G51J Ordered... a few questions

Hey there folks,

After reading the reviews and various threads, I ordered a G51J from Xotic PC. I left everything standard, save for the addition of the IC Diamond thermal compound. Justin W at Xotic recommended it, especially in light of the higher than average temperatures the notebook can get. As many have mentioned, Asus designed the laptop to run reliably with those temperatures but it seemed like good insurance nonetheless.

How much of a temperature drop can one expect from using the IC Diamond thermal compound over the stock material?

It seems most of the temperatures reported in the reviews are using the stock thermal compound, so I'm curious what the realistic advantage is.

I also have a question about the downclocking of the GPU. Is it done via firmware or through the drivers?

I ask because I like to use the official Nvidia's driver releases as they tend to be more frequent than vendor releases. I assume I'd be able to do that with the G51J like I do with my current laptop. I'd prefer not to gamble with overclocking so I'd hate to install an Nvidia driver release and have it set the clocks to default and have a heat issue.

Lastly, I was surprised to see that despite the fact the laptop comes with 2 drives, there is no RAID support. Am I missing something or is that "working as intended"?

I look forward to my first Asus! Despite all of the conversation around the laptop running hot (they seem to have been that way since the G50) I haven't really come across posts from anyone having problems of any kind, let alone problems from temps. I take that as a good sign!

 

im not sure about the temp drop, since ive never used different thermal paste but i can help you OCing.

the downclock is done via ASUS' custom BIOS for their proprietary GPU. this means its not upgradeable with the MXM, but you can safely overclock to the stock GTX 260M speeds without worrying about heat. the ICD24 should help u with that.

The drivers that are the best are 185.85 or the current 186.82, atho i had 3dmark06 problems with the latter. you can go to laptopvideo2go for the DOX and nvidia's site for their official release.

here is a good guide to changing driver courtesy of FORGE.

you will not be gambling anything by overclocking to 550/950/1375, the stock clocks. ur comp wont insta-fail, nor will it be likely to detiorate cuz of that. the temps aer fine, FOR this model, it was designed that way. if you are breaching 95C after the stock GTX 260m clocks, then you mite have a problem. if you manage sub 88C with ur new thermal paste, which i assume u will, then u can safely keep the clocks @ 550/950/1375. also i would only recomend those clocks if u like to keep AA on in games, if not, most games run fine @ stock ASUS clocks. in that case its good to undervolt the GPU by flashing it, for even better temps, just ask elemental what happened with his successful UV of the GPU!

here is an overall gr8 guide by a fellow member, i suggest any G51 owner to read it b4 they perform any tweaks by themselves.

 

I dont know, If it was that big a difference they probably would put it on there from the get go. I ordered one from newegg and I have an asus x83, no issues with it all.

 

I use MX-3, but I remember a 4-5 drop in maximum temperature from 3dMark tests

 

And that was from a fresh mount.

 

Wow that's pretty good.

 

Either he was doing it wrong with AS5, or MX-3 is really that good. Nevertheless, I still think it's an incredible difference.

 

I noticed a 2-3C drop in max GPU temps after aplying ICD7 and running 3DMark06.

 

It was 4-5 over stock pastes.

 

I tested retested arctic silver many times. I 99.9% sure all the thermal compounds have the same effect. In flawed tests you will find a small temp drop. In quality tests where the system is put through hours and hours of testing at all levels of cpu use you will find the temp drop is negligible and certainly not worth paying anything for altering the original dry paste. That is a fact

 

While i don't disagree with your statement completely i do think there are differences, probably not as big, because if not we could use anything and it would have the same effect. Given that all materials certain conductivity, each mix will net different results, is it worth... i guess depends on each individual. On my personal tests i seen AS5 preform very close to most of the new compounds, but it does take some time to cure n settle, while some new compounds are less susceptible to this.

In laptops i don't think its that evident, as the space restricts a lot into what a good cooling solution might be able to absorb, transfer and dissipate the heat. I see compounds as i see computer (your setup will be as fast as your weakest link), so applying that to thermal compounds, a cooler might be or not restricted by the ability of a the paste to transfer heat, and because of this, some of us continue to search for the best compound we can get.

 

1-2 degrees is what i found to be the difference between wet and dry paste. That is most evident while in low idle temps. when the temp starts to approach 80c and above the gap narrows. My main point is that if as5 or the like was a free upgrade and did not require your reseller to lift the heatsinks then i think it is worth it. With most vendors charging 30$ and above for this serivice i do not think it is worth it. I have tested this over the years and i ultimately came to the conclusion that wet paste application is ONLY worth it when you must lift the heatsink. That may be when you have to clean your radiator / fan or when replacing components. On a new system it is an absolute waste of time and money because the original dry paste is not considered a downgrade from wet paste. Now certainly you will find we offer this wet paste service i never make this as a recommendation when people ask about it. On the contrary i always advise customers to stick to stock thermal paste and save their money for something that actually works better then a 1% improvement over stock components, like a better hard drive, more ram (if needed), spare ac whatever. I can think of a dozen different things that make more sense then spending 30+ dollars on wet paste.

 

geared2play, what is your take on the thickness of the paste. some posters here say the manufacture globs it on pretty thick and henders the heat transfer. They say to apply a thin coat mostly with an old credit card.

 

In Most cases on the cpu and gpu even dry paste spreads out into a thin coat and gathers on the sides of the die same as wet paste. Quality made dry thermal paste does spread out only after a few hours of use. If it is all clumped together it just means that this unit was opened and tested or retested and the facility took the fast route in repair. This only has a minor impact on the core temps however this definitely should be avoided with some thermal paste remover and arctic silver or the like. Like i said above this is one good reason to have as5 on hand. I have seen this clumping of paste many times where the technicians working on the unit simply dont care because they know it works just fine. It is poor worksmanship for lack of a better word. On notebooks I have not seen this unless they were refurbished / repaired. So on a new notebook this is simply not an issue.

 

mines in transfer now on newegg

 

My GPU temperatures dropped 3 degrees with a fresh mount of MX-3 versus dried-on stock paste. Take that as you will.

 

that all depends on the testing you did prior and after. I spent days on this many models many notebooks, 3 degrees was never something i was able to achieve.

 

I don't know if I'm in the mood to deal with this guy. Should I?

 

Geared2play- I'm sorry but your "days of testing" will not convince me more than years of thousands of people attesting to the cooling ability of these pastes.

 

do it! do it! do it!

 

Actually, I think I'll handle this one.

2009 thermal paste "shoot out"

and this:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=232141

 

As I mentioned in my first post, I opted for ICD7. As a result of the feedback here, I called Xotic PC and they told me that ICD7 would drop my temps anywhere from 5 to 7 degrees on the G51J, based on their experience with previous models. When installing the material, they also make sure the heat pads for the memory etc are positioned properly. I guess it's not uncommon for the factory to apply thermal interface material in a less-than-ideal fashion, so this should be good insurance as well.

Anyway, while I think 5 to 7 degrees would be welcome, I'm thinking that might be overly optimistic. I'd be happy with 3, which should keep my max temps under 90C based on the temps reported thus far.

In the end, I am hoping that the higher than average temps of the G51 are more worry than actually being a problem. While I see plenty of posts about temps, I haven't seen any about hardware failures. I certainly don't want to spend my time owning this laptop always worrying about overheating! I don't plan to overclock, so I'm thinking that I'll be ok.