M17x R2 full internal cooling mod - huge improvement!

This one? YouTube - 2008 Mazda Zoom Zoom Brand Music Video I'm just glad to have a Japanese car again. My 2007 C230 was a headache.

 

Ok So I put the old thermal pads back on the memory and a little drop of AS5 on each GPU and the temperature is a little higher than when I started... I was trying to avoid the 4k fan rpm. In Far Cry 2, it took about 5 mins for it to kick in, now it takes like 2 mins. On Furmark the on-die (0) says like 87C and the other on-die says 70C. And GPU 0 says 74C and GPU 1 says 85C... I am so frustrated right now... opened this thing 6 times this evening. Does the 5870CF hit 4000 fan rpm often, anyone with these cars who can tell?

 

Whatever you're doing it's wrong. There's not much we can do to help you. Post pics of what you're doing so we have an idea.

 

Kidio007 - the problem you are having is one i mentioned earlier - see my last post.

Your power circuitry is preventy the GPU cooler from fully contacting everything.

Replace the pads on it with some thermal paste and see if that helps, though it probably wont.

You would need to somehow remove sections of metal that cover the power circuitry to allow the circuitry to stick through the heatsink without stopping it from contacting.

Its a horrible, stupid oversight on Dell's behalf.

-Ash

 

So I am looking at the 1mm EK pads for my 4870s and GTX 280m. Should OCZ Freeze suffice for the GPUs? Nothing else needs attention? Also, should the retention clip mod make a difference for GPUs with the metal band on the die? It looks like the heatsink rests on the band as is

 

My fans no longer hit the 4k or above rpms anymore after replacing the pads and thermal paste. It took me a few goes and testing of different methods. However I eventually got what I was looking for.

I'd say you either put not enough thermal paste or too much. You need to get it just right in order to get the fans working great for you with lower temps. I know it sucks by like joker suggested put up some pics if you like or can then we can have a better look at what you did. I've opened mine up like about 50 times now lol. I'm real pro at it now ehahahahaha.

I just ordered some Shin Etsu paste so I will be redoing the GPUs and CPU again once it arrives. See how it fairs against the AS5 I've been using for a few weeks now.

Good Luck chiefs!

Cheers.

 

I know it may be a bit late, but can we get some pictures of the retention clip mod so that I can make sure I am understanding it correctly? Ordered the thermal pad so want to make sure I got this all down before doing it.

 

Which shin-etsu did you order? There are so many.

 

I got this one.

Shin Etsu G751 CPU Heatsink Compound w/ Chem Pad - eBay Thermal Compounds, Fans, Heatsinks Cooling, Computer Components, Computers Networking. (end time 01-Oct-10 05:15:22 AEST)

Cheers.

 

What thickness is the Pad for the northbridge? is it 1.0MM or 1.5?

 

Hmmss thats a good question. For mine I had to double up on 1.0mm pads. Give 1.5mm a go and then check it side ways to have a look if contact is being made or not. You can also take it off to see if there are marks left from when you put slight pressure on it after screwing it back down. I noticed the 1st time that it wasn't connecting. So I had to use a thicker pad or just double up.

Cheers.

 

Did you ever check to see if there where any indentations with 2.0MM? lol cuz I am about to buy three different thicknesses .5, 1, and 1.5

and how big of a sheet do I need is 60 x 50 good enough or should I got 150 x 80 or w/e it is

 

Oh trues trues I see.

Yeh with the 2.0mm I just doubled up the 1.0mm and it works great. Its performing the way I always envisioned it would now with my CPU temps. Somehow fixing that contact up lowered my CPU temps as well so it was cool.

Get the 1.0mm for your gpus. I'd say thats about all you really need though. Just the 1.0mm.
You could get the 0.5mm just in case though.

I'm also looking forward to trying out the SHin etsu and seeing if that will drop my temps further down a few degs. Get this beast even more silent when watching videos and surfing the net OLE!

Cheers.

You won't need that much really, but I always like to have quite a bit leftover for future use or in case I want to experiment of stuff up something.
I can't remember the size of my sheet but it wasn't very large. I'd say it was only the 1st size you mentioned. Check out the price I guess and see which one is more worth it. I still have heaps left over atm after doing both my R1 and R2 pads.

Cheers.

 

Man Reborn I gotta tell you as a long time fan of Shin etsu, and my recent adventure with Tuniq I gotta say that Tuniq TX3/4 is absolutely the best TIM paste that I have ever used. I mean my Idle temps are always low 40's high 30's and max temps i hit are in the high 60's.(OC to 675/1140 they are in the low 70's) Except my memory of course, but those pads will be a huge help with the retention mod.

Also are these the right clips?
http://www.rcplanet.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=LOSA6100&click=3

Also on that rep I gave you I meant to type couldn't find the post where you showed me those pads

 

What are your ambient temps?

 

anywhere from 76-79'F Are those the right Clips Mr. Fractal?

 

I think 1mm is kind of thick for my 5870's so I ordered some 0.5mm pads.

 

Yep chiefs they look right.

eheheheh no worries bout the rep msg lol eheheheh. Did you need the pad links again?

Get confirmation from mfractal and Ash though just to be sure for the clips. I personally have done the retention mod yet. I've only been game enough to do the paste and thermal pad change so far. A bit lazy as well lol. ehahahaha

Oh any links for the TX3/4 paste chiefs. I want to order some now ehehehhe.

Cheers.

Yup the 5870s need to use 0.5mm pads and the 4870s use 1.0mm pads.

Cheers.

 

Yah here are a few links so you can see the awesomeness

YouTube - Thermal Paste Showdown: Tuniq TX-3 vs. Arctic Silver 5

Tuniq Compounds | Page 1 | Sort By: Product Title A-Z - FrozenCPU.com

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...epaste-tuniq-tx-4-result-better-than-icd.html

 

Ahh bugger rep thingo lol. I gotta spread the love around 1st or something ehehehe.

Thanks for the links. Wow my beast is already super silent now. Looking forward to even lower temps ehehehe.

Oh love how the tube sizes are 3g not like the shin etsu I found all only 0.5g or largest was 1g. Crikeys LOL. eheheheh

Temps are really starting to heat up here. So its time to prepare for the 40deg a day heat waves ole.

WOW that guys CPU temps are like 10 degs lower than mine right now. We're pretty much doing the same stuff too lol web surfing and stuff eeheheh Super stuff indeed. Hopefully I can find some TX4 on ebay since the shipping from frozen kills me all the time lol.

Cheers.

 

those look right, but i didn't need to buy any clips. i just used the same ones that are there already. 76 is about 25 C right ? if so, your temps are more or less like mine.. my ambient temp is around 30C and i idle around 42C-44C on the cards.

 

With the mod? I just used TX-3 on my GPU Core and resat the heat sink

Also what size clips? are the ones I posted the right size?

 

I am not sure they r the right size but why don't you use the ones ALREADY on the screws of the heatsink?

 

Hey again I got some pics this time. Gtx 280m sli.

Imageshack - img0006mg.jpg This was my first attempt, temps got a little higher than before. I tried both putting a drop on each part and I tried usuing paper to spread it around, same result.

So I opened it again and tried once more and found this gap between the memory and heatsink, shown here: Imageshack - img0010ex.jpg you can see the drop of thermal paste I put in the middle there.

Next I tried with a little less paste on the core and got same results, then i tried again with even less, and this is next pic is when I took the heatsink off 10 mins ago: Imageshack - img0016ga.jpg I put the old thermal pads back and tried with less paste.

Here are some random pics:
Imageshack - img0011fs.jpg
Imageshack - img0013pp.jpg
Imageshack - img0017qb.jpg

Temps: http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6185/tempsmg.png only notice the max temps.

So yeah, there is a big gap between the memory and heatsink so paste doesn't work there. But do you guys get a better feeling of what the problem might be based on those temps or pics? It is odd too that it doesn't get cooler when I put on the AS5 on the GPU, I have tried 6 times in different amounts, same or worse than before. If I can't do anything for now, I'll just leave the laptop as it is now so it doesn't go worse than it is.

(I also got a flashing CAPS red light the the left top of the laptop, and it just stays like that and windows doesn't boot, I tried pressing ESC and it ran some tests then windows starts and everything seems to work (Annoying to do this every time I turn it on), this happened when I opened it for the 5th time or something, and had bad temps before this. When I run the 9400 graphics it ALWAYS freezes when I start the laptop also, this happened before I opened it.)

I did a 3dmarks06 and got 10050. gtx 280m sli, q9000 @2ghz and 4gb ram. My old laptop with gtx 260m got 10500.... In Vantage the screen goes black after the 2nd test too, anyone know why?

I didn't really understand much of what Ash said last there, but it sounds too hard for me to do anyways, thanks for the help so far guys, you have all been wonderful!

 

Hey theres chiefs.

Make sure you double check that the GPUs are seated in properly and that the SLi cable is connected properly in both ends of each GPU. That can cause flashing lights and problems booting up. Also double check the monitor cables are in place and plugged in properly as well. I and others have had these problems before. Although minor they can be very annoying because you have to open up the notebook again to reseat recheck again and stuff.

Okay about the connection. You need to have a connection. You can't have a gap otherwise there is no cooling going on. Also thin paste is not always the best. You need to make sure you have the right amount on. Just enough but also not to much, and not too little It is kinda tough to get right when we're new.

The pads I think for the 280ms needed 1.0mm thick ones if i'm not mistaken. If you don't have any I just recommend leaving on the original thermal pads in place. If you do choose to use thermal paste on the memory chips it can get quite messy and you need to make sure that you use enough so proper contact is made between heatsink and the GPU memory.

Ah i just had a look at your pics again and I see that the 2 green small square pads are still in use. That is what will be lifting up the heatsink a little higher therefore you will need to use more paste on the GPU die and the mem. You need to make sure that there is enough so proper contact occurs between the 2 parts. Otherwise the cooling will be minimal and not working properly. I would recommend just leaving the pads though and just doing the GPU die. Add a little more paste to the GPU die then you have in your pic. Although now it might be a bit hard for you to clean off the paste from your mem chips. Unless you have the right tools for that.
Just make sure there is proper contact chiefs. Give it another go and see how you go.
You def need to use a bit more paste looking at your pics chiefs.

Your temps aren't to bad but def could be better.

Cheers.

 

Thanks again Reborn!
I am really confused now, I enabled Hybrid mode in the BIOS and now the temps are way lower. Max temps are like 69 on one card and 73 on other

I did put on a bit more paste on the GPU dies and I do think it actually is a little cooler than when I started, but the 3900 rpm fans still kick in so I guess I'll have to live it hehe

When I disabled both Hybrid and the 9400 the temps would be 5-10C higher.

And when it comes to the flashing CAPS in the beginning when I turn on the computer doesn't go away before after like 2 mins then the computer starts up and everything is fine. I did however open the laptop again and I checked that the following was in: The cable between the 2 GPU's. 2 cables that connects to the keyboard. and 1 cable that connects to the thing over the keyboard, where I turn the power on. All those were in (it seems) and still get that error :/

(Please be honest if I'm beeing a complete noob here)

 

isn't flashing caps the POST led code for a ram issue?

Try one stick then the other, or just reseat both.

 

Yep it is actually. I forgot to mention the ram sorry. I was too focused about the other 2.

Check for any dirt of dust and double check to reseat the ram in properly. They should be fine, there just might be some minute spec of dust or dirt on the gold chip parts where they make contact with the board.

Yeh your temps should be okay. Just make sure that there is proper connection between the GPU and heatsink and the mem chips. Whether your using paste or the pads. I also believe the 280s get hotter than AMD GPUs so I can't quite say how low your temps or fan speed might get. Just make sure you spread a nice even load accross the GPU die.

Actually chiefs your temps are similar to mine. Although my max temps are lower. Mine are the 260s though. I do notice that the fans still do get quite loud. They didn't drop as much as the AMD GPUs. So looks like its quite normal for the fan speed unfortunately. On during gaming after a while or running intense GPU apps. I mostly run on the 9400ms during any other usage of the notebook. During then it is just about completely silent.
So you should be all good chiefs. The different temps are normal as well for the GPUs.

Cheers.

 

I tried using one of each and I still get that CAPS thing The computer is just as fast as before so they can't be broken or anything. Any tests I can do to test what's wrong? I played bad company 2 on max settings with temps at 62C and everything seems fine. When the computer was at stock settings I got 10k at 3dmarks06 and when I overclocked GPU and CPU it reached 12.4k. it just sucks that I can't use Vantage because I get a blank/black screen after the 2nd test and I have to turn it off.

 

You still getting the CAPs flashing chiefs?

Hmmsss. Take out the ram again and give it a light dust clean. Blow any dust off or specs. Check the gold teeth bit. Thats where it normally causes issues even if there is a tiny bit of dirt fine dust or hair. Give the ram slots on the board a blow clean as well.

Can you run vantage on stock GPU clocks? If you can on stock and not on OC then thats fine. Some programs respond and can work under OC settings while others can't. That is very normal.

Cheers.

 

Hey!
I even used compressed air and it still is the flashing CAPS thing, this has nothing to do with the GPU right? There might have been some dust on the thermal pads when I put them back on the memory of the GPU. And Vantage doesn't work at stock either. The computer just freezes up after the 2nd GPU test. I searched on google and found 3 other simular issues but none of them had been solved. I've had that problem since before I started opening the laptop.

 

Ah trues trues i see. Pitty bout Vantage then.

Yeh the CAPs flashing by itself does indicate it to be a memory problem. Hmmmmssss.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/att...ot-lights-flickering-help-led-diagnostics.png

I guess you could take everything apart or try the power drain method. Remove battery and CMOS batter then hold the alienhead down for 30 secs to 1 min.

Put everything back in and try again.
You could also run a diagnostic test. Hit F12 when booting up then select diagnostic and run all the mem tests. See if it comes up with an error.
I remember getting errors like that before last time however after a few days they just went away and haven't come back since. However if your ram is damaged or having problems then you will be or should experience BSODs or random crashes during some stage of using your system.

I guess see how it goes for now.

Cheers.

 

I had a faulty CPU that was giving me that code. Yes, it's a memory code but after replacing rams and mobo the code was still there. CPU replacement solved the problem.

 

Ah true true. Thanks for that bit of insight chiefs. Will factor that into consideration next time as well.

Cheers.

 

Appriciate the help
I ran the memory test and did the power drain thingy but no change. I have been thinking about buying a Q9200 and 8gb of ram too, so I guess I'll just have to live with this for now and hopefully changing those 2 will fix it

 

so it just sits there and blinks ? can you time the blinks until it actually boots ? is it a constant interval or is it changing everytime ?

 

I turn the laptop on and the alienhead logo appears, then 20 sec later the CAPs starts flashing/blinking, still showing the alienhead logo, it does this for 1 minute and 40 seconds, then windows boots. The laptop also freezes sometimes when I get to the desktop. I think it's when the 9400 is activated. And I got sometimes get that the display drivers stopped working and has been restored, and some times the screen goes black. Only happened like 3 or 4 times though.

 

When I think of it, I have had CAPs flashing when my 260.63 drivers got corrupted.

It happened because I disabled the integrated, then disabled SLI in the nvidia pannel. After that I enabled SLI again aswell as the integrated, suddenly I couldn't boot when integrated was enabled: got BSOD whenever I tried to boot on 9400m and sometimes got the CAPS flash.

Since I knew the 9400m was fine but couldn't use it to boot normally, my only solution was to boot in safe mode and uninstall the nvidia video drivers from there. Reinstalled everything after reboot, and all issues disappeared. You never know.

 

Just did the mod, running FurMark now. Will update in a couple minutes. Used 1mm EK Thermal Pad Sheet. Seems a lot sturdier than the crap dell used.



Those c clips are evil......

At first inspection, it looks like the heatsink-GPU die contact is not perfect since the thermal pads on the memory that run next to the gpu die (the ones not on the edge of the board) prop it up a tad. Again though....we will see what the results are shortly!

UPDATE: Well I have to say....that was a complete letdown. Not even 1c difference on any of the temps (including ram) My only conclusion has to be that the heatsinks being used are actually different between the R1 and R2. I have a set of heatsinks from a GTX 280m and they are in fact different from the ones on my 4870s so there is probably yet another iteration in use with the R2 stuff. I am pretty sure I did not do anything wrong.....I guess I will play around with screw tensions but other then that....guess it was a fun experiment? I guess I should also add I currently have A02 installed on my machine as it is more bench friendly. A03 (what I use the rest of the time) has less aggressive fan profiles so would probably see a little higher temps but still the same before and after the mod). Also, after trying several different tensions in different configurations, I just tightened them all down all the way (was never a problem for me and nothing broke ) and the temps are still pretty much the same (all within 1c). I guess the R2 just has something all messed up in its design compared to the R1 - thought they were more similar than that but I guess not

Here are my temps before the mod (after is essentially the same):

Also, going back and looking at this (the only 4870s reference for this mod that I have) my before temps were already as good as Mfractals after temps so maybe this was not as needed as I thought it might be (and those c clips were so evil too )

And if those cpu temps in Mfractals screenshot are just from running FurMark than I really do feel bad for you all with how hot the i7 CPUs gets under a little load

 

Well your before temps were awesome so yeah, not much space for improvement there.. And don't get me started on those frakkin c-clips
I guess the cooling in R1's cards is better then, that is very interesting.
Did u see a visual difference in the heatsinks from my pictures to yours?

 

good to know scook. I think I'll throw some good pads on there and call it a day whenever dell decides to grace me with my replacement system.

The only difference I could see in the pictures provided were the addition of the extra pads for the moffsets.

 

Those look like the same heatsinks that my 4870s have. So that is certainly odd. But the results do not lie. For full disclosure, my "before" temps were with the stock paste replaced with OCZ Freeze that I did months ago. But that was the only "modification" I had done to date for cooling.

I guess it is good to know that I was already rocking some good cooling

 

Hello all, I've been following this thread as I recently got an m17x (single hd5870) as a replacement for my broken xps. I noticed how loud it was and sure enough after seeing this and other threads I downloaded furmark and saw how my gpu got over 90oC temps after a few minutes. I didn't take pictures (sorry) but I dindn't really let the card stabilize either because I closed the app as soon as I saw the card was still going past 90oC with little effor and the fans were maxed- out. All I can tell you is that this card got hotter than anything I've seen before (including a 16" asus laptop with a gtx 260 and a fan that has nowhere to suck-in any air from).

I decided to do Ash's mod and after two iterations it worked flawlessly, dropping my max temps to 75oC for gpu and memory and 70oC for disp and shaders. I didn't hear the fans max-out either, but they ramped-up after hitting 75oC and then the temperatures started to go down a couple of degrees. This was while running Furmark build 1.8.2 at 1024x768 with 8x MSAA.

The mod was done using AS5 for the gpu and AS Ceramique for the memory. I should note that I did not do the duct tape mod but I did do the retention clip mod, which is essential if you want to get the best results. I should also not that my retention clip looks different than Ash's as it does not have any center holes and there are only four screws and four washers instead of ten (five per card) shown in Ash's pictures.

The retention clip had to be tightened till the threads would allow no further torque on the screws, perhaps this was due to the clip being different than the one used by others (Ash). Even taking half a turn from the maximum allawable tension would result in an 8oC increase for the gpu and memory, but no change for display or shaders though. Oh, and you need plenty of paste on the memory because of the height difference of it and the gpu. A bad cooling interface for the memory if you ask me. A good tip (after learning the hard way) is to check for paste contact between heatsink and memory after you tighten up the heatsink to the card (having done the thermal paste mod). If you see very little or no paste on the heatsink where the memory contacts it then you may want to either tighten it further (with caution) or put another coat on the ram if you feel you've tightened the clip as much as it will safely go.

If you got a clip with only four holes in it and you're having trouble getting decent temperature drops you may want to consider my post. But bear in mind that being careful and paying attention to the separation, tension, and paste contact between the clip and the card is key to a successful and safe mod!

Thanks to Ash and the other guys who encouraged me to do this!!

On another subject but relating to m17x mods. While doing the gpu mod I decided to go ahead and replace the cpu paste as well. My cpu is an i7 620m. It ran very cool all the time and would ony reach 70oC when running stress test on it at it's max clock of 3.33ghz.

Well, after two iterations of replacing the paste I can say thay so far it was a big mistake on my part to replace the paste. I now get higher temps whhen stress-testing the cpu at it's normal clock of 2.66ghz than I did when it was at 3.33ghz.

Strangely enough it's idle temps are about the same, 29oC on average. The second core runs slightly warmer than the first most of the time idling at 31oC on average. my room temperature is 25oC on average. Either these things produce no heat while idling or the sensors/software are lying, but this is what I get all the time.

Now, this tells me that I may need to tension the heatsink a bit more. I'm surprised dell's stock paste does a better job than AS5 but I can't get the temperatures to drop and I've done it twice!! First with a coat on both the cpu and the heatsink and second with just a coat on the cpu. Same or worse results for the second time. In any case nowhere as good as dell's stock paste setup. I've disabled TurboBoost for this reason.

If anyone can help on this issue I'd really appreciate it!! The 620m is a great cpu and it can run really really cool, I've seen it!!

 

How much higher are the temps on the CPU chiefs? Remember AS5 has a 200hr break in period or something like that. So the max loading temps will and should continue to drop bit by bit with each heating up and cooling period. After that you can leave the notebook running 24/7.

For my CPU it maxes out around 72 degs Celcius after applying AS5.
Also double check that the thermal pads are making contact with the mem bit part of the heat sink above the CPU. I checked mine and they weren't last time so I decided to double up on the thermal pads and its working awesome now with proper contact.

Cheers.

Cheers.

 

Thanks for the reply bro., I didn't wait on the stress test to see how high the temps got but I can tell you that it takes less than 10 seconds to warm the cpu from 30oC to 70oC (core1) at 2.66ghz when it took almost 2 minutes to do thtat before the mod and at 3.33ghz. I know that AS5 may settle and temperatures may drop but we're talking of a tremendous change; very unlikely to happen.

Now I didn't mess with the memory pad. In fact, I don't even remember seeing one on the heatsink but you may be right on that. When I removed the heatsink and cleaned the paste all I saw were two glossy-black cores, my guess is that one of them is the cpu and the other one is the IGP (620m's come with these).

All I did was replace the paste first with double coat and the second time with a thin coat like I stated earlier (the second time I did tighten the heatsink a little bit more though). My guess is that there is still poor contact between the cpu and heatsink because it's the same scenario as the video card's before the mod: it's cool when idle but its temperature merely doubles with a few seconds of load.


I'll have to reopen the machine and check on that pad and make sure there's some paste stamped on the heatsink. Thanks for the advice!!

P.S. If anyone has a 620m and can elaborate on this please post!!

 

I recommend just doing a pea of paste in the middle and letting the heatsink spread it. I have never been a fan of the spread it yourself approach. This also helps much better to show heatsink contact

 

Well it depends some paste manufacturers recommend the spread technique such as Tuniq, Gelid, and even AS5.

AS5
Arctic Silver Incorporated - Home

Tuniq
Tuniq TX-4 Extreme Performance and Easy Apply

Gelid
GELID Solutions > Products

 

i usually use the spread method as well, but when i want to make sure heatsink contact is good, as scook mentioned, pea method is best.

 

The pea technique works very well for me with OCZ Freeze and AS5 so far. Spreading and then putting down the heatsink is just begging for air bubbles

 

Right but when you use thick thermal pastes like Gelid and Tuniq with centipoises of 85K and 66.5K the pea method is not going to spread them enough to see. Also, The Air bubbles thing is dependent on the paste used, but that is not as likely and the youtube video that shows the different techniques is flawed because it uses plastic.