ASUS G51 Cooling mod

My primary motivations were curiosity and I hate fake hood scoops and such. I really thought that big round thing on the bottom of the G51 was an air intake with a permeable covering.

UPDATE2 8/25/09:

I strongly recommend you not mod the stock backplate like I (impulsively) did. Instead, order this: http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=4675&catid=606

For 8 bucks, you can mod this backplate and keep your stock one...stock. It might be hard to get warranty service with a big hole in your notebook.

UPDATE1 8/25/09:

IT WORKS. These temps were all obtained with me holding the notebook on my lap and ensuring the intake was unobstructed. Ambient temp is 72F in my house. It is CRITICAL that the vent have a reasonable source of cool, fresh air (like sitting on my lap). If it's sucking in the dead, hot air that exists directly under the laptop, you may not get the max effect. Further testing to see the effect on a desk with the rear propped up is to come soon. I suspect the temp drop will NOT be as great as what we're seeing here. BUT, I also think that combining this mod with a good laptop cooler will lead to GREATER decreases than this.

Full 3Dmark run after a clean boot:
Before - max 94c (P7350, all stock clocks)
After - max (are you ready?) 81c ([email protected], 600-800-1500)
RESULT = 13c decrease

Furmark run #2:
1366x768 8x AA
Before: max 97c and climbing (P7350 and GTX260m at stock clocks)
After: Max 90c, then falls to equilibrium of 84c ([email protected], GTX260m@600-800-1500)
RESULT = also a 13c decrease

ASUS, you can officially kiss my as*. They must have made an "engineering" decision that, as long as the GPU stayed below 108c (the throttle speed), the cooling system was "good enough".

Idiots.

 

Looking very nice.

And if it doesn't help, oh well. It can't hurt either, right?

 

I was the first of the G50 and G51 owners to do thislmfao. I did it about 4 months ago with my G50 cover. I drilled the hole about 3 inches in diameter and used window netting as a cover to keep out some dust and physical contact.

Obviously you did a MUCH better job. Plus 10 broman it looks really nice.

Unfortunately it did take 3 months for me to realize that with this mod you are getting fresh air into the fan but....the cpu and gpu are no longer having the surface heat pulled away, thus making not much of a difference unless you have a custom cooler blowing air into the fan and the gpu vent like I did.

The smartest thing to actually do would be to carefully and precisely drill out a rectangle shaped hole above the gpu and use a metal mesh like material to cover it, also doing the same above the ram and the hardrive. That way the surface heat is pulled away and more air is easily pulled by the fan from remote locations.

 

Thanks for your kind remarks. I agree with you about increasing passive cooling around the GPU. But it does already have vents above that area - I wonder if it would do any good? Is that your WRX btw? I loved mine but lost it in the divorce (which is cool - very safe car for my ex).

I'm starting to think that the cooling system for the GPU just can't transport enough heat to the fan in order to ultimately reject it. That's maybe why increasing the fan's efficiency (via mods such as this) doesn't do much.

 

lol dude I didn't mean to come off as a , I was just saying what I noticed with my laptops lmao. The gpu is cooled but it still radiates a bit of heat which the fan also sucked from the surface of it. If its on a cooler, you see a big difference though, flat on a desk the temps rise up even more.

Yea it's my rex, sorry about yours dude what year was it? Any mods?
Mines a cobb stage 2 remap. No major engine work. Has a kevlar clutch, turboxs uppipe, hks down pipe, hks carbon ti exhaust, k&n typhoon intake and a stock turbo pushing out a good 21lbs steady. It's a great car, only regret I have is buying an 02. The tranny is already rebuilt twice .

 

this mod lowered the temperatures?

how much?


thx

 

I will post data as soon as I can. I want to make sure it's good data before people start cutting open their cases. Thus far (subjectively), I don't believe it's done much. But it may magnify the effect of a laptop cooler
(since that would provide a better source of cool air).

 

Please do. Also is that just a free air solution or did you install a fan to force air in/out?

Also depending on the results or if people would like to do it themselves they can always order a replacement bottom to "mod" while leaving the original alone. This way if they mess up or dont like their individual results they are not stuck with it. Not to mention the assembly is cheap i.e sub $8 (it looks like this is interchangable with the G51)
http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=4675&catid=606

I plan on picking one up to mod but more through an increase in free air slits near the CPU and GPU.

 

So is anyone going to put spinners on their G51?

 

Great man...i was thinking the same way too...just cutting the "skin" maybe nothing happens, but when combined with a notebook external cooler this mod could start taking effect

my gtx260m is operating in 60c iddle and 85c full (average)

i'm waiting for your results...

thank you

 

Here's another idea:
http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=5041

I really want to put in a better fan. I'm going to scrounge in my parts bin and see what I can come up with while this hot POS is still under warranty.

That looks like a generic fan to me - I could be wrong. Seems like I've seen nearly identical ones on GPU's in the past. I've got an entire collection of old cooling solutions that might come in handy.

I just can't understand why they would put in such a weak fan, given that it's the one part of the thermal equation which doesn't add weight, cost, or space. Simply run the f**ker at a *much* higher rpm - damn the noise.

I'd rather have a little noise than a 97C GPU temp.

 

You can't get much more ghetto than cutting a hole in it. I'd say we're already there.

 

pleeeeease......

Whitewalls and curb feelers ftw

 

Isn't the fan u gave a link to the same as in the G51. At least it looks the same...?

 

LMAO That is not a better fan. It is the fan from the G50 and it spins at a tad slower rpm than the G51 does. Plus if you pay attention closely the spindles are different. The G51 fan spindle has a concave to it, allowing air to form a toilet effect while the G50 fan spindle is flat.

Hey Kondor, can you tell me what mesh like material you used? My window netting is getting a bit flimzy.

 

I'd still be worried about particulates getting through that plastic mesh.

I can see it sucking up more dust, that's for sure.

 

It's not that strong lmao! It does not suck up much dust. I ran my G50 without mesh, just a hole, for a month and then took off the bottom panel and blew it out with a compressor and barely any dust blew out.

 

Dust is natural for all computers. Just clean it out once in a while.

I was also thinking about installing hydraulics on the G51 so that the back of the laptop would prop itself up with the touch of a button.

 

Guys, I don't mean to get too excited, but I think I figured out why I wasn't getting much improvement in GPU temps. I had the G51 sitting flat on a table - with the result that the fan intake was basically just as close to an obstruction as it was before the hole was made.

I simply propped up the rear of the notebook, and I can't get my GPU to go over 90C now. Before, it was hitting 97c during ARMA II gaming.

Let me make absolutely sure, but I'm thinking maybe it worked.

Munchkin: I used the metal grille from a laptop cooler called Notepal (made by Cooler Master) which is all-aluminum and rather pricey. You might find one online. I have a friggin' collection of laptop coolers and the grille happened to fit perfectly.

Re: dust, my philosophy is: If there's no dust, there's no airflow either. It's very easy to clean out this very compact cooling system.

Soviet: that sounds really cool. I'm just going to use some stick-on feet that flip out when needed. I've used them on other laptops and they worked great without adding any add'l thickness to the laptop.

Lastly, this is really just a big, cheaply made notebook that happens to have a great GPU. Maybe we can mod it to make up for some questionable engineering by ASUS. My #1 question (sorry, gonna shout here):

ASUS, WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU USE THE SPACE TAKEN UP BY THE 2ND HDD TO INSTALL A 2ND FAN/HEATSINK FOR THE GPU ONLY????!!??!

There. I feel somewhat better.

 

IT WORKS.

Running Furmark at 1366x768 with 16xAA with a 3.4Ghz CPU OC and 600/900/1500 on the GPU, it now maxes out at 89c. Note that it does *not* work unless the rear of the notebook is propped up to allow fresh air to enter the intake.

I know for a fact that the same test, with less AA and less res, resulted in 97c prior to the hole being made.

ASUS, you can officially kiss my as*. They must have made an "engineering" decision that, as long as the GPU stayed below 108c (the throttle speed), the cooling system was "good enough".

 

Just some quick questions:

Are you running it on a laptop cooler or just propped up from the behind on a desk?

So you just cut that hole there and didn't do anything else like add new fans atm?

I'm interested in potentially doing this but I can imagine the explaining that I'd have to do if I ever want to get repairs through warranty.....and through Best Buy too.....

 

Buy a spare backpanel and get a hole saw at your local hardware store.

 

I think he's just running it propped up or something since he never said anyting about a notebook cooler, though I must say that the Zalman NC2000 could have some serious potential seeing as how it's already a pretty good cooler.

 

More data:

Full 3Dmark run after a clean boot:
Before - max 94c (P7350, all stock clocks)
After - max (are you ready?) 81c ([email protected], 600-800-1500)

Yay. At first, I couldn't believe it. Thought maybe something was wrong. Unbelievable.

No cooler. I'm using it on my lap and just making sure I don't obstruct the vent. I happen to rarely use this laptop on a desk.

I'll next run some tests on a desk. My guess is that a cooler will have an even greater effect, as this mod seems to really like a source of cool air.

 

damn damndamn

 

Which is why, from what I can tell, the NC2000 fits this Asus model perfectly. The two fans that it runs are in the back left, right where the intake on the laptop is, and propping your laptop up a little bit more never hurts.

 

Holy sh*t.

That's okay, baby. I won't let these cool running G51's scare you.

I think it's about time to revisit my backpanel mod that I so miserably failed at a few weeks ago.

 

More good news:

OK, I re-ran Furmark just to be 100% sure - since that always created the highest GPU temps (97c).

Now it tops out at 90c, but that isn't the good news. Now, it hits 90, and then starts going down to an eventual equilibrium of...84c.

Thank You God.

I just noticed something. 13c was also exactly the difference in GPU temp on the 3Dmark run. Repeatability!

Lastly, I could tell there was something going on because when I held my hand to the vent during 3Dmark, it didn't roast my hand like before. I'm really excited to see what a cooler will do for this mod. I think it would work best with one the blows cool air right into the intake.

Hellz Yes.

 

I used a dremel tool with a small cut-off wheel to make fairly rough cuts and then finished up with the dremel using a sanding barrel thingy to smooth the edges. I'm pretty anal though, as I hate mods unless they look "factory".

The grill was affixed using superglue, and then electrical tape on top of it to ensure it didn't short anything out.

The grille itself came from the Cooler Master Notepal. I have a lot of electronics crap laying around and it happened to fit perfectly - to the point of looking OEM. I just got lucky on that one.

 

Congrats kondor999, your mod is amazing!

I didn't believed a lot on the ASUS' theory about this little fan cooling appropriately all the components, son Its nice to see that someone did something about it.
I personally believe that installing a better fan + your mod could have even a better performance.
I'm waiting for some more tests cause I'm thinking on doing something similar.

Thanks again kondor!

 

No cooler.

Sitting on my lap in a 72f house.

Just the hole. Nothing else. I've got different thermal compound from putting in the X9100. Otherwise stock.

The warranty thing worries me too. BUT. If ASUS comes out with a backplate for the G51 (like they did for the G50) I could just get one and slap it on there (along with the P7350) if needed. Alternatively, you could just order the G50 backplate for 8 bucks ( http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=4675&catid=606) and mod that instead.

 

I was thinking the same thing is that weird?
i am going to do this with my g50vt soon.
i mean it only hits 89-92 now but why not cool it even more

 

I'll next test with the best cooler I've ever found:

You put it at the rear edge of the notebook and it blows a lot of air underneath - just what is needed. The coolers that sit under the notebook and blow upward are, frankly, idiotic. All they're doing is recirculating the hot, stale air that already exists under the notebook.

It's a much better idea to get the air from the ambient environment (rather than the superheated crap under the notebook) and provide it to the existing cooling system.

Really, that's all an external cooler can do: Provide cooler air to work with. Just moving the same hot stuff around isn't gonna do squat, and is why 99% of these things, when tested, don't drop temps at all.

 

I call shenanigans.

 

I know I'm posting a lot, but I just had to point out another questionable engineering choice by ASUS.

UPDATE: Never mind. As Soviet points out, the fact that they touch makes it pointless which one comes first.

Man, I love being wrong on this stuff.

OK, look at this pic:

This is the CPU portion of the cooler on the G51V. The radiator fins for the GPU cooler (which is similar if you haven't looked) lie downstream from the CPU fins you see there on the extreme left (the fan blows across them - sorry if that's obvious).

Here's the problem: The CPU runs a lot cooler than the GPU. Why in the world would you put it first in line to receive cool, ambient air?

As it is, the GPU fins are having air that has already been heated by the CPU (and NB) blown across them.

Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to reverse the order in which these cooling fins are arrayed? The GPU would be "first in line" to receive cool air, and the CPU would get what's left over. Yes, the CPU would run hotter. But even my X9100 oc'ed to 3.4Ghz only hits about 55c as it is, whereas the GPU was hitting 97c.

I dunno. I'm just a psychiatrist but I did have 4 years of physics. Is my logic faulty?

 

The CPU and GPU heatpipes and the fins are in too close proximity of each other to make a difference. The same goes for the M860TU heatsink.

 

Well, show me a laptop cooler that was tested and dropped temps by more than a couple degrees. I never found one, and I've bought plenty. This one, OTOH, did work for me. All I can say is: YMMV.

Seriously, if you know of a good one, let me know. I don't really want to be right about this - that's never my goal. Just want this hot POS to run cooler!

 

You know, you're right. Since they touch, it's effectively one set of fins.

Oh well, dumb post by me. It happens

 

Told. Post #14 and onward. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=384125&page=2

 

That thang sux. I found me the ultimate cooler. I turn it up to "3" and put on my goggles. Check out the ghetto hospital floors in my military housing.
Check it:



Crap - just looked at the thread and someone else thought of it first! And I thought I was a ghetto genius and all.

 

I hope you swept the floor before turning it on, haha.

 

My freaking copper blocks still haven't arrived. Oh well.

 

You want to take a ride on kondor999's hovercraft with me?

Sadly I can't ride mine anymore since my dog chewed up the power cord a few years ago when she was still teething.

 

There's a reason why that "hole" is blocked up.

Here's a question for you... how hot is your HDD(s) and RAM now? They are just as susceptible to heat damage as the GPU and CPU.

Now that you have that vent opened up... the HDD(s) and RAM no longer have any air moving over them.

What they really need is a better CFM fan, that can pull air over the HDD(s)/ram AND some fresh air for the GPU and CPU and fins.

 

Hopefully it wasn't plugged in.

And I'll pass on the hovercraft. It would just look wrong to see two grown men riding a fan.

Oh God, that sounded worse when I actually typed it.

 

Lurk more. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5245122&postcount=782

Well you're no fun. I'll just ride with kondor999 then. We're going to blast off to the moon.

 

Hdd temp jumps up to 44-50C(gaming) on a desk with this mod. There is no air being pulled from the hdd so it gets hot as it is in the most remote location.

 

Screenshot taken after coming out of World in Conflict for about an hour.

HDD temp 45c before mod (gaming) and 45c after. I earlier stated 42c which was a non-load temp (and which also did not change much).

Screenshot with Furmark and disk defrag running (to drive up drive temps as high as possible). This is with the active cooler I showed earlier.
That's right. 66c max on the GPU. It really is a great cooler. My GPU temps went from 84c to 66c with the ANTEC notebook cooler, thus confirming my suspicion that this mod would especially benefit from active cooling (it can actually use that cool air for something).


The chassis is *not* hermetically sealed, and therefore that tiny fan is generating almost zero airflow all the way over on the other side of the chassis. I'm sorry, but it's just ridiculous. The fan barely generates suction 1/4" in front of its intake - much less 12" away with multiple components and air leaks in between.

Try touching the memory after extended gaming. It's barely warm. Same for the HDD. Even if ASUS were correct, it's the GPU that needs cooling - not an HDD running at 42-50c. I'd gladly make the trade to better cool my 90c+ component. THRM actually went down from 72-73 to the high 60's. The memory is only warm to the touch before and after the mod, and does not require any cooling.

Lesson: Having a roasting hot GPU in your chassis is going to inject more heat than it's worth. Think of the notebook as a single thermodynamic system. The object is to transport heat out. Almost anything that furthers that is going to result in decreased temps elsewhere. Remember to prop up the rear of the notebook with this mod or it does little good.

And with that, I'm done.

For me, the GPU temp issue is now solved. Best of luck to everyone here and I hope your results are as good as mine.

 

exactly and thats on a cooler. The hdd hits a good 50C when not on a cooler. Mine stays 35C on my cooler.

You will also notice that the right and left palmrest are going to feel like brick ovens now since the surface heat stays. So basically when the fan withdrew the air from the remote vents the outside of the laptop(left palmrest which is where the gpu is located) it physically felt normal and cool, with the fan not contributing to the surface heat the laptop is going to feel like an oven. I know this because I had this mod on both my laptops.

 

I am impressed with your notebook cooler. Is your Antec notebook cooler any better than the NC2000 or Cryo Lx?And are you talking about the Antec Cooler 200 with a big blue LED fan ?