Thermal paste for G73JH GPU

Which method of paste application did you use ? The dot, rice grain, line, spread ? I have access to MX-2 and would like to use the most effective technique (BTW MX-2/3 web-site recommends the dot approach) - Hopefully I can get similar results with MX-2.

Thanks !

 

reread my edited post, sorry about the confusion.

i use the dot method, since gpu packaging is not totaly square i made it more like a oval shapped dot.

 

Update:
Tried ICD24 on my GPU and results are looking good.
http://ipicture.ru/uploads/100924/hNVT9GV26h.jpg
5 mins of furmark at ambient 25C.
My max gaming temps are 79C now.SC2 on everything high is 72C-74C now.

 

Nice job there Tim4 +1 for you Welcome to Team IC Diamond!

 

well i just lapped both my heatsinks and re-repasted with ICD7 on Gpu and MX-2 on Cpu.
here's a screenie with furmark+prime95 burn
ambient temp is around 30 degrees.

http://i53.tinypic.com/qo6a0l.jpg

previously i had OCZ freeze on gpu and furmark took the gpu to 90
so nice around 7 degree improvement with lapping+ICD7

 

Can you explain the method you used for lapping your heatsink? I'm getting ready for a repaste job myself and I definitely would prefer to lap it first. However, I am worried that too much work on the heatsink may result in accidentally damaging the heat pipes. Any insight you give could be helpful.

Also, I wonder how much of your improvement we can attribute to the lapping, or to ICD7. Regardless, nice job.

 

Well the cpu heatsink was easy to lap since its flat and the copper was the lowest part. I had to do it at the edge of a glass table, with the sandpaper on the table and the heatsink rubbed against it so that the heat pipes didnt interfere and then change the sandpaper to a different side of the table to be able to lap it at 90 degrees to the previous direction.

For the gpu heatsink, this method cant cant be used as the copper contact portion was not the lowest part. For this i placed the heatsink flat on a table used a small foam pad with sandpaper wrapped around it.

I used the following grits of sandpaper 600>1000>1500>2000>2500
Managed to get almost a perfect mirror finish on the cpu heatsink. The Gpu heatsink wasnt that polished as movement was restricted due to the annoying screws which i couldnt seem to get off..

I would have taken photos but camera ruined due to water-damage (curse the monsoons!!!) and crappy camera on phone


Btw these are the temps i had been getting:
Stock paste:
GPU
Idle (300/1000 clocks): dont remember
Load (700/1000 5 min furmark run) - 110
Cpu (100% prime95 load for 5 mins) - 75-77

OCZ freeze on Gpu:
Idle: 58
Load: 90

Lapping+ICD7 on Gpu:
Idle: 55
Load: 83

MX-2 on Cpu:
Idle: 44-45
Load: 69-70

Ambient temps are around 30-32 for all the above which i'm sure is a lot warmer than what you guys have in the states.

 

Hey guys this is my first time changing paste. Do I only put paste on the gpu chip or should I also slap some on the chips that have thermal pad?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gateway-emachines/372333-official-icd7-thread.html

There is the official giant thread on ICD 7 on NBR. Some members tried to use ICD 7 on the memory modules and worked. Suggested you get the ICD 24 as you'll need A LOT of it you want to put on memory.

Also, you do not need to wait 10 minutes for the solvent/alcohol to evaporate. IC removed the solvent 2 years ago. Just put a pea size on and then place your heatsink on. IC has said, too much is better than too little.

 

Seriously, c'mon dudes. Stop posting screenshots that large. There are actually rules on NBR that state you can't post such massive images.

 

I just did a repaste with ic7 and I also threw on some vram heat sinks on the copper pipes. I ran furmark for 15 min and it plateaued out at 83c, compared to the 102c i got with stock paste

 

My congrats!Good job!

 

Here are new update using ICD thermal paste. I am pretty impresed
My setup:
Bios 211
Vbios 93
ATI 10.8 drivers

Idle at 21C

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5 mins of furmark at 21C

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After 30 mins of new Darksiders game at 21C

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FFXIV at 21C

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Heaven benchmark 2.0 directx 11 all high at 21C

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3DMark06 at 21C

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That's how this laptop should work from factory. That's the stealth bomber cool under fire.

 

I can't recommend replacing the thermal paste on the G73s enough. If you're an owner of a G73, you pretty much owe it to yourself to do this mod.

I didn't want to bother at first, but after running furmark for 2 minutes and the GPU temps sailed to 110C, I reconsidered.

Replaced the thermal paste on the GPU only with some Shin Etsu I had laying around. The CPU had a "void warranty if removed" sticker - and the CPU doesn't seem to be running hot at all - so I didn't even bother with that.

Put it back together. Ran Furmark for 30 minutes, tops out at 85C with the fan at 30% (pretty quiet). I'm impressed.

It's worth mentioning that Furmark stresses the GPU more than any game or program ever will - so for gaming I'd expect the max temp to not go over 75C.

 

sh*t! as soon as I can dedicate 3 calm hours I'm doing this.

 

you can definitely get it done in an hour and half (or less) if you just follow and watch the video tutorial.

 

Awesome temps. Your results and mine are very similar. I am also enjoying Darksiders. Great way to take a break between study sessions.

 

Thanks very pleased with my temps and darksiders too.

 

Very nice job, Tim4. You're in my territory now.

 

This may seem out to lunch, but has anyone considered making themselves another access panel over the video card/heatsink? This way enabling easier access for future repastings if needed?

 

Guys, I Live in Malaysia and M sending my g73jh-a2 for thermal repaste on gpu .. The thing is Asus repair center here, they only have Cooler master and in Malaysia coolermaster and Artic silver 5 are the only thermal available.
My friend has a GELID Solutions GC-Extreme..
So can you guys suggest me which one will be most efficient amongst these three?
THanks

 

According to reviews in the net Gelid GC-Extreme will be the best.
You can look here 80-way Thermal Interface Material Performance Test | Thermal Interface Material,Thermal Paste,Heatsink Compound,80-Way Thermal Interface Material Best Thermal Paste Heatsink Compound Cooling Performance Comparison Benchmark Tests
Good luck.

 

can you guys tell me how much grams is needed for repasting ? is it enough if i buy 3,5 g paste ? or should i buy 12g?

 

3.5g is more than enough for repaste.

 

with 3,5 you can repaste 4 or 5 g73

 

Well my temps hit 92F @ 800/1100 in a 75F room while playing BCBF2 for 2 hours. This is after an RMA Repaste from an ASP here in Los Angeles.

So I just ordered some IC-7 from FrozenCPU and a replacement keyboard from the Asus parts store and got a new RMA # for a repaste. Now I just have to decide if I want to take the laptop back to the ASP with the IC-7 or try to do it myself. I'm probably going to take it in as I've only had experience building desktops.

Any input is appreciated.

Cheers

 

F? Not C? If that is a true F then your running plenty cool.

 

LOL I don't know if ANY chips run that cool

My idle secondary 7200 RPM drive isn't even that cool!

 

This is what I got in hwinfo32 after running Unigine Heaven 2.1 for the 12 minute test or whatever it was.

Imageshack - benchmarkz.png

Does that look ok, just got the laptop.

 

looks ok to me. just keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get worse.

 

Jeez, sorry. I was so burnt with exhaustion when I posted that.

92C in a 75F room.

Repaste again right?

I bought the spare keyboard in case I do it myself and wreck the keyboard but am still not sure if I should or take it back to the ASP

 

On the fly, in your head, cross-scale temperature comparisons... I'm impressed ;-)

That's about 6 degrees below what I get without repasting, but still a bit high compared to post-repasting results shown around here.

BTW: has anyone posted results with and without their notebook coolers? Maybe I missed it but I get the impression some of the results are with and others without.

 

Good point. Those temps are with the notebook flat on a surface. I can prop the back of the notebook off of my desk and when I do temps drop about 4-5 degrees.

Well the IC-7 shipped, now I have to decide if I want to try to do it myself or take it back to the ASP. The ASP is a huge computer warehouse OEM builder, so I'm sure there's someone there who can do it right, but I'm tempted to do it myself.

 

There just did mine. Went from quickly going to 110 then shutdown in furmark (about 20 seconds in) to running stable at ~85C.

The process took about 20mins but don't take that into account, I repair electronics for a living. (Communications tech, so work on a lot of very expensive small component filled devices)

I'm sure the repaste helped a lot, but I think a MAJOR factor was that, between the fan and the heatsink there was a major mat of dust. This dust would appear to be totally unremovable without doing the full disassembly in the BTOTech instructions.

I can't even see through it.

Anyone who did their disassembly should be checking this for dust. Keep in mind this is between the fan exhaust opening and start of the heatsink. You cannot reach it from the back of the laptop.

Regular forced air back into the vent may help but I've generally found this to be a bad practice with electronics as it forces dust into places it should not go.

Anyways guys, thanks for all the posts.

EDIT: Actually I'm wondering if I could somehow get it out by only popping the rear case piece above the vents off, far less hassle and screws, and far easier on that poor keyboard.

 

Wow such improvement! ICD7 is quite popular

 

ICD is pretty good thermal paste. Repasted my G73 with it and I am pretty pleased with temps now. It's pretty cool here now 19C and my idling temps are

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Agreed abou that. I am rather remove dust by disassembling laptop than blowing it in places it shouldn't go.

 

in respect to ic7 how would indigo etxtreme perform on the g73?

 

I just got my G73 back from RMA today. It is stable in furmark at 89-90 C. I bought some ICD7 when I bought the laptop. Should I repaste with these temperatures or just be happy with what I have?

 

What are your ambient temps?

 

My ambient is 76-78 F. 24.5-25.5 C.

 

I wouldn't worry about them unless they creep up 96C or higher.

 

Cool, thanks. I didn't want to open up the notebook if there wasn't a significant gain to be had. To bad I ordered ICD7 for $11 (7+4 shipping). Oh well, guess I have some ready for when I build my wife's computer next month.

 

You may need it in a month

 

I am a believer!!I repasted my G73 tonight with IDC7.It went from 63C Idle with a cooler to 55C Idle without a cooler.Have not yet put it under a load but I am impressed!!!Also put in a 6300 Ultra N WIFI but it would not work(device manager was showing "device can not start)Will look into this more tomorrow.
Update :Ran Furmark ,before max temp was 102C with cooler now max temp is 75C with cooler with a room temp. of 74F

 

Welcome to Team IC Diamond!

 

Damn, really want ICD7 but not available in my country. I don't wanna order from outside -_-.

 

Hmmm i was wondering with all this redoing tims is there any gritting, sanding and lapping going on during this process if so what grit of paper are you using and what's the best method?

 

I didn't use any sandpaper. I just wiped old paste with alcohol and redid my paste. That's all I did.

 

Hi all,

Since my idle temps went above 70C and the max load temp went to 104C recently finally I decided to do a repaste.

Here are some of my experiences for those who are still hesitating. My native language is not english so there might be a few grammal errors, sorry about that.

This was the first notebook I took apart but generally it wasn't that difficult. If one follows the instructions in that BtToTech G73 disassemble video it can be carried out easily. Just take a few deep breaths before you start and make sure you have enough time to do it.

The most difficult part really is taking out that damned keyboard. I hardly believe there wouldn't had been easier way to build the keyboard into the notebook. This thing with the double sided sticker tapes is really silly. If something gets damaged in the whole process that will be more likely the keyboard.

One thing that wasn't clear enough for me from that video how to unplug the connectors of the keyboard exactly. I mean you have to pull the small black plastic holders sidewards before you actually pull out the cables from the slots.

Here is a picture where the red arrows show which way the small black holders have to be pulled:

Another thing is that the dude on the video didn't took out the fans before moving the motherboard. I mean he moved the motherboard together with the fans. I found it much easier to took out the motherboard without having the fans hanging on it.

When I examined the GPU and the grill of the heat sink I noticed two things. There was lot of dust between the grills of the heatsink. It covered almost 1/3 of the airway. I guess only removing that would had lowered the temperatures with a few degrees. And the original paste on the GPU had to be some very cheap and low quality stuff. It was like some kind of dust. When I touched it remained on my finger but I could simply blow it off. Ant it didn't cover the whole GPU in one. It was separated into many small blobs, it looked spongy and covered only 50-60% of the GPU's overall surface.

Pictures of the original paste:

I wanted to use the IC Diamond paste that many people suggested here but unfortunately I didn't find in the shops around here so I bought the Arctic MX-3. I read some test about it and according to those it is good quality and it was really easy to apply. I used the "BB" nethod.

The whole repasting took me around one and a half hour but I carefully inspected everything before removing or pulling out something.

And the results are very good. The idle temp went down from ~70C to ~62C which is almost 10C but the real improvement occurs at the max load temp. That reached 104C before the repasting and now the maximum I had was 83C after I let the Unigine Heaven Benchmark loop for five times. My unit had all these values in 30-32C environmental temperature. Maybe it would be better with that IC Diamond thing but one thing is sure, it is already a LOT better than with the original low quality paste.

So, I guess I can say that it worths the effort. I removed all the sticker tapes from below the keyboard. I think those are completely unnecessary because the keyboard holds very tight without those as well. Next time I had to do this it will be much easier.

Thanks for this forum for the advices and thanks for that guy who put that video up on Youtube.

 

According to the last picture in your post, you didn't clean off the old paste before applying the new one? @_@