Used R4 cpu repaste with IC Diamond improves temps

Hello everyone. This is my first actual post. I have been a lurker for years until now. Recently, I have purchased a used R4 off Craigslist with the I7 3720, 680m, 16gb Hyper X Ram 1600mhz, 120gb Samsung 840 SSD, 750gb Hybrid HD, Killer Network Card, and 900x1600 Monitor. I love it. It is an excellent performing laptop. I highly recommend it.

After receiving the laptop, I began playing around with it. It is a dream to use with all the eye candy turned up. But then I noticed the cpu temps were hitting 92 C at load while running 3d mark 11 and pushing 90 C when gaming on my 1080p external monitor. I also noticed the cpu fan would spin up a little at idle sometimes. After comparing these temps with several people on these forums, I decided my temps were getting too high for my liking. So I was determined to repaste my cpu.

I followed a youtube video that demonstrated a full tear down and cpu pasting. When I opened up the case, the fans and heatsinks were surprisingly very clean. The guy I bought it from even has a cat. But, he still took good care not to let the fans and heatsinks collect dust. It was very easy to get to the cpu. I proceeded to remove the cpu heatsink and wow I was surprised. Dell used some sort of thermal pad instead of paste. It was an ugly hard square of TIM. It had huge thick over spread on the edges. It's no wonder those temps were getting up there. I cleaned it up using my artic silver cleaning kit. The stock paste was very hard and stuck to the heatsink quite well, but it eventually came off. It was a little easier to get it off the cpu thankfully.

With both surfaces very clean, I was ready to repaste. I proceeded to repaste my cpu using IC Diamond paste. This product is very thick and it is very easy to use too much. At first, I went with the line down the middle method. I put the heatsink back on and screwed it down. Then, I removed the heatsink to observe how well the line method spreads. What I observed was a decent spread but there was a ton of over spread on the edges of the cpu. So I decided to go with spreading it out myself using a business card. After I recleaned everything, I spread an even thin layer onto the cpu and flattened it out. I removed any overspread. Then, I put everything back together. All in all, it was a very easy task.

Here are my temp changes:

3dmark 11 - Extreme - Stock: 92 C max / Repasted: 80 C max
Saints Row 4 1080p - Stock: 84 C max / Repasted: 72 C max
Idle temps - Stock: 55 C max / Repasted: 49 C max

As you can see there, my temps have improved by 12 C at load and 6 C at idle. And the cpu fan doesn't spin up at idle anymore. I am very happy with this repasting. I highly recommend repasting if you have ever done it before. It's too easy. Now I can happily get back to gaming with no worry about my cpu temps. The only thing I would like to add to this machine is the 120hz monitor, but that will be alot harder to do. So for now, I will enjoy what I have and wait out the last year of warranty.

 

I would also suggest a cooling pad such as the Coolermaster U3, My R4 almost never even spins up the system fans unless I am really pushing it as the U3 pushes enough air into the system to keep it adequately cool almost by itself and i can't even here the fans Not to bad for a $30 cooling pad.

The U3 also has movable fans so that you can aim them right under the intake vents on the R4 really maximizing the effectiveness of the cooling pad.

 

IC Diamond is hard to spread so instead I use a line method. But it's a bit too much so I put less and use the natural motion of the tube to stretch out the spread so there is a thinner line across the die. I've done this many times with satisfying results. My CPU idled at 45 and maxes out at 91 but that because I'm running overclocked.

Good post and very informative for first timers

 

91 max, what is your OC on the 3940XM, i can't image it being to high.

 

I ordered more fans for mines and stuffed the bottom with them. I have 8 fans down there with no room for any more. 3 USB connectors daisy changed together, works wonders.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

Thanks for the feedback. I think the cooling pad is a good idea. The U3 sounds interesting. How much fan noise does the U3 put out? I am worried that the 80mm fans will be too loud. I've seen a couple of cooling pads with 200mm fans. So I am torn. Are the coolermaster fans pretty quiet?

 

I run at 4Ghz but as soon as it hits 91/92C it will downclock therefore whatever OC I use, 91C is about the max.

 

I use the Targus Chillpad but the U3 is amazing as well