Upgrading my Ranger

Yeah, use it for test spreads http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...stock-turbo-speed.734696/page-65#post-9884520

 

Just out of curiosity, is the 1060 MXM from the Asrock deskmini any good? (meaning like it is known not to fail and can clock well.) There's one on ebay for a good price, I don't plan on getting it, but I haven't see any deskmini 1060's before.

 

We know the MXM modules from Zotac Mini PCs can be used in laptops if you flash the right VBIOS onto them. The same may be true for Asrock's MXM modules, but I don't know for sure.

As for hardware quality, the green PCB 1060's are known to have blown up. Yes, you read that right. They are not good quality boards. They tend to fizzle out and die.

 

The 1060 didn't satisfy my threshold of performance but back then I was mostly playing r6 siege and other other fps games.

Also the back plate can cause uneven pressure as well. Some used washers was used to fix this in some laptops but I wouldn't advise it. Can't remember the details just that it didn't work out very well

 

Yeah, I have a friend with a 13 R3 and he says that the 1060 still can play at 1080p well, but its starting to show its age. I also want to play newer VR games and be able to crank the settings up on some more laid back games. I'm usually not one to complain about a game looking bad, but I would like if Snowrunner and GTAV looked a bit better lol, hence why I am going with the 1070.

As for the backplate, I'll check that out when I get a 1070 and get around to tearing the laptop apart to cut the chassis even more.

 

I'll shut up with the questions after this, but IF I decide to go down the liquid metal route, will I have to worry about the liquid metal spilling over as thermal paste does, or is the effect completley thrown out the window. I'd also like to know what I can put next to the CPU die to protect the surrounding area just in case of it spilling over. I am also assuming that Cicichens all copper heatsink won't have a problem with liquid metal as its all copper, let me know if I'm wrong though.

 

You need good fits between die and heatsink if you go with Liquid metal. Uneven/warped heatsink = ICD/Thermalright TFX thermal paste

 

The all copper heatsinks won't have a problem with liquid metal as you have correctly assumed.

To avoid spillage, the heatsink will need to be flat, and you will need to apply the right amount of liquid metal. Spillage is caused by applying too much LM and/or from warped heatsinks. Only apply a tiny pinhead amount on the CPU die, and take any excess and spread it on the heatsink where it will come in contact with the CPU. Don't spread it any further than that.

If you want to be extra vigilant, you can make a foam dam to prevent any leaks onto the rest of the system. You can also pre-treat the heatsink by applying LM to it, and then letting it soak into the copper.

 

Alright, If the laptop is vertical for an extended period of time, would I have to worry about spillage, or does LM stay in place pretty well.

As for protecting the area around the die, could electrial tape also work? If not, do you know of any foam pads that are easy to apply and will stay on the surrounding area of the CPU well?

 

Straws made out of electrical tape will work. The dam doesn't have to be foam.

LM generally stays in place very well if you apply the right amount. Again, only use a pinhead sized drop. Using more breaks the surface tension that holds it in place.

I'd still use the electrical tape or a foam dam as insurance.

 

I'm debating whether I should take the risk or not. It seems to be a battery/AC adapter issue, or thermal issue, but I have no clue. There is always the chance that its the GPU failing, which is why I am debating if I should bid on it or not. What do you all think?

Link:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/USED-FOR-P...4524&brand=MSI&_trksid=p2334524.c100667.m2042

 

To me, it looks like an issue somewhere with the power system based on the description. If you can get the entire laptop for the same price or less than the GPU would cost by itself, then it's a good buy. You can sell off the other working parts after pulling the GPU.

 

Alright, I'll bid on it when the ending time is close. I noticed the same guy who put a bid on it is the same guy who has been buying and winning laptops with the MSI 1070 in it. I wonder why he needs so many lol.

 

Okay, I know I seem to do a million of these, but this project is almost done, trust me

Update:
I ordered Cicichens 4 pipe heatsink and some Thermalright TFX. The heatsink will arive in early May, and the TFX will be here in about a week or so. For the 1070, there was a guy on Facebook Marketplace selling a GT62VR (7th gen) for a decent price. I didn't think much of it as the drive to where he is located is about 12-13 hours there and back which is quite long, so I used his listing as a last resort if I couldn't find anything on E-bay. I talked to him earlier and he is willing to ship it out, so if shipping isn't too bad, and my haggling *skills* work out, this may be where I get my 1070 from.

When I get my hands on a 1070, and the heatsink arrives, I will be cutting the chassis a bit more as the last time didn't go too well, and I didn't cut enough. While I am cutting the chassis, I will also be cutting the bottom panel so that I can fit copper mini-heatsinks on both the CPU heatsink and over the VRM's and VRAM on the GPU. I noticed quite a bit of panel flex when I put the copper mini-heatsinks on the GPU, so cutting the bottom panel a bit would help ensure the laptop sits well. I will also probably buy a cooling pad like @Reciever did so that I can better cool the GPU VRM's and so I can OC the GPU in the future if I want.

Again, I appreciate everyone who has helped me in this chaotic project, it has been fun, and I have learned quite a bit along the way.

 

What CPU microcode is the pre-spectre meltdown one. I noticed my Cinebench score were a bit low compared to a lot of others with 4930MX's and I think its because I have the Spectre Meltdown patch microcode. My microcode version is 27 as seen in the pic below. If this IS the patch, how would I be able to downgrade it?

 

Version 22
Visit “”
Alienware 17 R5 (R1) BIOS Unlocked!
thread
Everytime windows updates you need to do the procedure since it changes the microcode. Truly anoying.

 

Please report the difference

 

Its already been reported...

 

I know.
Just for the record

 

Alright, I changed the microcode to V22

 

Just wondering, I have microcode version 25. Will downgrading to version 22 yield a performance increase?

 

I don't know actually. If you have the A14 BIOS or below, you could check. Try running a Cinebench test with the v25 microcode and then run a test with the v22 microcode. I can't really run anything too intensive at the moment as I don't feel like re-pasting for the millionth time lol.

 

Well, I just won the bid on the GT72VR that had issues with the battery. It should ship in about a week. Selling the entire thing without the GPU (what I orignally planned to do whenever I got a 1070 laptop.) will be a bit difficult as its in quite rough condition, but I got it for a really good price, so its not that big of a deal.

 

Re-read the thread Upgrading my Ranger

 

I forgot we even talked about that hahahahahahaha. This thread is getting too long.

 

I just used InSpectre instead to get rid of the stupid Spectre/Meltdown security fixes. Performance increased by 5%. It seems that this achieves the same effect as a microcode downgrade.

 

I expect something similar for the older Haswell as well... http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...0th-gen-notebooks.833280/page-2#post-11029151

These microcodes address intel security mitigation issues. Unfortunately, anything "C6" and newer have a performance hit even if you have all security migitation settings disabled in the registry/inspectre etc and even on old versions of windows that are not mitigation aware..

 

Alright, the GT72VR finally came, and my god is it in TERRIBLE condition. There is no way that the previous owner DIDN'T drop the damn thing off of a cliff. It works though, the temps were good, and I thought he might have re-pasted it before he shipped it, but no, the amount of dust in the fans was immesuarble. I'm suprised the laptop managed to keep the CPU under 90C and the GPU under 75C. I guess thats props to MSI for building this thing like a tank lol. I may only be able to sell the MOBO and the display as the chassis is split into multiple pieces, and everything is in crap condition. I thought I could at least sell everything and the chassis, but I guess not.

Here are some pics:


RAM slot works, but the left clip is like bent.


And the Glorious 1070. (Did the GT72VR ship with the 1070 with the SLI connector? I thought that it didn't, but let me know if I'm wrong.)

 

The MSI 1070 with the wing has a SLI connector.

You should be able to sell off everything except the case and fans. Let us know how this 1070 works in your Ranger!

 

I plan on cutting the chassis sometime within the next 1-2 weeks as the last time I did so wasn't good enough. The display doesn't have G-sync, so I don't think the card has the G-sync vBIOS which is nice, but I'll double check.

 

Well ****, the GPU seems to have the G-sync vBIOS despite not having a G-sync display (?????????). The only reason I can think of that it has the G-sync vBIOS is if the previous owner had tht G-sync display and upgraded it to the 120hz one. I dunno though. I'm hoping I don't have to flash though.

 

I don't know if that will affect anything. Someone else will have to chime in. I remember @Striker1234 flashing a non-gsync VBIOS onto a Zotac GTX 1070 MXM module, but I don't know if it's necessary for the MSI card.

 

Alright, I managed to get my hands on an infrared thermometer so that I could get an estimate on what the VRM temps are like with the 1070 in the GT72VR. I ran Unigine Heaven at max settings for about 20 minutes and came back to check the VRM temps. The card was pulling about 105-120 watts all of the time and was pegged at 99-100% utilization. I found that the heatpipes over the VRM's were at around 70-80C, while the area of VRM's without heatpipes was at 75-85C, sometimes spiking up to 90C, but not often. I don't know if these are good temps, I personally feel that these are too high, so my main goal with the 1070 on the Ranger is to keep the VRM's under 80C when at full load. The Infrared thermometer is always about 7-8 degrees lower as I'm aiming at the heatpipes, so I am going to say that the actual VRM's are 10C hotter as a worst case scenario.

Here's an Image I made:



To cool the VRM's on the Ranger, I plan on ordering some 40mm Noctua fans, and am going to screw them down into some aluminum heatsink's. For the VRAM that isn't covered by the heatpipes on the Ranger, I will put my copper mini-heatsinks over those, though, I may get some aluminum mini-heatsinks later on to reduce heat soak as Reciever has told me as those will be passively cooled.

 

Okay, I’ll shut up after this, but the 4-pipe heatsink came a few hours ago. I put my Thermalright TFX on the CPU, screwed it down and temps didn’t seem much better than with the previous heatsink. I just had a thermal shutdown while installing a game update and checked the die to see if everything is okay, and it doesn’t look very good. Let me know if it seems like the contact plate isn’t flat, or if I just badly applied the TFX paste.

Here are some pics:

 

Not sure how you applied TFX. But use very little to see how the paste spreading. Too much and it is more difficult to see whats wrong. Never spread TFX. Just put a thin 3/4 long line on the die. Put the paste tube in a plastic bag and in a cup of hot water before you put it on the die. The paste will spread better when its warmer. Both for test spread and final application.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/upgrading-my-ranger.834497/page-54#post-11087492

 

I’ll try warming it up in a few minutes.

I didn’t spread the TFX with the thermal paste applicator, I did as you just said and put a line covering about 3/4 of the die and screwed the heatsink down.

 

Alright, I warmed the TFX for about 5 minutes, applied the paste, and screwed down the heatsink for about 6ish minutes. Here are the results:

 

Seems the spread is ok. And be sure the thermal pads don't lift the HS from the die. Try a bit longer but thinner line.

 

Alright, i’ll take one pad off.

 

Alright, thermal shutdown when running cinebench, I don’t really know what to do and this whole thing is starting to make me angry. I don’t know what to do. I’ve bought 2 more types of thermal paste, i’ve bought this new heatsink, and bought the M14x fan and I still get thermal shutdowns. I’m really debating just selling the 4930MX and just buying a 4910mq or something because I can’t figure out what’s wrong.

I understand that the 4930MX is a super hot chip, and people like Reciever made their own heatsink, and that most people advise you use liquid metal, but I just don’t get it. I’m running at stock speeds and still am having thermal shutdowns.

My only guess would be either the heatsink, which seems alright, or the Bracket on the motherboard as Reciever has said.

 

Temps at idle shouldn't be much different. This is expected. However, temps under load should be significantly better.

Also one thing I noticed, your 4 heatpipe heatsink's contact plate looks different than mine. This is how mine looks:

Also, don't use a thermal pad there on the VRM contact. That will introduce a gap between the die and the heatsink. That part of the heatsink is meant to come in direct contact with the VRMs. If you feel the need to put something there, use a tiny drop of thermal paste on the VRMs. Putting anything else on top will cause a themal shutdown due to overheated VRMs.

 

When I ordered the heatsink from Cicichen, the listing said he had used vacuum copper for the die area, so I’m assuming you got one without vacuum copper, I dunno though.

 

What clock speed you run. And package power vs temps in benchmarks?

 

If you're using high quality thermal paste like Kryonaut, Nanogrease, or TFX, you shouldn't be running into overheating problems even with a multipler of 41 as your daily driver.

I got the heatsink 4 years ago, so that may be why I got the version without vacuum copper. I don't know how that would affect things either positively or negatively. Based on the appearance of your heatsink, I would guess it should increase the effectiveness of heat extraction away from the CPU.

Try remounting the heatsink without a thermal pad in the VRM area. I think that thermal pad is causing poor heatsink contact with the CPU die.

 

I’m eating right now and will edit this when i’m done, but I run at 3.7ghz all cores with I think 1.15 volts on all cores iirc. Wattage tends to spike up in the mid 60’s when at full load. The temps are about 50-60C when idling, and quickly hit 90C at full load, and then crawl towards 100C until a thermal shutdown occurs.

EDIT:
I did what Clamibot told me to do and now I’m maxing out at 86C. Still a bit hot and I may need to re-paste again, but that’s an improvement.

The highest recorded wattage was 68 watts, but I noticed Core 0 was using around 1.15 volts, but all of the other cores were using 0.5 to 0.6 which is odd, I also noticed that my clock speeds would dip to 3.4-3.5 which is also a bit odd.

My idle temps are now around 38-46C

 

Idle temps should be 122°F/50°C MAX. If they're higher, there is something impeding the transfer of heat away from the CPU.

 

That is much better than before. Your highest temp sounds about right for that power draw. To get better temps, you'd need to force max fans either through a hardware mod or by using HwInfo64. This will allow the CPU fan to run at it's true max speed.

I personally run an instance of HwInfo64 and HwInfo32, one to max the CPU fan and one to max the GPU fan. I didn't want to do any hardware mods. This also is not the recommended way of forcing max fans as there is a risk of a kernel driver collision, which I have yet to actually experience. The only side effect I've experienced from doing this is that my speakers like making popping noises when the system is under heavy load, and that can get annoying.

 

I am running max fan speeds lol. I have the PMW bypassed GPU fan so it runs at full speed the whole time. Though, If I can verify that this heatsink is quite flat, I may get liquid metal as even 90C scares me.

 

4930mx is a super hot chip but also was the first iteration of FIVR, for many not quite a good first step.

I used liquid metal on the CPU only to keep temps in line, as the Ranger's fan profile tended to not react quick enough to the temperatures, which would often lead to thermal shutdown. This can be altered in the unlocked BIOS with unlocked chips i.e. 4930mx or there were others that just installed a temperature switch or just a more simple On/Off switch for bypassing the EC on the fan for when you are running a benchmark.

The M14x R2 fan is better, but the EC wont take advantage of it natively. You have to create an EC bypass solution for it to ramp up to full speed.

Taming the beast will take some time, but if you are shooting for anything above stock, @Papusan is your guy.

 

Yeah, Hopefully I can sustain 4ghz all cores without above 95C, but we'll see how that goes, my main priority is the 1070, as the 4930mx still beats the 6700hq at stock speeds.

I usually run my fan at max speeds all the time (Usually in HWInfo up to 7000RPM, but 7000RPM has the same effect as 5000RPM,) as my room is small and I have 2 fans constantly running, so even when the CPU fan is ramped up to max speeds, I can't hear it over the room fans.