Change Thermal Paste XPS 15

So I took it upon myself to tear apart my XPS 15 and change the thermal paste. DELL PUT WAYYYYYY TO MUCH OF IT.


This is on a Core i7-840QM and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M 2GB Graphics Chip.

I cleaned all the old paste off with ArctiClean and I reapplied my choice of paste, G751 Shin-Etsu Thermal Paste. I also have Arctic Silver 5 here, which is another good choice, but I preferred the G751 as it rated higher, doesn't have to break in for 200 hours, and it is not capacitive if it gets on anything it shouldn't.

I attached some pictures below of before and after. I know everyone has their own method of applying thermal paste but I have always preferred using Arctic's method of spreading it with a razor blade.


Dell Service Manual - Follow this guide to take the laptop apart and get to the heatsink.
You also need to remove the DVD/Blu-Ray Optical Drive and the blank SD Memory Card Insert, this guide fails to mention it.


HOW TO PROPERLY APPLY THERMAL PASTE


Thermal Paste Recommendations:

G751 Shin-Etsu

Arctic Silver 5

Thermal Paste Cleaner/Remover
ArctiClean


Good Thermal Paste Review of 80 Different Kinds


- Dan

 

Here are some more pics....

 

Yep, and I agree with the spread method. It's easy to see what method dell uses and it doesn't really work out that well. I use the spread method and have never had an issue with premature failure on a CPU or GPU due to heat issues.

Added this to the owners lounge 1st post.

 

Getting as low as 43 Degrees C at idle on the fastest Intel i7 CPU currently available on the XPS 15. Pretty good seeing how the Core i7's are typically going to be running hotter than a Core i5 would.

- Dan

 

Post Reserved for Future Post or Pictures...

 

Great job and very helpful. Thanks for the write up and pictures.

 

I'm using G751 myself, quite good stuff. Low 40s idle are some pretty great temps, the cooling system on the XPS15 must be improved from the SXPS16. Out of curiosity, what were your idle temps with stock paste, and now after stock, what are your max load temps with a program like OCCT or Prime95?

 

Thanks for this.

How are the FAN? Did you have FAN noise before? I have fan noise all the time, even when the system is at idle, the fan goes on for no reason. For this reason I have contacted Dell and they have agreed to send me a replacement which is still being made and could be a long time before it arrives.

Please let me know if it made a difference in fans being turned on or are fans completely silent now?

 

My stock idle temps were in high 50's, low 60's.

Prime95 varies depending on what test mode I use. But on Blend its in the high 60's, low 70's and if I put it on In-place large FFT's to really push the processor as far as it can go with high heat and power consumption I get in the 80's.

 

The fan is fine, wasn't really bad before. Not loud by any means.

Now it barely goes on, unless I am actually doing something to warrant heat and needing the fan.

 

Thanks for the post and pictures! For you and dkwhite, about how long from start of tear down to finish did it take you? 2-3 hours?

 

Is there anywhere we can buy quieter fans? I don't think my paste job is really that bad, but the fans are on a lot and I can hear them when they hit medium. I'm going to re-paste anyway but if I could put in some aftermarket fans to cut down the sound that would be really sweet.

 

I've taken many laptops apart, so it took me maybe 10-15 minutes to actually get into the laptop with everything removed. Another 20 min or so to do a through job cleaning the processor and gpu cores with ArctiClean and removing all the nasty thermal compound. Then prob around 5 mins or so to put the new thermal compound on. Then reassembled the laptop again. I remember looking at the clock and it took me about 45mins-1hr to actually do everything. Add 15 mins for taking pictures lol.

- Dan

 

No idea... anything is possible.

I wonder if the program SpeedFan will work on the XPS 15. I would see if that will let you override and control the fan speed, might be worth a shot. I'm just not sure if it supports this intel chipset.

 

hey is changing thermal paste for core i5 is necessary?

 

Nothing is necessary. It is optional, lowers temperatures (in most cases), your fan runs quieter, and you may feel as if you accomplished something by taking your entire laptop apart and putting it back together.

- Dan

 

I felt it was for mine.


It took me about an hour or so to do the entire job. Your results may vary, as I do a lot of repairs on notebooks.

 

Agreed, I am glad I changed mine, laptop runs so much cooler and quieter.

- Dan

 

Without a doubt it was worth it, my AS5 isn't remotely near being done settling and my idle temps have already dropped to mid 40s, used to hover in the low 50s. Results in a lower fan speed and quieter laptop, well worth the $11 and 1 hour investment.

 

I agree with you completely. I kind of wish I did my Studio XPS 16 when I first got it, it still has the stock thermal paste on it.

 

Nice job on this It's nice to have these. Easy to read & the pics are setup nicely. +to you also!


Cin...

 

Does anyone with the Core i7 have any good temp improvements over stock paste? I keep debating on trying AS5 to see if it is better than the G751 but I don't feel like taking my XPS 15 apart again lol

 

I think the XPS 15 needs the copper mod treatment...
I took mine apart again today and looked at the spread.
Added additional AS5 for the time being and it helped to drop the temps into the high 40s to low 50s consistently on idle, but I feel like a copper shim is a more permanent solution than additional AS5.
I'm talking with a supplier of shims right now to try and get some 0.5mm and 0.66mm shims made.

 

Let me know how it goes, I maybe interested in one as well.

- Dan

 

Question.

XPS 15 with 420M and XPS 15 with 435M have the same heat sink?

 

I'm not sure, that would all depend on if the intel graphics chip is covered by the heatsink or not. If not then I would assume they are the same or very similar in the least. However, most likely they are near each other and it is covered but the only way to know for sure is for someone to open up a i5 XPS 15.

- Dan

 

2cm x 2cm x 0.6mm copper shims are on their way.
Won't get a chance to install them until after finals next Thursday though.

Edit: On 2nd thought, not sure if I'm going to pop them in after all. After reviewing quite a few pages of XPS 16 heat threads, those owners did not copper mod compared to XPS 13 owners who did because the SXPS 16 didn't use a thermal pad, just used direct contact between GPU die-paste-heatsink.
Hmm, it still seems like I had to use more than normal amounts of AS5 to get good spread between die and heatsink. But, if a copper shim will put too much pressure on the die I'd rather just use AS5 and not risk damaging my GPU w/ extra copper.

 

It is. I believe the heatsyncs are the same. the intel GPU on the core I5 is covered by the same heatsync.

 

Did you notice a problem when you opened it up the second time? I'm not quite sure why you thought extra paste was needed? I agree that the heat sync isn't one of the best. in fact mine had way more than just "micro grooves" on it, it had some craters in it in places.

 

Abnormal paste dispersion that I've never seen with all my desktops in the past, can't describe it and didn't take photos.
Plus, like you stated, my heatsink had more than just microgrooves in it, which AS5 is only designed to make a contact between microgrooves in most heatsinks and the flat surface of a CPU die, it wasn't designed to fill moon craters.

 

True that.

 

Purchase some fine-grained sandpaper and take matters into your own hand.

 

The amount of sanding it would require would leave less contact between the heatsync and cpu and gpu

 

Precisely why I did not do that.
Temps are going down after my last intervention, so I'm pretty happy with it. My desk corner has poor airflow so I'm going to get the Zalman cooling pad, but when I'm other places the cooling is better than stock paste.

 

My temps are pretty low, not low 30's where I'd like them to be, but i'm still seeing mid 60's under load for 2+ hours which as we know is where a repaste really shines.

I agree that the heatsync was poorly constructed and we are limited with what we can do to achieve maximum cooling short of producing our own heatsync.

I will also be getting a cooling pad for this notebook. Even though I wanted to avoid it. But i'm going with one I can use on the bed. the Zalman's are great (i have one for my HDX18t) but they suck for lap/bed use. The logitech i'm going to get won't provide as much cooling (rear intake) but it's suitable for lap/bed use.

 

I idle at about 50 (range 48-52ish), gets to high 70s when under load.
HWMonitor reports power draw at about 54w under load for the i7, this sucker generates some warmth thats for sure, I knew that going in though so I'm okay with it.

Crazy enough it runs cooler in bed when propped up on my knee, web surfing and non-HD TV show watching temps are around high 40s.
But when its on my desk in the corner it runs hotter, idle temps up to high 50s, which I'm getting the Zalman for.

 

Wow, it's that bad?

 

Like I alluded to in prior posts, getting good cooling already takes above average application of cooling compound, what do you think is going to happen when you start removing surface area and get down to the level of the "moon craters"?
There aren't many of them, so no, its not worth lapping.

 

I think "moon craters" can be tackled better by something like tuniq-3/4, atleast better than AS5.

TX3 is more thick and globby which is both good and bad.

Bad, as it is tougher to apply, and good as it is more apt in filling up anything bigger than just "micro grooves".

I will be doing the paste job today night. Will post back the results in here by tomorrow or Sunday Max.

Let's see.

 

lol agreed

 

I've noticed that since I changed my thermal paste that my system is idling in the lower-mid 50's again. It seems hard to keep the XPS 15 in the 40's.

 

Same here. i7 is a beast.
I'm gonna try Liquid Ultra compared to AS5 and see if LU can keep it in the 40s.
In idle I hover around 48-54 C.

 

hey guys, try the Intel Burn test software, keep a close eye on your temperatures when you run it. 15 minutes at maximum or very high should be enough to tell you what your max temps will be like.

 

Hi I ran Intel Burn Test and then Handbrake encoding a video file with cpu usage at 100% for an hour or so, the max temps were 69C / 71C i5 560M.

When the fan came on the temps settled down to 63C / 62C on the two cores @ full load for abour an hour running @2.93GHz. This is better than my previous Core i7-620M which only ran @2.80GHz at full load and temps sat around 80C.

This is pretty good, was gonna do a repaste job, but don't know if it's worth it? Idle temps are just below 50C and browsing the net temps go up to around 55C.

What do you think, is a repaste worth it? Right now I'm thinking that it's not!

 

For your system it seems that it is not worth it.

 

Just as an FYI, max corew temp for I5 560 is 105c. But if you're hitting the 90's you will see instability.

 

The i7 is 100ºC, correct?

- Dan

 

That's great, cause mine hasn't gone over 71C, happy days.

Was gaming for a couple of hours last night, Street FIghter 4, 1920x1080, standard settings, no AA, 60FPS and my max temps were CPU 69C / 71C and GPU 71C.

 

Does anyone have an experience with the Innovation Cooling Diamond "24 Carat" Thermal Compound?

Innovation Cooling Diamond "24 Carat" Thermal Compound - 4.8 Grams - FrozenCPU.com

I am thinking about giving it a try and compare it to the compound I am currently using.

 

AEDan1977- unless you have a lot of experience with replacing and spreading thermal paste I would stay away from any of the IC Diamond products. Even if you do have experience in my opinion it's not worth it as there are quite a few other thermal pastes out there that are just as good and not as expensive. The problem with IC Diamond products is that the diamond paste(yes it's actual ground up diamond in there) is harder than the metal the gpu/cpu die are made out of so it scratches the heck out of the gpu and cpu unless applied perfectly. Products like MX-4, OCZ Freeze, TX-4, and Liquid Ultra(based on the current XPS 15 owners' experiences) are going to work just as good, aren't thermally conductive, are a lot cheaper, and don't scratch the die.