a thought - in regards to warranty.

If want to do this mod without breaking warranty, I think I have a way.

1: Take off the thermal pads as instructed and put them somewhere safe. Cover them in clingwrap so as not to get any dust on them, and put them away. They wont fall apart easily.

2: The single screw per GPU that needs removing, also store this in a safe place. There will be a 3/4 washer on them, you need to take these off and save them too.

3: Use a thick ceramiq thermal paste, 1 drop on each ram chip.

4: Instead of bending the retention clips UP so they begin to kink, take OFF the 3/4 washers that hold the screws into the clips. Carefully, so you dont break them, you need them in a second.

Now you have 2 options:
A)Find a few washers so as to add approx 3-4 mm between the head of the screw and the retention clip. Then, after putting the screw back into the retention clip, re attach the 3/4 washer.

B)Use the 3/4 washer AS the washer. This means the screws will not be 'held on' to the retention clips by the washer, but will just sit there until screwed down.

Both A and B achieve the same effect.

5: Use a tape that doesnt leave residue on the ducting.


Now, if you ever need to RMA:
1: Clean off the ram thermal paste and replace the cooling pads.
2: Reapply the removed screw from the blower fan.
3: Undo the washer mod you did.
4: Remove the tape and clean residue.

That way, the card is restored to its original state, and so long as the mods you did were not damaging (they arent) then they will discover what the actually problem is and send you a new one.

If a company sees any modding done to a part, even and especially if the modding was NOT the cause of the damage, they uncategorically throw out the request.
Its cheaper this way, but the legality is questionable. Legally, they need to properly examine whatever device is faulty, and if it can be determined the damage is not your fault, must do the RMA.
If they see modding, they dont do this.

Thus, you must restore the card/notebook to its original state to get it examined/repaired legitimately.

Same goes for dell technician callouts, though generally they are more forgiving for mods.
I once had a hold cut out of the side of an old 12" dell notebook so I could have a hard drive plugged in externally. They still did the repair work though once they determined the problem had nothing to do with my mod.


Anyway, its up to you if you feel this will cover your bases. Personally, and obviously, even if my warranty is void I still feel much more comfortable with my machine like it is now. A 45% drop in temperatures will undoubtedly increase lifespan.

Additionally, I no longer get memory artifacted in SC2 after 2 hours.

-Ash

 

I am pretty sure the main temp reading in GPU-z is for memory and not core. This is reflected in the sub results down the bottom, which are ordered in the same way as HWinfo32.
In HWinfo32 it lists the particular temperature that was hitting 66 as "mem i/o" so I assume that is the ram temperature.

-Ash

 

Dude, good job. +rep. There's absolutely no way that Dell would know if you threw all of the stuff back where it was. I'm doing this mod ASAP.

 

Also, if someone could post a before screenshot of GPU-z/furmark it would be great.
I didnt think to, and would like something more solid to compare to than my memory.

If you guys do this mod, please post a before and after screenshot here too, so we can get some firm numbers going for the improvement.

-Ash

 

I'll be sure to get the before/after stuff. Can you make one thing perfectly clear before I do the mod please? The GPU core and the tops of the memory chips are indeed on the exact same plane? Why on earth would they have used those stupid thermal pads if the heatsink contacted all of the components?

 

It looks like the problem is the memory thermal pads - they are in fact 1mm too thick for the design of the heatsink.

This causes the heatsink to not have good contact with the GPU die.

When you put AS5 on the GPU die, with the stock thermal pads, and screw it down - take the heatsink back off again and look at the pattern of the TIM.

It does not spread fully over the GPU die, and is in fact not a very good contact at all.

Not only this, but the thermal pads, because they are so thick, prevent the ram from being cooled effectively as well.

Removing the thermal pads leaves a 0.5 mm gap between the memory chips and the heatsink if the screws are tightened fully (as in they stop turning, dont over turn).

Thus you need to do the washer mod to get full coverage, or use really thick thermal paste on the memory (not recommended).

When all is said and done you get:

Before:
GPU DIE - weak contact
MEMORY CHIPS - strong contact but horrible interface (primary contact point)

After:
GPU DIE - strong contact (primary contact point)
MEMORY CHIPS - medium contact, but with TIM not thermal pads (~45% temp drop)


Hope that clarifies.


-Ash

 

With all the heat isssues they have had with past gpu configurations, one would think they would have realized there was an easier and most probably a cheaper solution to getting rid of heat in the laptop.
We are talking about a 45% decrease. That is huge, the fix is easy, thermal pads unecessary/replaced with AS5 or similar, washer change to make up for the exta 0.5mm, and finally a little bit of closing the gaps for more effecient ducting.
Shame the warranty could become an issue because with those numbers this is a major find, improvement. If heat becomes a problem when I start installing more games, I just may take that chance. If I do you can be sure I'll do a before and after.

 

there's a reason why you don't use paste on memory chips, espically when there's even .5mm between the heatink and ram chips. .5mm may not sound like a lot, but it's a huge gap to use paste in. I'd like to see those same temps after a week or two when the paste has dropped to the sides and settled off the ram and into the solder points. The ducting sounds like a good idea and, the extra tension is a good idea in theory as well, however, more force is not always better, since the die damage can result from it. If the Die is made from materials that can handle the extra pressure on the solder or you manage not to crack the die screwing it down, you'll be okay, otherwise, not so much.

 

Thanks for your input lozz.

The washer mod fixes the 0.5mm gap. It makes it nice and tight, no gap.
You still need a small amount of thermal paste for heat transfer though, rather than relying on the paste itself like dell do with the GPU die in stock config.

Rest assured, with the washer mod, no gaps. 0.5mm gap only exists without washer mod.

-Ash

EDIT:

Also, no risk of cracking the die, as the GPU heatsink was never fully compressed anyway. We are merely setting it to its original design spec.

 

One thing I'd like to add: If you're going to follow this mod, do not use AS 5 on the memory chips. AS 5 is a capacitive paste and could short out the chips. Stick to a ceramic paste or something that isn't electrically conductive/capacitive. Also, personally I think using memory pads/TIM is preferable to paste to fill the gap. Lozz makes a good point about too much tension cracking the die though I doubt the 5870 GPU sink has nearly enough to do so.

What some people did in the M15x forum is stretch the pads out so they're thinner. This provides better GPU contact and in turn memory contact as well. My GPU memory controller never goes above 89C even when furmark is run with every option ticked at 1200p so I'm happy with the GPU temps. The CPU temps on teh other hand could use improvement under load.

 

Good point joker, that could work well.

Personally I think the best thing would be to just get the right size thermal pads AND the washer mod AND the ducting mod.

I have some old thermal pads from my W/C days that fit the bill I think. Just have to find them.

-Ash

 

Nice find, Ashtefere! I FINALLY got to do some gaming on my two month old M17xR2, and noticed the fans running fast...and loud. I then looked at my temps (GPU-Z), and saw that the card that was being used by the system, was running near 90c!! Frankly, I thought that was really hot, but if Joker is running near 89c, then I guess I don't have too much of a worry. But I would still like to get these temps down quite a bit!

 

In games it doesn't hit 90C, that's only with furmark at 1200p with every single burn option checked. It's a very intensive test. However, even at 89C for the memory controller you dont' have much to worry about. The mod + better paste would probably shave a few degrees off but if you're new to taking apart computers, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

question:

would this work the same on the 4870's?

 

Yes 10 char

 

Ok, I swapped out the AS5 for some really thin thermal pads I got from koolance a while back.

No where near as good performance as, for example, ceramic thermal compound, or even the AS5 (which is not recommended for the ram chips).

Still, temps on the GPU die were better than the stock thermal pads.

I dont think we will find thermal pads that are actually thinner than the ones I tried, so I think the best option is still:

1: AS5 or MX3 on the GPU Die
2: Replace ram thermal pads with CERAMIC (thick, cheap and nasty) TIM.
3: Do the washer mod (default retention arm setup doesnt have enough force).

Im gonna run these thin thermal pads for a week or so in the interest of science and see if the temps go back down to the pure TIM setup.
If not, Ill replace the thermal pads with some cheap nasty ceramic.

EDIT:

While the temps are higher, I noticed it took a lot longer for the fans to kick in fully. How strange...

-Ash

 

I acutally replaced the pads with some EK waterblock memory pad material, without being streached, the temps seemed ~the same more or less after about a day of use for burn in, it did seem as if the heatsink wasen't 'level' like you're suggesting. I have some .5 mil gap water block material that I might give a twirl when I get my new graphics cards. The only other thing I would keep an eye on is the PCB board bending due to the increased tension. Afaik they're only 2-3 layer PCB boards, 4 max. Not sure if it's enough to cause that, just keep an eye on it, heat and lots of tension does bad things in those situations. The washer material sounds like a good idea, I must have missed that part. have you tried say, a penny? if you have a good grinder or dremel and a vice you can grind them down flat and then use some thin gap material. The problem being of course, making sure the pennies are very flat.

you can find pads in almost any size you want for a resonable amount, some Suppliers will even custom order sizes for you. The issue being wading through the 10million different manufactures to make sure you get something that's very thermally conductive and not some stuff that was used on a 486

 

Thx for the clarification. Note to self: Thermal paste on memory chips = dead memory chips.
At this point the best mod is the improved ducting, better Thermal paste on gpu and thinner pads on the memory to acheive better seat between heatsink and gpu? If you use thinner pads will you still need the washer mod?

 

the duct mod is a good idea, but really the fan doesn't blow a lot of air for it to matter a lot, we're only talking about 8.5CF/M here so the lost air isn't too dramatic. The stuff that doesn't go through the fins finds its way under the card and mainboard so it's not *totally* wasted.

 

I haven't done the mod yet. Here's a screenshot using the exact same settings you used. My temps are considerably higher. I think the mod speaks for itself. I don't really like the fact that you have to put that extra force on the heatsink to get contact with the memory chips. You have a .5mm gap between the memory and the heatsink if the sink is sitting flat on the GPU die?

Oops. Here's the shot.

 

ambient temps place a huge factor, and we don't know what either of you were at during testing, the surface the laptop was on makes a difference too, CPU used can make a ding since 920s will run and radiate heat a lot more than a i5 or even a 720 or 820. even the die sample quality can make a difference. so just remeber these variables when comparing any temp reading to anyone else with 'the exact same specifications'

 

I didn't say exact same specifications. I said exact same settings, as in Furmark. Your sarcasm gets pretty old sometimes.

 

If you detected scarcasm it was not intentional, and I apologize for it. I Read settings correctly, but specifications came out instead, which was a typo on my part. Either way the logic still applies. I'm betting the ram part is where most of it comes from, which makes it risky with paste at best.

 

OK Guys, gonna list as much info as I can about what I have discovered.

My ambient temps is always 26.5-27.5c, as I have heating on during the winter set at that temperature.

1: Even 0.5mm thermal pads are too thick. While my shader i/0 and display i/0 temps have dropped significantly with the thinner thermal pads from koolance (0.5mm), the memory is only about 10c cooler, instead of 40c cooler.

2: Using 0.5mm thermal pads on the memory will give a shader i/o and disp i/o (both of these are in the GPU die) temperature drop of around 10-15c
BUT
Using thermal paste (ceramic that is non conductive and THICK consistency is recommended) on the ram chips will drop them by 15-20c.

It is safe to use thick ceramic paste on the ram chips. Even AS5 is safe to a degree, as like Joker said it isnt conductive but capacitive, so you may (very low chance) run into problems if it runs.
At this point I can only recommend a thick ceramic paste for the ram - cheaper/lower quality is better, as its going to hold its shape more.

3: When the extra pressure is used for the GPU block, the PCB does not bow very much, if at all. This is because the retention clip is very very weak. It isnt strong enough to give proper contact.
It is almost essential to do this to get better core temperatures.


So to re-iterate for clarity:

Any use of thermal pads on the memory of any thickness will result in higher temperatures than designed

The gpu block was not designed for thick thermal pads, and the GPU block retention clip is too weak any way.

Using a thick ceramic (white) thermal paste on the ram chips will provide the best result
Use a paste that does not run to be safe. Additionally, use one that isnt conductive. Something with toothpaste consistency is good, like the stuff bundled with cheap graphics card coolers.

The retention clip is too weak to provide proper pressure, and will not bow much, if at all, doing the washer mod.
When you increase the pressure of the clip, it will actually push down the portion of the heatsink that covers the ram chips before the PCB will start to bow.

A good way to see this is to take off the thermal pads and replace the heatsink and screw it down. Then use a screwdriver to push on a retention arm, whilst watching the gap between the memory and the heatsink. As you push on the retention arm, the heatsink itself will bend and make contact with the ram.
This is why desktop graphics card coolers have screws near the ram as well as the gpu die. Ours doesnt.


I recommend Arctic Silver MX3 for the GPU die (as no burn in time) or AS5 if you cant get it (has 200 hour burn in time)
I recommend a ceramic thermal paste for the ram chips that is thick, that wont run, and is non conductive.

Most silicon pastes will also do, so long as you drain the silicon oil out of the tube that settles over time. Get an old silicon thermal paste and drain out the settled silicon oil, then use whats left. It shouldnt run at all after that.

I recommend about 1-2mm of washer retention for the GPU retention clips to make the heatsink provide the right amount of pressure and coverage.

Following these instructions will give you the result in my first screenshot.
Bear in mind that was in FURMARK - AND it was using AS5 on the ram, which will actually improve if I were to use a ceramic compound that was thicker (which I will do after a few days).

At that point, hopefully with some more input from everyone here, I will update the first post with all the information gathered and a step by step guide.

Thanks for all your interest guys!

-Ash

 

you mean the stuff from frozencpu? I have that stuff lying around, 10C without any washers just on the thinner pads sounds like a good compromise for me. thanks! They do make thinner thermal pads than .5mm as I previously suggested, if the exact space between the hsf and ram can be determined, I'm willing to be the differences between some ASC and the Gap pads would be < 5-7C and It would be the best of both worlds. I have an automotive feeler gauge that might see some ram and HSF contact after my mainboard gets replaced tomorrow I'm thinking

desired maybe, but 100C for ram isn't like a 100C core temp, ram is fairly tough.

 

To clarify Lozz, that is WITH washers.

Without washers, there is only enough pressure on the memory thermal pads for full contact.
This leaves the gpu die with very low contact.

When you replace the thermal pads with thinner ones, it all goes down lower, closer to the board by about 0.5mm, but the retention clip loses strength at this stage.

You still need to do the washer mod whenever you remove the stock thermal pads. The retention clip is just too weak.

-Ash

 

cool, thanks for the clarification, I sorta skimmed the thread the first time but now I understand what you ment by washers.

 

Quick diagram.

Here is what happens with the stock setup and thermal pads:


And here is what happens without the thermal pads (and before washers):


As you can see, the GPU heatsink is closer to the GPU and ram, hence better transfer.

Doing the washer mod bends the heatsink slightly as to contact the ram, thus making everything cool and happy (first screenshot in my first post in this thread.)

-Ash

 

I just got finished with the mod. I must say that the gap between the heatsink and the memory is even tighter than .5mm. I didn't measure or anything. My results are not as dramatic as Ash's. GPU fans take longer to kick in, and then even longer to go into full blast. All of my thermal pads came off in one piece, so I am going to bag them and tag them in case this thing needs to go back. You're right, Ash, a screw by the memory would make this mod absolutely perfect.

 

Great work man!

Did you use the washer mod as well? What heatsink fluid/s did you use?

-Ash

 

looks like your after screenshot might be a bit off, the card was already declocking after you took the picture and I know that the temps drop pretty quickly after they clock down. Were you looking at it the whole time? In any case I can't see why it wouldn't make a good difference.

 

Lozz, see the little "max" readout next to the temps?

The temp will stay at whatever reading was the highest, and stay there till you reset it.

Cool feature.

-Ash

 

Yeah, Lozz, I have it set to record the highest temperature.

 

oh okay, nice then, I had not used that feature before, so I didn't know what that was, the small LCD on the CF-29 I'm using right now didn't help either. Can't wait to try this myself. Just furmarked my new 5870 and it hit mid 90s after <3minites

 

Are you running at 640x480 res?

 

1024x768(which is the max), but it's the TSPM, so it's 'fuzzy'

 

Talon, could you list what you did for your result?

Pads/no pads, washer/no washer, thermal paste used, etc?

Thanks

-Ash

 

Yes Sir. Using the Ceramique crap from Radioshack on the memory, and AS5 from Radioshack on the core. No washers I just bent up the tabs like you mentioned earlier

 

Ah ok. How far did you bend them? Looks like you could bend them a little more.

The configuration you explain should outperform my original result, as the memory will have more contact area with the block (thicker paste).

What I did was bend them so the screw naturally sat about 1cm UP from the screw socket whilst sitting the gpu block on the die.

Naturally, washers will be better if you can find them.

-Ash

 

Where exactly does the washer go? Between the head of the screw and the tab on the heat sink?

I just did Furmark in extreme burn mode at 1920x1200 and nothing went above 81° C. I've got to say, if that Ceramic paste stays put, this is a legitimate mod. My laptop normally hits ~105° C on that same test. I'm assuming the Ceramic stuff starts to harden like AS5 does?

 

Thats right. Im not sure exactly how many to use though - I would say more is better. Perhaps use enough to get the tab to bend almost all the way down to the 3/4 washer that holds the screw there, but maybe 1-2mm away from the 3/4 washer.

Still lofs of experimenting to do, but results are promising.

EDIT:

Talon, I would say that once you get the mod perfect, you could probably crack 20k vantage

-Ash