M15x Cooling Mod! KoI Style :)

I am surprised you still can in it's butchered state

How are you modifying the air intakes fatboyslimmer?

New news on the block is that SVL7 has successfully installed a 780M GTX into his M15x!

 

Where did you read that? I heard he got a 8970m working but thats no real surprise. I imagine 780m will suffer same old throttling problems?

Going to make air intakes a bit larger because they will act as an exhaust from the air blowing in through the hole I make.

 

Have a look at gaming forum and check thread "780M overclocking tool" page 3. He has it running OCed! If the bare card didn't cost over 500 pounds I might try one out lol!

Still I think I will wait until the 870M GTX comes out and get one.

How will the intakes act as exhaust vents? Surely the movement of air will be inward not outward. I have thought about taping the intakes shut and force the fans to pull the air from the gaping hole I made over the sinks but I worry this might put strain on the fans and perhaps noticeably reduce cfm which will cancel out the effectiveness of my mod. I may try this tonight for laughs...

 

I have no doubt that svl7 could get any mobile graphics card to work in M15x. The graphics score he gets is uber nuts! 38% performance boost over 7970m.
Still completely unrealistic price tag so I'm happy with my 7970m for now.

Intakes may not exhaust air as I want them to but I'll do some temp comparisons and see if its worth bothering about.

 

I have done a further mod today. Using a pair of small but powerful metal wire cutters I proceeded to cut through the metal grilles of the exhaust vents. I managed to do so quite easily actually! Now the airflow is unimpeded. Tests to follow...

 

Would be so awesome if these mods allow you run to big overclocks and not worry about temperatures or thermal shutdowns.
I think I'd rather run a decent gpu OC and cpu at stock to avoid throttling than small OCs on both.

 

Unfortunately while the number of mods increases so does the ambient temp here in Japan. Won't be pushing any big number until winter lol! Besides I am moving on from the 7970M soon. Gonna downgrade to the 240M. I can get good money for the 7970M now not in a years time when I need an upgrad

 

That is a pretty catastrophic performance hit! However are you going to manage? I'm sticking with my 7970m as my next upgrade will be a desktop + ultrabook with a sexy screen.

I see no reason not to mod the hell out of the M15x until that time

Also what 3dmark11 scores are you expecting gtx 870m to have (educated guess)? I bet it scratches 6k but needs overclocking to reach potential, pushing up power consumption.

 

At stock I expect it to pull somewhat better than a 7970M. 6-7K

I expect it to do this at 50-55W tdp at an undervolt. At 75W tdp I hope it fares far better.

I don:t really game much anymore. It is more of a small hobby on the side. I am so busy these days at work and at home that I can:t game properly without forsaking more important things!

 

Fair enough. You should play Tomb Raider before you sell your 7970m.
Its a great game and the bow is so much fun.

 

Just got the call, new 7970 is gonna be hear in 2hrs with abc server fans (8300rpm for the win). Gonna see what can I do in terms of furmark, if it still gets hot and shuts down with furmark, I am gonna get blowers running at much higher speed.

 

Are you planning on increasing the surface area of exposed heatsinks using the stick on RAM heatsinks KoI used?

Otherwise it won't matter what rpm you have.

 

Bah don't use furmark! You will just kill your card by burning out the vrm's. Best way to test your card's cooling is by gaming. Furmark is a pointless waste of time and proves nothing.

 

Well I am having bad luck. Old card was giving reddish gibberish all over the scream (basically blacks are replaced with reddish static) and I thought it was card. With new card, it's exactly the same.

Didn't had the time to test the cards in m17x, but will do so tomorrow or on Monday arvo.

I am gonna try to replace thermal tape and reset bios on m15x at the same time when i test cards in m17x. Hopefully I didn't get a faulty card.

I did a test run on AVC fans and my god these push crazy amount of air and sound like a garden blower (well not that loud, but comparable lol). I got them running at full, will do a test with u3 standard and AVC fans on m17x tonight

 

Revive the cooling mod thread! Wooooo!
King I think you should add the latest pictures to this thread and update?

Here is my contribution. I was gaming at 850/1290 @0.975v and managed to play FC3 for over an hour without temperatures getting over 80 degrees by using this extra fan setup.
It definitely makes the gpu run at least 3-6 degrees cooler, tactically positions facing the radiator grill

 

Bad idea actually. Pushing the heat back inside the machine will cause a heat buildup and could do damage.

Why not slice open the bottom and do my mod it is super easy!

 

I don't think it is pushing air back in due to the more powerful airflow outwards. It definitely makes a difference to temperatures.
I just played FC3 for an hour (after taking 30 minutes to get 3d clocks) on 870/1250 and temperatures were around 75, definitely cooler than without the fans blowing!!!

I will slice open the bottom when I have time.

 

Ok I undertook a KOI style cooling mod today but I used a saw to cut through the plastic bottom cover. It was easy and I imagine much easier than using a stanley knife.
Heatsinks positioned on the heatpipes and velcro strips attached but I left the fans in London.

Fired up FC3 and even without the fans it definitely seems to run cooler!!! Will post more when I'm back in London with fans attached!

 

Very tidy mate!!

Much neater job than mine!! Good job

Now to try a 55cfm fan

 

Added another picture above showing fan filters attached (for travelling). More pictures to follow.

Hadn't had much chance to test with fans attached but initially gpu temps looks like this:

Ambient before mod = 37-39 degrees
Ambient with fans = 31-33

Playing FC3 before mod = 77-81 degrees (may have gone higher but I have a warning sound activate to avoid thermal shutdowns)

Playing FC3 with fans = hasn't gone above 70 degrees

CPU on x23 usually maxes at 81-85 degrees and after mod temps haven't gone above 70!

Will do more lengthier tests soon but initial results are very promising! Bring on higher overclocks!

Edit: After one hour running FC3 at stock clocks and 0.975v the highest gpu temp I got was 69 degrees! Going to OC to 1v and 900/1400 and see what happens
Edit2: With a modest overclock to 875/1450 @ 0.975v max gpu temperature was 72 degrees after an hour or so of FC3. CPU temperatures were around 75 max which is about 10 degrees lower than before mod!

 

Cool cooling mod . Btw, if you use fans, where does the heated air go? Did any of you guys test if after an intensive gaming session(an entire night of gaming) other parts of the laptop heat more because of this dissipated heat in the laptop case? Could this become an issue? Especially in a high ambient temperature. Maybe cutting an exhaust hole could be an option? Or building a specific airflow inside the case that would cool the heatsinks and then get blown outside of the laptop. This way the full power of the added fans would be used, I think right now they are just blowing air in a dead end.

Edit: I'm waiting for my m15x to get out from service (I sent it to warranty for a faulty fan) and when it comes back I want to see if I can add another fan with a big heatsink in the optical device slot. I would have to find some heatpipes that fit from the gpu backplate to a heatsink near where the dvd reader should be. Dunno I'f it's going to work, but I'm toying with the ideea for a while now

 

The added fans definitely help. About 15C cooler under heavy load. not a dead end really the system fans do suck away enough air to stop harmful heat dissipation into the chassis. I haven't noticed anything except the left side of the laptop get hot. That gets hot because the VRM's are working hard delivering nearly 300W of power to the 920xm and 7970M plus probably due to the fact that the CPU heatpipes run past the inside of the chassis there.

Update on the 330W. It has arrived in the UK and there it will stay until I bring it to Japan after Christmas. 2KG costs too much in shipping. So the community and myself will have to wait a little.

 

Whereabouts in the UK? Let me play with it first. I'll keep it safe for you

 

With my parents in Bournemouth. You just gonna rock up and take it lol!

I would be happy if you played around with it. Just leave the pin pulling to me haha

Either way if it works then I want it back before January 8th. Otherwise you can have it until then. Send us a PM mate.

 

Just made an offer for 2x Thermaltake Mobile fan II's on ebay! 100cfm of extra cooling here we come!

 

Here are some additional images of the finished mod. Try to ignore exposed wires on fans. Cool performance is excellent.

Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk

 

it probably says somewhere earlier in the thread, but where do the fan wires go? a separate desktop psu mby?

also by how many degrees does load temp go down?

 

These fans are from a usb-powered notebook cooler that you can see pictured (its upside down). You can also see the usb cable that powers those fans in the foreground of the bottom picture.

On the gpu before the mod I was getting temps playing FC3 of about 77-81 degrees. Big range but the ambient temperature has changed a bit in UK recently.
Now at the same clocks (0.975v 850/1250) it doesn't go about 69 degrees! I tried overclocking within the limit of 0.975v up to 880/1450 and still only got temps around 72-74 after an hours FC3.
Not going to overclock much until I change to a 1v vBIOS but I have to make another bootable USB drive after I used my current one to recover windows after wrongly selecting my OS partition as active (don't ever decide that is a good idea).

 

Welcome to the KoI cooling mod club

I am still waiting on my thermaltake fans to arrive. I will update with results and pictures shortly To run both fans I will need to use 2x usb ports. Will play around but might run them on an external power source.

 

Fatboyslim what happened to the usb cable? Seems a bit messy lol

 

Lets not talk about that lol. My cooler originally had three fans attached, I removed one and then never taped up the wiring properly.
I've accidentally yanked that cable a few times and pulled the solder off, so its just waiting to get re-soldered next time I go back home.

Also...Wooooooo! KoI cooling mod club!!!

 

Alrighty!! I have got my new fans. Modded and installed. Check them out!!

At stock speed there isn't much difference so far. Also only just enough clearance underneath. Will have to figure out how to elevate further to improve airflow.







If you look closely the fan speed controller has to be reversed to the back of the fan housing. Originally the controller points out from the exhaust not intake side of the fan. This is a little tricky in that the VERY long screw needed to lock it in place sticks out a fair way which cannot be. The screw must sit flush. In order to do this two nuts must be used. By using a second nut the long screw can be threaded back until it sits flush on the bottom of the fan housing; no longer sticking into the laptop. The two bolts however work acting to sandwich the fan controller tightly in place.

However if I crank full speed then well the difference will be amazing. So basically with these fans already at slowest speed with less clearance for airflow than the previous fans the cooling is already at least as good. I will have time for testing tomorrow night. Needless to say at full speed these fans push ALOT of air. I predict huge cooling abilities possible especially if I raise the laptop further!

 

I have fixed elevation by using the 6 cell battery as a prop under the front of the laptop. Now waiting for the superglue to dry on the velcro I have attached to the fans. The fans are too heavy for the velco's own adhesive to work.

I did do a quick run in FC3 and temps hit merely 61C after some 10 mins or so. However with one fan falling off without me noticing (happened to be GPU one) and the fact that there wasn't much room for airflow I can't say this was a fair run.

We have to wait again...until the glue dries!

 

You should test the limits of the KoI cooling mod by getting a gtx 780m and overclocking it. That'd be fun.

Quick question King, what tdp and the other thing are you running x24 multiplier? Cooling mod easily lowers CPU gaming temps by 10 to 15 degrees so I've got loads of headroom there (on x23 atm).

 

I run 100/100 tdp/tdc. There is headroom indeed however at 25x in prime 95 1 core will fail and throw up errors at 100% load. It isn't a question of heat but voltage limits. I would need to do a hardvolt mod (you too) to attain higher than 24x stably (you might with 940xm reach 25x before hitting wall). I am thinking depending on success of cooling mod do a +100mv voltmod but would need to do extensive research on how to measure voltages on the cpu first. The mod seems simple enough but reading the voltages I don't know how.

Same applies to GPU. The 780M isn't a good card for the M15x as it requires more power than the board can deliver to run a full speeds and especially at an OC. The reason I can't push further than 1.05V on the 7970M is because the board cannot provide the necessary power for 1.07V + to be stable. In other words we are stuck with an upper limit of around 100-120W total. Most modern laptops can handle 150W + M15x can't.

Anyways once I rock the 330W PSU unlocking the cpu further while also running up to maximum voltage allowed on the GPU should be possible. Considering the GPU is still amazingly upgradeable on this machine I am happy it is this way around. I would love to be able to run the cpu at 27/28/29/30x. The cooling mod will be able to handle the heat I am sure The 7970M will actually benefit from this in that minimum frame rates in games should rise. At 27x-30x (3.6-4ghz) I think the 920xm can fight it out another year right?

 

Ok did another trial run. After 20 mins FC3 The CPU hit 60C on hottest core and 64C on the GPU. Ambient temp is 20C.

It seems the lower temps get the more difficult to lower them further.I am pretty sure though even in summer with much hotter ambient temps my GPU will not get above 65C. Where I see big improvement is the CPU. 60C max is pretty amazing at 25/26/27/28! I think both CPU and GPU are running at least 5C lower. The CPU might even be closer to 10C lower!

I will do a Prime 95 run next!

 

I also noticed biggest reduction on CPU side. Running my current overclock on CPU, temps would easily creep up to 80 degrees after prolonged FC 3. Now I'm looking at 61 max temp in throttle stop. Loving it!

Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk

 

OK I noticed the fans are still hanging down. The fans simply weigh a little too much for a little velco to hold up. I only velcroed 3 corners of each fan. I guess I will put a final piece of Velcro on each fan tonight. Temps will drop further with this fixed as the airflow should be a little more efficient.

As for Prime 95! After a 10 minute run on small ffts at 24x 3.2ghz. Two cores hit 80C max the other two reached 79C max. Wooo this mod is working nicely. Already got myself a good 15C headroom for further OCing!

Almost forgot to mention I also tweaked throttlestop and managed only 85/80 tdp/tdc (tdc not that important) to maintain 100% load at 24x. I did this tweaking once temps got up to their max limits. With all 4 fans roaring however it is VERY noisy. I think the noise rivals even my old Asus C90P with it's four 11,000 rpm fans running at full blast!

 

Played FC3 final stage of game so lots of explosions etc! Maybe 1 -1.5 hours. GPU hit 68C max and the cpu 63C on hottest core. Other cores maxed at 60C!

Unbelievably cool. That translates to about 73C on GPU and 68C on CPU in summer ambient of 26C!

Let's see whether I can shave another degree off or 2 This is looking good. With such low temps a CPU hardvolt mod is no longer a pipe dream. I fully expect to run 27x stable in prime 95! Maybe at 95C but stable nonetheless! Haswell=has been...

 

Going to carry out CPU voltmod this weekend. Going to add +100mv to the mix. Happy times!

 

Would you write a "how to" guide on the volt mod? Its just amazing how far you've pushed this old beast. Have you already come to terms with it exploding on you?

Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk

 

Any benchmark please?... hehe
Your mod is awesome mate.
Btw, all these test you are doing, are with the 330w psu you were awaiting, KOI?
I´m thinking on purchasing one too, and forget all my psu & flickering nightmares

Cheers

 

Nah still 210W. 330W PSU is still in the UK. Picking it up at Xmas.

You should. Perhaps wait a little longer (about 7-8 weeks) and I can finally report back about the 330W PSU working or not.

It won:t explode. SVL7 pushed the cpu to +200mv I will only do half that while it is theoretically possible to push up to +300mv although you would need permanent liquid nitrogen cooling lol.

Look up 920xm voltmod on google. First link will be SVL7 s mod thread on techinferno. That is the mod I will be doing. Very simple. Just have to use a very thin wire and connect two cpu pin sockets together. No soldering needed.

 

So it won't be possible to reach 27x across all cores. A bit of chat with SVL 7 confirmed that even with +150mv only one M17x owner managed to attain 27x stable. 200mv would run too hot while 100mv won't suffice.

I will still do the mod when I have time. Hopefully this weekend. With +100mv I think 920xm can reach at least 25x if not 26x. 940xm owners solidly 26x.

 

First of all, thanks for your recommendations hehe, mate KOI
I guess, i don´t want go further with my 920xm, (+300mv XDDD, sure it wouldn´t explode? hihi), i am happy with my OC.
But, what i dont know, if i could wait for your PSU arriving haha

Now, i have just read your second post, and i think i am not sure if "i am doing the job right", beacuse my CPU is very stable at 25(4 cores)/25/26/27(one core),
and you are saying you need +100mv to reach 25x or 26x? (maybe i am not understanding you very well ^^U)
My OC doesn´t fail any core at Prime95 with 15 mintues of stressing ( FFT:1795), and reached 88-89º i think), so, i understand is stable.
But, with i have always had my doubts is about the TDP/TDC numbers, because , i have always seen everybody using high configs of 100 tdp, and
i have always conf. lower numbers. For example, right now, is at 76 tdp/68 tdc, at Throttlestop. And everything´s goings fine ,like i have said before

My ampmetter continues showing no more than 180W or so with games ( with this cpu oc and gpu oc), but remember i have a fail 240W PSU :/ so, i don´t
now if it´s doing well his work.
Is it possible, i am doing something wrong on this matter?

Thanks in advance, and sorry for my improvised english as always! ha

 

Check throttlestop. You will find at 76W TDP you will no way be running 25x multi in Prime 95! In order to allow it to fully run at that multi you have to increase the tdp accordingly. If you don't it will throttle your 920xm until it fits within the 76W tdp envelope.

I am able to run just 85W TDP to get 24x stable in prime 95 and it get's to only 80C. However without my cooling mods you will be looking at closer to 95C load. This higher temp means you also need a higher tdp for it to be stable as the chip won't run as efficiently.

Anyways just run the test and look at either core temp or throttlestop at 76W TDP and you will see your chip is probably running maybe max 22x

I recommend you to set TDP/TDC to 100/100 and try again. If you find it is stable after a certain amount of time slowly reduce the tdp until the clocks throttle. This way you find out exactly how much tdp you need to run stable at a particular clock speed.

Also read my comments above I will never do +300mv and doubtful +200mv. I may do 100 or 150mv only.

 

You were right mate, with that TDP it throttled a little bit ( not so much, but the multipliers down at 24x or something like that). Furthermore, i got a BSOD and some core failed in Prime95 XDD
Now i have found the stability with 80/72 and it´s solid like a rock
This is a screenshot running Prime95 stress test for 20 minutes:

Thanks for all as always!

 

I can easily get x25 multiplier using 100/100 but after awhile some Chip values drop below 100.
Is this thermal or power-based throttling? Multiplier still stays at x25. Also while running small FFT my C0% doesn't reach 100%.
Is that correct?

Also should I have C1E ticked or unticked?

I use x23 for gaming but I accidentally changed my tdp/tdc and can't find that sweet spot anymore. Any suggestions?

Basically while running Prime95 Small FFT, should C0% always be 100%? and should Chip be 100? If not, is this throttling? How can I remove that?

Thanks

 

MorejaSparda! Those are impressive temps at 25x annnd only at 80W tdp. No wonder you can keep temps low!

I 'am impressed and a little jealous. Mine at 24x with all my cooling modifications maxes at 80C on hottest cores. Yours at 25x gets to 87/88C max. VERY impressive if you are indeed running 25x with no throttling whatsoever!

EDIT: I just noticed your CPU core load is little over 50%. You must enable CIE and increase your tdp some more. My C0% is always at 100% load across all 8 threads when I run Prime 95. Although the C0% doesn't drop on my chip when things are unstable. The clocks simply drops/throttles.

Also run throttlestop under the high performance profile. Profile 1. You are running on "Game" profile 2. See top of throttlestop window. That might also be limiting your OC.

 

Here we go!
So i need the C0% at 100 too, during the Prime test, right?
Thanks!!
I'll come back later with news.... he