C90 Modders Club!

maybe you can put the fan on the side of the GPU just to get some more air moving around the internals.
That might also cool things down.
I was also thinking maybe some way you could chrome the aluminium cooling fins so that they could disapate more heat becuase those fins look like really cheap aluminium to me. They sould have made them copper.

 

I finaly took a look, yes the fan inside the case is not going to happen, the only spot I saw that was viable was if you remove the optical drive.

 

changing the heatsink on the southbridge (near ram?) for a fan isn't possible too?

 

Its possible if you found a low profile fan/heatsink but it would serve very little benifit I think.

 

What Vicious said.
The biggest benifit would need to be external fan(s) - laptop cooler or low profile fan mounted on the vent.

The first design had a smaller front intake and fan inside,
that was changed to one larger vent.

 

I plan to cut a vent out as big as the gpu and screen it over, it should help cool alot I think esp with a cooling pad. Im just in a bind picking the right tool for the job. I have a dremel but I dont know what attachment to use. I think a routing bit.

It would be easy to just drill holes or something but I want a big square cut out with just a cross section of plastic going thru the middle for support and a small circle left uncut in the center for a place to mount the screen to the center. It will offer MAX airflow vs the easy holes method.

Wether or not I can make it as neat as I see it in my head tho is a different story all together.


Ill probably take the easy way out and just do 4 circular holes of big diameter that equal the size of the gpu. It wont be much worse and it will be a 4 minute job instead of a 4 day job.

 

*off breaking my nokia phone* and found out the vibrating engine is 17 mm =_= ..... wtf .... this weekend imma go off to the hobbystore to pick up some new gundam kits, meanwhile, ill see if they got a minifan would do it =D ... i think airflow would be important. because my idea is that the fan doesnt have to be on top of the heatsink, the heat sink can be there, and air blow sideways , that would work, but i have no idea where to find a little heatsink like that, unless i buy one, and take it down on size, i'm thinking finding a 8-10 mm engine wont be hard, but it usually requires only 1.5volt electricity, and anything over will burn it inside out, the power is still a problem how the engine will run *hmm*, XD my friends are like your F******* c90 hasnt arrived yet, do more planning! ... lol, anyways, if you guys have, am I able to know where should the air flow ? like from where to where? such as hdd to gpu? ... i might have more then 1 fan tho *hmmmm*

 

yeah ! drilling holes is easy. lol. and, smaller holes around the GPU + cooling pad, for me now = -15 deg. C temp for GPU. ( Used to be at 78-80, at idle, now at 65deg. ) even without a cooling pad, its already minus 5 deg. just with the holes. If I have the time, ill also post pics for my bottom panel. But its almost exactly as sgt's, only with less holes.

 

Does ent that completly void the warranty?
How long is the warranty on the C90S anyway?

 

haha. yeah. thing is im not in the US, so im not counting much on the warranty. ( If it aint broke, dont fix it. ) Mine needed some repair coz my GPU easily hits 100 on 3dmark runs. now the max it reaches is around 93-94 under load.

 

Asus warranty is international....

You just need to register it in it's country of origine but you can use any repir center

 

really ? i did not know that. I think i saw somewhere that the warranty is covered by the resellers and not by ASUS for barebone units.

Ill just pray nothing serious happens to it. and just in case something happens, they better give my cool ( hole riddled ) bottom panel back ! lol. thanks for the info appreciate it.... !

 

just for the 1st 30 days. The rest of the year is directly to Asus

 

As promised I got my mod done finaly and it came out great!

Here is the step by step.

First I went to the tool store, I wanted a hole saw but they were all designed for wood, and while they may work I didnt want to take a chance. Looking around I found a step bit that is for plastic but it was like 36$ for the 1" bit (4 x 1" holes is what I wanted to do that was the plan) so looking around I found another good bit that was made for plastic but the largest size they had was 3/4"... I thought about it for abit and decided it would work pretty good and it was reasonably priced at like 11$

I measure the gpu to be about 3" x 3" before I left so I just figured instead of 4 big holes I should be able to fit 9 3/4" holes in there and maintain the structural integrity still.

Here is the bit I got.


Full Size

When I got home rather than just blindly drill holes in the bottom of the notebook I took the time with a tape measure and a ruler to draw out a gird.

3" x 3" then did the math to see how big a gap would be between the holes (important because thats the remaining plastic that holds everything together.) Well simple math is 3" - 3/4" times 3. well I ended up breaking it down to 16ths because the tape measure goes from that. Long story short it all worked well and I broke down into the more detailed math to come up with this:


Full Size

After the drilling process wich was pretty staright forward things came out like this:


Full Size

It would have been better if that one screw post had not got in my way and I had charged the drill battery. Still even tho those two things happened it came out is say 99/100 score for perfect.

Here is a rough fit to see how the holes line up before I take the final step of screening the holes in to keep trash out of the inside of the notebook.


Full Size

So after that looking all good I took some of my screen I bought in the past for my PC mod and cut a rough size piece out of about 4" x 4" and cut it down to fit inside. I then used a walmart bought mini hot glue gun to glue the screen down in place. After the glue set I used a razor blade to cut the extra screen off and make everything neat and put the computer back together.

Here is the final result.


Full Size

So the result??? Was it worth it???

Definitely! No cooling pad just normal use my idle gpu temps went from 88-90c to now 74-78c when under full use idle. It took a long time to get to that temperature too it was in the 60's for a good while.

As you can imagine with the heat spreader right there and even parts of the heat pipe this mod will be 10x better if I put a cooling pad on there. I would expect it to stay in the 50's idle and 60's load.

Note: for the sake of being a forum friendly guy small pictures are posted, but click the link below for a full size picture.

 

AH ha another convert to the cooler side of the c90!!! Looks good, let us know how high your temps go in a full on 3D intensive ap.

 

I uninstalled 3dmark the other day :/ trying to free up hdd space. It hit just shy at 100c before. I'll d/l it again and give it a go in abit.

 

nice work vicious !

holes underneath the GPU definitely decreases the temps by at least 5deg on idle. ( the temp drop is even bigger under load, mine barely hits 94degC on 3dmark runs... ) With a cooling pad and the holes, a very significant 15 deg. drop in temps. definitely worth the effort.

 

Yeah I got 15 degree drop with no cooling pad. I dont have one and dont really want one. I can hold it up to my fan to simulate one tho

I have 3dmark06 downloaded gonna install it and give it a go and see what temps I hit.

 

Well 88c with 3dmark06 seems pretty linear with the idle temps was 87-90c idle before and 100c load a difference of about 10c

Now idle mid/high 70s and load high 80's also about 10c.

As for a simulated test by holding my vent near a fan for a cooling pad my idle is... 65c. About another 10c drop.

 

Your results seem very much like mine, although my GDDR3 was flying past 100 without hesitation before to mod. Power saving will probably knock of another 8-10 degrees.


Post 24

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=154511&page=3

 

whatever happened to removable mods for c90?
-Mounted fan, cooling pad, thermal paste, etc...

Drilling huge holes in the backpanel is like a tatoo, permanent.
But, great if it lowered sys temps... I think those holes override any existing airflow pattern.

 

I think what we are all looking for is a spare back panel....myself, because I want to mod a spare.

 

IF Asus ships replacement back panels, Gentech may get parts from Asus.
Not confirmed other than Sgt. Hollywood's post.
Unless, Ken or another retailer post to correct me on this...

 

Count me in for that as well!
It would be great to have an extra back to mod and do as i wish.

 

I liked more the idea of circulating more air and using the existing holes.

 

There is no air circulation stock is the problem. With a cooling pad there would be but I wanted to stay mobile and not carry one around and deal with the extra hassles.

If you look at the design you have exhaust from the fans that pull air over the heat fins which are connected to the heat pipes, which connect to the heat sinks. Then right below the exhaust holes are intake holes to allow cool air in to blow thru the fins.

Thats pretty much the extent of your airflow right there, all in that turbo engine area, the rest of the notebook is not getting any air movement from those fans. My CPU temps even went down from this mod, which only can mean that the gpu temps were heating up the inside of the notebook so much that it even effected surrounding parts wich can only mean that there is no airflow.

I also had a prior test long ago blowing air thru the vents by the southbridge and ram and it cooled down both the cpu and gpu by a large amount, again showing that there was no airflow, and that the extra air leaving the machine kept the temps down.

The mod I have performed will only make cooling with a cooling pad better not worse. I dont want everybody to try what I did because not everybody will pull it off well, but I am a system builder/moder and thats why the c90 appealed to me so much from the start anyways.

 

While I do agree that physically modifying components of a computer should be done very carefully and preferrably by a professional only, I think that this particular mod would be a great starting point for someone relatively new to the whole scene like myself. If you take your time and plan things out carefully this type of mod looks like it can be done by just about anyone. I am currently shopping for some mesh for my own venting project on mine. I was actually wondering how hard it would be to do 3 vent lines instead of many holes. I don't know ow much that would affect the integrity of the bottom but i think it would provide for more cooling and since I'm at college and we have a mechanical engineering dept. with tools galore, finding the right tool for the job isn't difficult.

 

All sort's of openings can be created, however, I decided to only modify with holes because I was afraid that with slots and other "non round" openings there was a greater chance of stress fractures.

A drill hole is commonly used to stop linear fractures by distributing the tension.

 

I wonder if its possible to fit one of the Cooler Master Cross Flow Fan's inside the case or is there no room?, or replace the four fans at the back with two of the cross flow fans?

 

Vicious what mesh did you use and it went down about 10 C?

 

Just some screen I got from home depot, I forget exactly what it is off hand. I have so much of it, enough to screen a few houses and it was only like 10$

I'll find out exactly what it is later when I get off work.

 

Im in the works of getting a spare back panel from the store i bought my C90 from. They will ask Asus and get back to me.
Its a rather big etailer that has a Canadian base but also a website in the U.S.
Ill let you all know if anything goes through, all who want back panels that is.
I also asked about an extra battery.

 

I felt confident about the mod, there was really no way to mess it up. I am very glad I did it tho finaly I feel comfortable with my temps and dont even have to think about using a cooling pad now.

If I decide to upgrade to the gddr3 card, I will have alot of headway for overclocking too with a cooling pad. I am waiting on the issue with drivers on that card and if all goes well I will upgrade.

 

Hi, I have got a C90 which runs at around 80c when it is loaded even if the room temperature is only around 20c. I wonder would it help if I replace the 4 fans? From what I saw the fans are not using the standard 3 pins connection, its connection is smaller than the 3 pins one. I have not much knowledge nor experience in this. Can somebody help? Thanks a lot.

 

Actually, if you remove the mesh on the top layer of the turbo engine where the fans blow the air out, that should cut your temps alot, because of the fact that there is less resistance stopping the fans

 

Excuse my random speculating, but I wonder what would happen if one were to say partially block off the intake for the turbo engine. Conceivably wouldn't this force the fans to draw air through the other intakes of the case (modded or otherwise) thus increasing airflow where it is needed?

 

Yes if: the fans were really strong but as you can tell by putting your hand back there unless its in jet engine mode there is not much air pressure and/or movement. Also while you would maybe gain a small amount of airflow thru the system, you will now be dumping very hot air thru the heat fins instead of nice fresh cold air, so the main cooling structure would lose atleast 50% efficantcy.

So any cooling you may gain will most definitely be overwritten by that fact.

 

My primitive mod the first day after i got my C90...

They are only bricks wrapped in aluminium foil.. :d

 

Dumb question. I was looking at the fans, and according to the diagrams on the side, asus mounted the fans for sucking, not blowing air into the case. I just flipped them around, and things seem to be running quieter.

I would love to replace the stock fans all together though, but i am trying to find a solution that is both quieter, and moves more air.

The only thing that i have found so far is to use a Cross-Flow Fan, since they are usually quieter, and also move a lot more air.

The problem is finding one that is small enough to fit in. We are probably talking a max blade diameter of 20mm.

Anyone have any ideas/comments?

 

Buildlater....hey, don't flip those fans around muchacho, you'll be pushing that heated air from the radiator right back into the box....

 

So... did anyone by any chance tried lapping the gpu or cpu heatsink?

 

yea, just realized that, any ideas on a replacement fan system?

 

I've done this a few times before and might give it a shot. I'll report back if I do.

 

hello,

what is your temperature?
I got around 60-70'C with [email protected], while I don't understand 100'C with a X6800. Do you thinks is normal?

Some more question: do you know somebody that ship the back cover to Europe? I guess drilling it is the only real option to mod the c90S for cooling.

zz

 

Hello,

I have a C90S with E4400, which idle with 67c and can easily reach 89c under loading.

Just did a simple thing on my C90S:
- Pack 3 60mm fans together, connect to USB port for power
- Make a paper box (180mm x 60mm x 60mm)
- Cover the turbo engine with the paper box, with the 3 60mm fans drawing hot air out on the other side

By doing so I never reach 80c again even if under 100% load for several minutes although the 3 60mm fans are not running with full speed (They are supposed to run at 12V but USB only provide 5V).

So now I have the following questions in my mind:
1. Has anyone tried to replace the original fans in C90S? I forgot to write down the model number of the fans and wonder if we can find better/stronger fans to replace them?
2. I notice that the pin connector of the fans in C90S are quite small (smaller than the usual 3 pin) and well, I have never seen such connector. (Please forgive me, I have very limited knowledge on this kind of things) Do anybody know how to call this kind of connector?

By the way, has anyone done polishing on the heatsink? Does it help?

Thanks a lot!

 

I have a crazy idea and I'm not quite sure if you guys would actually like it or not.

Well.. here goes... tada

Optical Drive RAM Air Cooler

First of all, before I go into heavy details, I'll first talk about what we know.
I have noticed a small heatsink near the RAM slots, and if you look closely on the right side of it, depending on how you look at it, but I usually have the Turbo Engine facing me, there is a small fan header that looks exactly like the fan headers on the TurboEngines(2 to be exact, one white one black). That header on the silver heatsink is labeled "Sys Fan", but it's not being used and not connected to anything. I'm not sure if this is actually powered but if someone can go into it and actually check if this works that would be awesome. I'm going to attempt to rewire a header myself for verification. Either way I just want the least modified way to implement rather than soldering onto a USB +5 power to power up the fans(which would void warranty), which wouldn't be variable speed based on temperature.

Personally I don't use the optical drive very often, and when I do, I'm usually burning CDs, watching a DVD or something very office like. Not the type that would need extreme overclocking or gaming cooling. Since the DVD drive can be removed by a simple screw. If you look closely at the optical drive chamber, it channels perfectly into the CPU/GPU area. I have done a minor experimentation with the Optical drive out and it indeed increased airflow and decreased temperatures by 3-4 degrees. My cpu idles at 58-9 degrees with the optical drive out, it idles at 53-55 degrees. This isn't alot, but considering that I didn't do anything gave me an idea.

If I could build a rig that housed 2x 60mm x10 mm straight finned fans that pushes air sideways. You could literally ram cool air into the CPU/GPU chamber for maximum airflow. Ideally, something of the 15-25 CFM range of combined fans would be ideal. If the rig is built well enough you could use the original Optical drive screw mechanism to secure the rig. Optimally I would want to create a mesh for the rig as well to keep out dust from entering from the right side. This would create the optimal situation:

1) No modifications done to the unit that would void warranty.
2) Using exising method to secure the cooling rig(screw).
3) Drawing power from a BIOS driven source(Sys Fan) that would automatically speed up the fans on the cooling rig.
4) The optical drive is completely hot swappable if the Drive is needed.
5) Ultimate cooling for increased overclocking and stability!

The problem with this is, it's difficult to find straight finned fan for this purpose, yet thin enough to make the clearance. What I'm talking about are fans that are normally in SLOT coolers ie;


It's possible to actually use something like this, but it would need to be heavily modified to fit into the optical drive slot. Ideally we need a fan that would only be 10mm tall.


Well, that's the idea for now... let's see if you guys have any input

 

Its probably work, but where goes the Cooling air ?

Thats one good idea...

 

Out the back of the Turbo Engine, what goes in must come out.

 

ok well, I tried looking for a compatible header today for the "SYS fan" connector, seems pretty slim, gonna try another electronics store to see if they have anything like this. Need to confirm if I can power a fan or fans with this header.

 

ok. confirmed, SYS Fan header does nothing. It seems like it has been disabled, either from the bios or from the hardware/board itself however when you first boot it, it does move for a split nanosecond(just like all the other fans).

Anyway, still possible to daisy chain it directly from either the CPU fan or the VGA fan, Either one would work.