Help with cooling mod for C90s

Okay I'm home from school and will be on a Co-Op for the next 3 months so I figure I have a little extra time and money on my hands so I will put the holes in my ACE door above the gpu to improve cooling since mine tends to run very hot at idle. I have a few questions-

1) For cooling's sake which will work better - a few larger holes or many smaller holes (obviously done in an organized fashion and not just wherever the drill hits)

2) What drill bit should be used? Something to go through metal or plastic?

3) What side should the holes be drilled on - black side down or up?

4) What is the recommended tool a drill press? A handheld drill? Circular saw?

5) What are the chances of the door cracking or breaking when these holes are being drilled? Should I order a spare before doing this? I have both the time and money to do so if needed.

 

I followed Vicious' step by step tutorial to a T and it worked out great.

1. I'd go with the six medium sized holes Vicious suggested. It's what I did as well.

2. 3/4" bit. I think mine was for metal. I don't think it matters too much though.

3. Drill from UNDERNEATH the ACE door! That way you can clean up the cuts with some sand paper and if you slip with the drill or something it wont scratch up anything you can see.

4. I used a regular hand held drill.

5. I put two small pieces of wood underneath the ACE door to keep things stable while drilling and it seemed to work fine. The door seems very tough so I wouldn't get to worried about it.

I'm sure Vicious will chime in and give you his exact experience with doing this mod. I basically followed everything he did. DEFINITELY measure twice and cut once! Making an outline on a piece of paper was the key I think.

 

yeah. just be careful. and from my experience, the plastic is pretty soft so its just a matter of seconds before the drill goes through. Good thing its not brittle so drilling would be very very easy.

and, just putting the holes ( w/o cooler ) would roughly give you 2-5 deg. decrease in temps. But the holes, with a notebook cooler works great, around at least 10deg. drop in GPU temps.

 

I do think most of what you asked is in my little guide. You can find that thread link in my sig if you have not found it already.

Maybe read it first, then ask specific questions you may have after in that thread.

 

Sorry to hijak this thread for a second, I had my C90S assembled on-site, and was wondering for a GPU upgrade, would the thermal compound go on the card to bracket and then the bracket to heatsink, OR just the bracket to heatsink? It looks like there is a small square for thermal compound on the card according to the guide on adding/removing hardware.

Code:

http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/images/Notebook/Asus/C90-Chapter%2004-v1.1.pdf

 

The card will come with a head spreader on it, and thermal compound will already be installed. You just put additional compound between that head spreader and the heat sink that has the coper pipes.

 

isnt the space between the heatspreader and the heatsink a little bigger ? would the thermal compound provide good contact ? I notice it has a thick material between them at stock.

 

For the ram, not the gpu core. Like I said you dont have to worry about it.

If you want to be a advanced person and take it apart like I have to replace the stock stuff with something nicer you would see with your own eyes how its setup.

You need thermal pads for the ram, and a thermal paste for the core.

If you look at my review I have good pictures of what it looks like taken apart.

 

So by looking at the pictures in your review of the C90 would we just scrape off the gray compound on the metal plate and replace it with a better performing one? I had heard about this but also had been told that there's a reason for nto doing it. It was something along the lines of the thermal compound possibly getting into a place it shouldn't and shorting out the whole card. But you can do it if there is some plastic covering around the core of the gpu itself which looks like it might be present in that picture. Do you have any information/insight on this?