ASUS G51 Cooling mod

Idk who your talking to but i made mine from 3 rosewil casefans attached to a raidmax power supply. Im currently drilling out holes in a sheet of plexiglas to bolt the fans onto but I temporarily bolted them up on a cardboard box. worka better than any cooler and the air coming out of the fans at max 3k rpm can knock over empty bottles.

 

Sorry in advance for the long post. I kept thinking of new things and went back to test my numbers again just to confirm what I'm saying.

I swore to myself not to get drawn back in but what you're saying is just not true (on my notebook). My palmrests were getting hot (with no cooler) even before the mod. Are you measuring temps with the notebook flat on the table?

I also just tried covering the hole and - no difference in THRM or HDD according to HWMonitor. And the palmrests still get hot. And the GPU is back to it's 97c antics again. This is with no active cooler, and with the notebook sitting on a desk with the rear propped up with a book.

Here's why this just can't be right: the left palmrest is being heated by direct radiant heat from the copper heatpipe which lies close to the surface and is transmitting that heat directly through the plastic to your hand. There is simply no way the theoretical "airflow" from that little fan sucking away will have an effect on this heat that is being radiated over such a short distance. Even if there were some effect, since the heat in the palmrest is coming from that heatpipe, and the mod demonstrably helps the heatsink system be more efficient - you can see where I'm going. Keeping the heatpipe under the left palmrest at a lower temp is really the only way to reduce temps in that area IMHO. And that's backed up by the testing I've done.

The same applies to the other hot surface area - the upper left part of the keyboard. This is being heated alright - but not by hot air. It's being heated by the direct transmission of heat through the plastic from that molten GPU about 1/4" away. Unless the heat is rejected by the cooling system (which this mod does), that heat has to go somewhere. In this case, it goes into the plastic - and then your hands.

This idea that hot air is somehow "building up" and heating the interior due to this mod is just bogus according to what I've observed. However, I do agree that the chassis could use a second fan for the GPU only.

I think people are trying to transfer their knowledge of how desktops work (which frequently have chassis fans to evacuate the heated air - but please notice the much larger number of intake fans), but that's because of the large interior volume they have. In a laptop, the laptop itself is what gets heated - the interior air volume is minuscule. And, in any case, air is a terrible transmitter of heat. I'm much more worried about that 90+c GPU directly heating the plastic. Or that copper heatpipe from the CPU that's about 1/4" under your left palm. That's where the heat reduction is needed.

The only reason this mod has such an unusually large effect on GPU temps is the poor engineering by ASUS which left the fan so starved for cool, fresh air. Providing that air via the active cooler had a disproportionate relative effect on GPU temp (84c-->66c). In better designed notebooks, these coolers typically cause only slight temp drops. And, of course, you don't need the active cooler to get to a (tolerable) 84c or so.

Whew - OK, I'm really done. You guys do what you like, and I do wish you well. I'm just happy to now be able to play ARMA II as long as I like and never see the GPU over 84c (rather than 97c). And Yes, my HDD, THRM and subjective palmrest temps are all unchanged.

 

I knew it!
But thanks to be the 1º one with balls and do it +1rep !

 

The heatpipes have very little surface area, nor do they cool effectively by convection, thus making the cooling system very dependant on active cooling from the fan. Asus's cooling design on the G51 very poor as the fan will suck in less CFM through the multiple intake vents placed over critical components on the system, and the wall of the backpanel is very close to the sealing wall of the fan itself, which reduces CFM even more. kondor999's solution was to remove the wall of the backpanel so that the fan can operate at it's fullest as well as suck in cooler air. It still makes me wonder why Asus decided to approach the G5x laptops with this cooling design. If they add surface area to the heatpipes over the CPU and GPU, then a "closed fan" design would benefit from both passive and active cooling as the main heatsink where the CPU and GPU heatpipes meet can only be so big. The next step in the G51 cooling crusade is to enlarge the vents over the CPU and GPU and add more copper mass and surface area to maximize cooling.

I've taken another look at the G51's GPU heatsink. Because the G51 GPU only uses one heatpipe compared to two primary and one secondary heatpipe on my GPU, I think there is room for improvement. If someone can take the time to remove their GPU from the socket and take a picture of the underside of the card and the chassis, I would greatly appreciate it. I may be able to help you G51 users implement the double-sided heatsink mod that I applied to my own GPU.

 

Kondor, was your Arma temperature measurement with or without a notebook cooler?


So, checklist for good cooling:

-New thermal paste, applied correctly
-Increased surface area on heatpipe (copper blocks)
-Underclock/undervolt
-Make a KondorHole(tm) or somehow enlarge the vents of the CPU and GPU. I should get a replacement panel since I suck with hardware.

Soviet, I've noticed you called Kondor's hole "primitive". Jokes (?) aside, how would you have done it?

 

That's not how I meant it. I was using primative to describe how such a simple mod that one of Foxworthy's 5th graders could come up with can be overlooked by the world class engineers at Asus.

I really need a G51 infront of me to be able to blueprint this. I got a few friends that bought the new G51 over the summer so I'll try and ask them if I can pop open their backpanel and take a look see.

 

Hey, I totally agree it's primitive as Hell. I just happen to be OK at making primitive crap look OEM LOL.

I used to do a lot of Warhammer40k custom modeling, painting and crap.

I am so not done with playing around with this little lappie. Part of the problem is that, unlike the Dell XPS models I've had, ASUS built cheaply and left lots of room for improvement IMHO.

Still, I really like this little guy. The screen res is perfect for games. They just kinda forgot to cool the GPU is all. Crazy ASUS dudes...

 

You called?

Hey Kondor I know you can't resist getting sucked back into this thread (no pun) but could you post a picture of how your setup looks complete with the cooler attached.

Thanks in advance. Im just waiting for the bottom panels to come back in stock. I think my only complaint so far with ASUS people has to be the trolls they have working in their parts department since they rarely respond to inquiries and worse yet they rarely update their stock (maybe its unfair to blame them for slow restocking).

 

Couldn't this pretty much be done by removing the plastic cover that's on the air intake?

 

What do you guys think would be the most ideal objects to use to prop the back of the laptop? Right now im using two erasers that i taped up to prevent all the pink shavings that come off from them from falling into the intakes.

 

I used to use those thick pc game cases.

 

It's not an air intake. It's just a design that looks like an air intake.

 

Design fail.

I still think the mod would benefit from some kind of filter to keep stuff out of the fan. I can see hair and anything else that can fit in those holes... going through those holes. I mean, sure, all fans are going to collect dust, but a fan as open as the one in this mod is going to twice as caked in dirt and the like.

Sit the laptop down once without thinking about it and bang, game over.

I mean, don't get me wrong. The mod looks good and I have no doubts about it's overall efficiency, but it does leave a very sensitive piece of the system open.

 

I believe Munchkin-man used window screen netting to cover up his hole.

I might so something similar. Instead of making one big hole, though, I might drill a dozen or so smaller ones.

 

Ah, windows screen. That would work perfectly. I might end up doing this. I had already thought of pulling that plastic disk from the faux-vent, I just thought it would kill the cooling Asus had so ingeniously designed.

 

Pulling off the plastic will just make drilling easier, I guess. But that's it. Remember the grill-looking design is solid and has no openings.

 

Yeah, I knew that.

Kinda makes you wonder why they'd glue that disk over top an already closed vent.

 

I uncovered how the fan works with the mod. Basically, the GPU heats up to 90c, the fan goes into full mode and drives the temp down to 81c, at which point it lets up and the temp goes to 90c again - repeat ad infinitum.

I'd love to see what the fan could do in terms of GPU temps if it were on High all the time. With the current BIOS, there's no way to know. They're obviously aiming for 90c as their equilibrium point.

The good news: The equilibrium point is now 90c, instead of 97c+, and your temps will never go above 90c

The hopeful news: If we could leave the fan on high while gaming, the GPU could undoubtedly run much cooler than 90c

The bad news: It might actually be better to run a constant 97c than constantly oscillate between 81c and 90c - thermal cycling is what killed the 8000 series - let's hope Nvidia really did fix their packaging

ASUS? BIOS update, please?

 

Again, dust is natural for computers. I have it worse than you all as I have two fans and they are both stronger than the G51 fan. I clean out my notebook every two weeks regardless of how little dust has accumulated so that even a minor "cake up" won't begin to form.

kondor999. Thanks to your inspiring endeavor with your G51, I have decided to revisit my own backpanel mod for my Clevo after my first attempt failed with unnoticable change in temperatures. My second attempt is turning out to be effective despite still incomplete. I have only done the northbridge and the GPU; the wireless card and the hard drive will be finished this weekend.

 

I want to do a copper mod but don't know what are soft pads for? (highlighted in red)

Can I remove then and stick small heatsinks in their place?

 

dont remove those!!! they are there to keep the panel supported. so it doesnt touch the copper. mmmm. i smell melted plastic in your future

 

Do u think its safe to keep those on then and place 5mm high copper heatsinks on the heatpipes without melting the plastic?

 

i dont think they will do any good w/o more air flow. maybe if you drill some holes in the plastic and use a cooler you might see a diff
on my vt i drilled out some holes above the fan like the op did here execpt mine were small indiv hole about 15 in all. and my gpu idle has dropped 4c.

 

Once I get a chance to order a bottom plate I will be doing a similar mod that Kondor has so nicely provided inspiration to.

My thought is to utilize earth magnets to hold a vent covering like Kondor has used, however in order to provide better resistance to the daily crude I would think wrapping the metal screen in say black sheer pantyhose material would provide a adequet filter.

The magnets would hold it in place and allow its removal for cleaning or replacing of the soft filter (pantyhose material).

**The only concern I have right now is would the magnets even though small potentially damage or reek havoc with any internal components of the laptop. I know that the G71GX uses magnets to hold those little USB bay doors, soooo?

 

I thought about that and I'm build a custom cooler with fans directly below the vents. I will make then run @ 12V so they should provide strong airflow.
I never really game without a cooler, and at idle my temps are not high so I assume that there will be no danger of melting plastic..

I'd like to do that as well, but atm the back panel for the G50 is unvailable in the ASUS eStore. Are there any other palces to buy it from (didn't find on on eBay)?

 

Man, ambient really does mess with your temperatures. When I'm under 75F I can hit a consistent low of 46C on my GPU with a CPU undervolt and a full-blast Zalman.

With this heat I've been getting (86+ ambient) I'm going to 54C idling. Hate to see what comes up if I turn on a game.

 

New world order is coming soon, kondor999. I just need to find time to drill holes for the HDD and I'm all done with the backpanel. I added more copper inside of the GPU heatcage and switched my RAM heatsinks from aluminium to all copper. The northbridge heatsink has also received a very big copper upgrade. The HDD will also be upped to a larger and thicker copper plate.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5259440&postcount=688

 

How much does it weigh now?

 

I don't even know anymore. I need to borrow one of the digital scales at school and weight it again. All I know is that I was playing CS:S for a few hours and my max temp never exceeded 50*C. And this was in 82*F ambient and with my new primary clocks of 640/1600/950.

 

I've been looking around, and I hear people saying that you can manually control your clocks. (Don't know if that's only for Sager or if the Clevo-only ones can do that). Do you keep your fans at max when you game? Or whenever you use the computer?

 

Manually control my clocks? Or do you mean my fans?

I have basic control over the fans on my system. There is silent mode, which kills the CPU fan and locks the GPU fan at minimum speed. My QX9300 would be restricted to 2.13GHz, however my GPU is unrestricted. I use this a lot when I am on battery. Also, my professors in my smaller classes don't like the noise from my CPU fan when I play CS:S in class. But when doing light work or when idling, my CPU fan stays off as my CPU temp never exceeds the fan on threshold of 40*C.

The other mode is maximum speed. This ramps both the CPU and GPU fan to maximum speed. I only use this mode for a few seconds when I first turn on my notebook after cleaning it just to get any loose dust out of the fan blades. Other than that, I never need to use it.

Normal mode controls the fans as needed. The CPU fan threshold is 40*C for fan on, as I mentioned above, and 38*C for fan off. The GPU fan threshold is 38*C for fan on and 34*C for fan off. The CPU always stays under 40*C and my GPU fan always stays within the fan on and off threshold, most of the time around the lower end of the threshold. In typical room temperatures of 72*F, my GPU always stays ~36*C with the fan off. If it's hot like here in my friend's house right now at 82*F, my GPU would hit 38*C and the fan would cool it down to 34*C and turn off and the GPU would slowly heat up again, usually around 10 minutes, to 38*C and the whole process repeats. The ramp up threshold for both the CPU and GPU fan is 50*C.

In the system BIOS, there are two behaviors for below 50*C fan operation in normal mode: continuous and automatic. Continuous would speed up the fan linearly with the rise and fall of the component temperature. Automatic would keep the fans, if on, at minimum speed until the component temperature hits 50*C. I use automatic.

 

I think that's another thing that could have helped the G51's cooling: lower ramp-up temperatures. While the dual fan design is a no-brainer in keeping your temperatures cool, the fan's don't really kick in until about 86C, and by then it's too late.

Anyway, would you recommend a big hole like in Kondor's mod, or would many little holes (like what you did) suffice?

And those copper blocks still aren't here.

And, lastly, what where your CPU and GPU temperatures at out-of-box stock? I'm wondering how much those dozen and one mods you did helped.

 

I went with smaller holes to maintain structural integrity in the backplate, and to prevent too much dust from going in without the need for a dust grill or filter. For starters, if I had a G51, I would cut away a big hole over the fan like kondor999 did, and punch several smaller holes over the CPU and GPU.

I forgot to mention that 50*C is the ramp up temperature for medium speed. The fans would speed up with the component temperature just like in continuous. I forgot what the temperature threshold that kicks my CPU or GPU fan to maximum speed.

I never recorded my CPU or GPU temperatures out of the box. My notebook came completely barebones, (no CPU, no RAM, no HDD, etc.) Once I put on some MX-2 onto the CPU and GPU, I turned it on to see if it would work, and then proceeded to set up my Windows installation. A few days later, I began to secretly install my heatsink mod. I guess you can say that it was foolish of me to not record my temps before the mod to compared with after the mod. Also, that was when I was still using a 9800M GTX, which is no longer with me; I miss her so much.

The only comparison I have is with other M570TU users. My temps for all of my components are significantly lower compared to everyone else, and they have lower clocks on the CPU and GPU.

 

So significant, then. Cool.

The reason I ask one big hole versus many little holes is because I don't have easy access to something that can make that big and that clean a hole. While you don't think it will be as good as a KondorHole(tm) it's not going to have a detrimental effect.

Man. Now I have to wonder if I should just drill my stock backplate (since I'm no longer under the hah-hah Best Buy warranty) or if I should wait for a second one.

 

I used a simple non-electric hand drill with a 1/32in cobalt drill bit to make the small holes on my backpanel. I don't know if The Home Depot sells a hand drill, but I know that some jewelry stores sell them; that's what I get for shopping with my girlfriend too much. Bigger holes will indeed be more effective, but there simply isn't enough heat being dissipated directly from the CPU or GPU in the G51. This is why heatsinks and holes are best installed together to add passive cooling while the fan deals with active cooling.

This should help. I also covered the effects of cutting too big a hole over critical components. His mod only involved the backpanel, but no additional surface area and mass to assist with dissipating heat directly off of the components. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=411143

This is me acting as my own notebook warranty. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=404134&page=4

For more advanced users and crazy Russians, Clevo has such a liberal warranty that it allows us Clevo users to do whatever we feel like with our notebooks and not void it. Like I mentioned in my post, I never needed RJTech to replace or repair any of my notebooks as I did all the work on my own. Though through my care and responsibility for my machines, I prevented them from ever breaking down by keeping them in tip top shape. Also, RJTech and other vendors offer almost every replacement part for current production and most legacy notebooks up to around three years old so if I ever need to replace anything within or outside warranty, all I would need to do is send them an email and they will dropship the part in less than three days since RJTech is in the same shipping zone as I am.

 

I'm not going to even consider a backplate mod until I get my blocks.

Speaking of which, would a copper block mod without a backplate mod be detrimental, since the airflow from the G51 fan won't draw heat away fast enough? In other words, would I run cool for an hour and then watch my components bake after that?

 

If you do not touch the backpanel, then a copper mod would still be effective. The more copper that the incoming air touches will better cool the component as heat is being taken away directly from the component rather than having heat go from the component to across a long heatpipe then to the main heatsink to be cooled. Also, copper will also block air from travelling in a straight line. The more distance that the air travels inside of the notebook will benefit cooling. I know that your thinking that the air will be warmed up before it goes through the fan and through the main heatsink, but through the scope of physics and mechanical engineering, this is actually more efficient and more effective to an extent.

In short, your components are not going to bake from added heatsinks. You've played Starcraft. You know you must contruct additional heatsinks. My life for Asus.

 

But China has to spawn more copper blocks before I can do anything.

Thanks. Back to waiting.

 

I've ordered some copper blocks as well to add to my G51. I will apply some IC Diamond to my CPU + GPU and post the temps afterwards.

IMO there are enough vents below the CPU/ RAM/, but there is only a small vent (not even directly above, but close) to the GPU. So drilling a few holes below the GPU + Cu blocks + cooler could give good results. This is with little intervention to the panel.

 

Since it's out of stock... any suggestions?

 

You wait patiently.

 

Has anyone tested the online product yet? I'm assuming the results shown here was kondor's personal modification.

 

Online product?

 

The one he mentions in his first post.

 

It's just a stock backplate. Nothing special. And seeing how it's out of stock, we're not going to be seeing any results.

 

That would have been my next question... So I assume he meant we should buy that piece and apply the modifications that instead of the original backplate. In that case it would be nice to see instructions. Not that I'm expecting the plates to be in stock any time soon, but it might still help those 'impulsively' people.

 

Yes, the spare backpanel is solely for warranty purposes in that chance that your notebook fails on you and your only option is to send it in for repairs. Obviously, if Asus sees those holes, your warranty is void, which is why we buy the spare.

There really isn't much to modding the backpanel. All you need is graph paper and calipers to properly blueprint where you want the holes, and a small drill bit, 1/32in or 3/64in works nicely, and a power drill.

 

Maybe I'm just imagining it, but from looking at the picture it looked like he had replaced the air vent. So I figured the modification was a little more complicated than just drilling some holes. But maybe not.

 

The thing you behind the hole is the fan, not component Kondor added.

Personally, I used 1/32 and 1/16 bits, and since I didn't use graph paper it looks like a hoarde of sugar-happy children planned out my mod.

 

In his mod, he buzzed out the entire fake hole and replaced it with the fan grill from one of his notebook coolers.