To Repaste, or Not to Repaste, that is the question...

Hey All,

So my IC-7 and Asus G73 spare keyboard arrived in the mail ready for my machine to be repasted a second time. I ordered the spare keyboard ready to do it myself, but after watching the BTO video about 10 times, I've decided that my desktop building experience is too small (only have built 3) to attempt this job as a first time laptop tear down when the ASP that did it the first time is only 20-25 minutes away and the laptop is still under warranty.

Still, after gaming hard on it last night, I'm having a hard time making a decision and could use some input.

I've already taken my G73JH-A1 in to the only local Asus ASP here in Los Angeles for a repaste and GPU fan replacement.

The notebook came back in perfect working order (Other than finding a smudge of thermal grease on the backside. Wiped right off, but it kinda makes me wonder how the inside looks) albeit the temps, while showing improvement, it seems minimal at best compared to those that have used IC7.

My old temps ambient were: 61-64c
New temps ambient: 54-61c

Now, all my GPU temps are clocked at 800/1100 so maybe that is a considerable factor on the following temps.

I'm monitoring my GPU temps using MSI Afterburner running in my Logitech G13 gameboard so I can keep a constant eye on temps while gaming, without the distraction of it on screen. It gives the TSS 1 temp. I think that's the one that to watch, right?

Now there is another variable to my temps. My plasma TV stand (which I use as a secondary monitor) has a lift that I can prop the laptop up about 1 inch and that lowers temps further by an average of 5 degrees. This spot is my normal gaming/work station 95% of the time and if I use it this way, this whole thing is a non issue. But I'm tripping on the idea of traveling with the unit and having it breakdown because of temps while away from home, etc)

Old TSS 1 temps before repaste while playing BFBC2: 96-99/100c (93-98c while propped up)

New TSS 1 temps after repaste while playing BCBF2
85-91c while playing MP. 85-88c while propped up playing MP. I only hit 91 during long matches and more often than not, would stay around 88c as the GPU would get a rest either while waiting to respawn or during a map change.

However while BCBF2 SP, playing with the unit flat on the surface, turning everything up including HBAO I hit 96c.

I remember Chastity, the temp-pasting Jedi, recommended in another thread that 96c would be consideration for a repaste. So that's what has me considering going in for a second run.

Now when I ran furmark, my temps shot up to 102 and started hovering before creeping up to 105c. Even though I don't trust benches, I admit it has me tripping a little bit. But when reading the review today on Anandtech about the Clevo X7200 Nvidia 480m SLI they said the following about Furmark:

We fired up Furmark to see what would happen, and the results were a bit scary. Upon initialization, Furmark caused the X7200 to use around 325W with the GPUs starting at just 41/50C; but then power draw, temperatures, and noise levels kept going up...and up...and up!. The X7200 finally reached a maximum power draw of 410W before some sort of protection kicked in and the power brick shut down—and rendering performance drops from 40FPS to around 5FPS in Furmark. Unplugging the power brick from the wall and then plugging it back in restored normal performance, but then the cycle would repeat. Note that for this to occur, we had to use the Windows "High Performance" profile as well as setting the Clevo power utility (called "Power Conservation Mode" and accessible via a system tray icon) to "Performance" or "Balanced", the latter being the key. If we set the Clevo utility (in the system tray) to "Energy Star", power draw never exceeded 350W, though it does appear to limit system performance if power draw gets too high. Some have called Furmark a "power virus", and we would agree that the load it places on GPUs is unrealistic compared to anything else we've encountered. Running games, we spiked at a maximum power draw of "just" 310W, which is far more reasonable.

And...

Here's a look at the system temperatures—after running Furmark for 30 minutes with the "Energy Star" mode activated. GPU temperatures top out at a toasty 102C for the primary GPU and only 77C for the secondary, while CPU temperatures max out at 69-74C. Note that we also ran Cinebench to stress the CPU, as Furmark doesn't hit the CPU that much. The HDD topped out at 41C, which is perfectly acceptable. When we skip Furmark and use games and other applications, the maximum GPU temperature on GPU1 drops to 92C, again illustrating how much more demanding Furmark is compared to normal games.

This is my exact experience with my G73. I'm not trying to start a Furmark flamewar, I'm trying to figure out if the data I'm getting warrants a repaste or if Anandtech is right.

So, that's where it stands. It seems like the temps are mostly reasonable, but I am concerned about hitting 96c on BCBF2 SP. Also, I'm not sure that it won't still go even higher as I shut it down last night after I hit 96c

My reservations about going through a second repaste, even through the ASP, is potentially encountering a tech who does a sloppy job and/or my system coming back with un-forseen issues or blemishes. Although I don't really expect that to happen.

The other factor in this whole decision is that I bought the unit at Fry's electronics with a 3 year extended warranty with a product replacement guarantee for the same unit or one of equal value. So with that along with my 2 Asus warranty, I don't know if this is worth bothering again with at all.

Really sorry for the length, but I wanted to spell out every variable - So after ruling out trying to do the job myself I can't decide between

1. Take it back to the ASP with the IC-7 and my new RMA # and have them do it again with the "Diamond"?

2. Let it be and hold on to the IC-7 until the unit may/will need another repaste in a year or whenever the current one degrades?

I figure I'll hold onto the spare keyboard for whenever a repaste happens whether now or later, as the one in my machine felt loosely put back in on the first repaste which caused some spacebar misstrokes. I applied some gentle but firm pressure and fixed this within 5 minutes and haven't had any problems since. But considering it's a fragile part on the backside and people have had keyboard issues, if there's a spare part to have on hand in case of an issue, it'd be that keyboard.

Also it should be said, if the ASP used a thermal that needs 200 hours of curing time, I can't say for sure if I've hit that or not in the month since I've gotten it back as I go between 3 machines for work and gaming including this one.

Thanks again for all that stuck with this. I'll put it simply:

1 or 2? Or is there a 3rd option to consider?

You all rock.

And for anyone bummed on the length of this, just remember that you gave yourself a nice little workout for your reading comprehension and attention skillz

Peace!!

 

1) You shouldn't need a new RMA. If you feel the temps are still high with whatever new paste he used, then you should be able to call the ASP and get another repaste done. And yes, I would bring my own ICD7.

2) I would also set the GPU to stock 700/1000 and see what kind of temps you get. In a good setup, the temp rise for your overclock should only be no more than 5C.

LOL

 

Well, IMO you can go with 1 option and hope that this time tech will do it fine. And I agree with Chastity better to bring your own ICD with you.

 

Thanks to the both of you. I'm going to take it in tomorrow with the IC-7 with clear instructions from what I've read here about how it's to be applied.

I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Oh and Chas, I say it because it's true

 

Good luck with your repaste! Really wish you cool temps!