Dell SXPS 1340 Thermal Paste Replacement Guide

Replacing Dell's default thermal paste in the Dell Studio XPS 1340 can lower your cpu, gpu and ambient temperatures by as much as 15C/60F.

When I first received my SXPS 1340 from Dell, my temperatures were:
THRM-57C, CPU-52C, GPU-62C.
For me, these temperatures were O.K., but I knew I could lower them by replacing the thermal paste.
My temperatures after replacing the thermal paste were:
THRM-48C, CPU-34C, GPU-50C. Note that after a month or two of having the MX-2 inside your computer, the cooler it will become as it settles


This guide is for people who want to perform the procedure of replacing the default thermal paste in the Studio XPS 1340 with Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal paste. Note that you can also use Arctic Silver 5 and get the same results.

What you need: Philips screw driver +, MX-2/AS5, Alcahol/or other cleaner, cleaning cloths/tissues.
Before beginning this procedure, unplug the laptop and remove the battery!
Step 1. Remove Bottom Cover.
Flip the laptop upside-down and unscrew the 10 screws on the bottom cover.


Step 2. Remove Top Right Air Vent.
Un-screw the 2 screws which secure the air vent to the chassis.


Step 3. Remove CPU and GPU Heatsinks.
Unscrew the 8 screws which secure the CPU and GPU heatsinks to the motherboard, then carefully remove the heatsinks.


Step 4. Clean the CPU and GPU's Dies.
Use your cleaning cloths/tissues and alcohol/or other cleaner to remove the thermal paste on the 3 dies.
Before-
After-

Step 5. Clean the CPU and GPU Heatsinks.
Clean the heatsinks using your cleaning cloths and alcohol/or other cleaner
In the picture below, the blue dot on the right is where a thermal pad for the GPU will be, on the heatsink. Leave it alone, if you remove it and replace it with thermal paste, there will still be a gap between the heatstink and GPU die and cause it to overheat.


Step 6. Apply AS5/MX-2 onto the CPU and GPU Dies.
Be very careful because all thermal paste tubes are junky. It is very easy to accidentally spurt out to much thermal paste, if this does happen use a piece of paper remove the excess thermal paste.
Use the flat edge of a piece of paper to smooth out the thermal paste over the CPU die.


Step 7. Re-install the Heatsinks, Airvent, and Bottom Cover
Don't forget to plug in the heatsink fan.

You can use HWMonitor to check your temperatures. Remember, your temperatures will go down a few more degrees as time goes by and the thermal paste settles in.

 

Nice guide, well written.

I have done the same on my sxps 16 and it made a massive difference as before I applied it I was hitting 93c then getting throttled. I found this in combination with undervolting brought my temps down over 20c.

I heard the chasis runs really hot on the 13, did this help lower the external temps at all?

 

Very well laid out. Looks like very easy access.

 

I don't have the ballz.

 

Thanks for the guide. Once I get my hands on some Arctic Silver I will be doing this

 

If you start doing this type of work you'll get used to it and do more. If access to the cpu is right below the bottom panel then it's a really simple task. Much easier than my M17x.

 

good job, elijah! Although this is done on a sxps, shouldn't this guide be under the hardware upgrades section? Just my two cents ^_^

 

Any downsides to removing the mesh? (i.e. More dust) and most importantly, can you reinstall the mesh if needed?

 

The part that gets hot is the airvent, it's metal. Before I replaced the thermal paste, the airvent would get uncomfortably hot. Now just gets warm.

Actually it sould be in the Notebook Dummy Guide Articles section.
But for an unknown reason I cannot post in that subforum
A Mod or Admin can move it to a different subforum if they want to.

The only downside I know of is all the extra dust that the notebook will be sucking up. Dust will go all through the notebook and the heatsink will clog up a 'lot sooner than normal. I'm not sure if the mesh is fused to the bottom cover or just glued.
Replacing the thermal paste is enough to make the notebook decently cool, so there is no real reason to remove the mesh.

 

very nice good job.

 

Just to clarify:

MX-2 is made by Arctic Cooling.

AS5 is made by Arctic Silver.

MX-2 > AS5 with no curing time required.

 

To my knowledge, Arctic Cooling is the same as Arctic Silver.

 

I thought so, too. But apparently, after researching wikipedia, they are two different companies. Oh and MX-3 is out!

 

Hey thanks a lot for the guide! I have the SXPS 1640 so it's just a "bit" different inside but I said oh what the hell it can't be too hard. So I went ahead and used some AS5 on both the CPU and GPU as those are the only chips that require thermal paste and after 20 minutes of stress testing my GPU temperature has dropped a WHOPPING 20 C...just incredible. My CPU has not really dropped at all which is to be expected. Thanks once again!

 

From a few sources that I read, I was under the impression that you only use one or the other, either thermal paste or thermal pad. Does it really work together?

 

A thermal pad is used when there is a gap between the heatsink and die.
So if some of the dies have thermal pads and the others thermal paste, you just replace the thermal paste.

 

I currently am using ocz freeze on my M17x. Probably will also on my xps when it comes in.

 

very wrong. I prefer arctic cooling stuff. Always seems to do a better job.

 

If there is a thick pad, you will need a copper shim to ensure good contact. Same principal behind the XPS 1330 copper mod.

 

I guess you're right... I'll edit the guide asap

It's best to just leave it alone in the 1340 for most people.

 

With the lower temps, the fan speed will be lower. So we cannot be sure about the amount of dust that will be sucked into the laptop. Higher fan speeds will increase the amount of air - dust - passing through the system.

 

Does the SXPS 16 have pads or is it just paste? I'm gonna replace the paste with tuniq tx-3 when the warrenty runs out, tuniq tx-3 is the best past out there

 

The GPU and CPU die require paste, I guess the northbridge or southbridge, whichever it is in this computer just has a thick pad that goes over it.

 

easy way to tell if the gpu has a thick pad like the northbridge, then you might need a copper shim to ensure good contact. Because you just want a thin layer of paste on both the gpu and cpu.

 

I'm not too bothered if the northbridge has a pad on it, it never seems to get too hot. The southbridge is on the other edge of the mobo and looks like it lacks any form of cooling and sufferes because of it. How would I know how thick a shim to apply though, I think I might put one on the northbridge just for the hell of it seeing as it will reduce my GPU temp as well

 

I am looking forward to replace the thermal paste of my SXPS following your guide, but there is still a step that I don't understand entirely:

When you say `leave it alone', when I will put the heatsink back on top of the (C/G)PU, the thermal pad that was left will be mixed up with the thermal paste that was applied onto the GPU, right? Isn't it bad to mix up those two things?

I don't think so since you said your temperatures dropped a lot, I just want to be sure, I don't want to kill my computer

 

Yes, put thermal paste on the die anyway.
It will make the GPU run cooler.

 

Anyways, I bought some MX-2 and replaced the old paste with it. Needless to say, I was AMAZED! MX-2 is REALLY good!

edit: I notice on the back of the MX-2 box was a benchmark chart thingy. How the crap did they manage 28C on a core 2 extreme @ 3GHZ?!?!?!?! That's some crazy stuff!

 

wow that is impressive.

Computer manufacturers should use these thermal pastes on their systems instead of the... stuff that they are using now. That would save us the trouble of having to buy it and do it ourselves.

 

People have been saying that for years. What is the real reason they don't use better thermal pastes? Costs?

 

I think it's just too much hassle for them, pads are much easier to put on and if a dell rep says so most people will be fooled into thinking that they are the best cooling possible

 

Can someone help me out real fast please???

I did the thermal paste mod with AS5 but After I did everything I noticed that I didnt remove the battery!!! And its says remove the battery!!!
Is something going to be wrong with the computer?

Im really worried.

 

Don't worry! I didn't remove the battery, and everything is still ok. My max temp after replacing the thermal paste is now only 55C!

 

Thanx for the reply!!

Also a tricky question..

My xps1340 is only 1 month old. Today on site tech came to replace the motherboard! after he left I went and applied Arctic Silver 5. Now I know this kinda voids warranty. But lets say in future my motherboard breaks down.. and they will send me another one with onsite technicial to fix it for me, how does this work? Is he going see thermal paste and refuse to do the job?
I mean they're not dell technians they're a different company hired by dell.
Is it possible that the technician wont give a F--- and fix whatever is broken?

Can some break it down for me.. and tell me anyway to trick them like buying thermal pads and putting them on b4 onsite tech comes?

LOL

 

Tbh, if it's under the heatsink I doubt they'd notice, I guess once they realise you've done it there's no going back so you may as well not take that chance and replace the paste with pads if you need tech in... On another note, do they take bribes?

 

I'm sure they will take a couple of cookies...maybe some milk, too.

 

Excellent guide, thanks a lot!!

 

So after applying the AS5 thermal compound a few hours ago my idle temps on High Performace power mode are:

THRM: 49 C

Both processor cores are 40 C

My 9400M is 49 C

Im a d**khead because I didnt record the temps b4 the thermal mod.

are these temps good?

 

Those temps are good They will eventually get even lower.
You're temps were probably around 55c-65C before you replaced the thermal paste.

 

Sorry guys I know this is a wrong thred for this question but no one answered it on my thred.

Nvidia.com came out with new drivers on 8/27/09
and our dell drivers are pretty old.
Before I wasnt able to install 9400mg driver directly from dell as it would only give me an option to intstall audio HD driver..
Now i was able to install it, one thing i noticed right away! there is no more nvidia control panel.
system scores are the same... Is anyone aware what changes they made? clocked it a lil higher or a lil lower? any changes at all?
Would you recommed downloading it from nvidia or from dell? Also when i was on dell video driver i always received pixelated videos when i removed my power adapter, and when plugged it back in it was normal, no settings were able to change that not even power settings. Now im on nvidias video driver and i dont have the pixelated problem anymore, but no control panel :/

Thanx guys

To: ElijahRW

Hopefully it will get a lot cooler lol do i ever need to put more of this stuff as time goes by (as5) ?

 

Just FYI in the SXPS 16 you don't need to remove the heatsink/fan to apply the paste. I just loosened the screws, lifted the sink up a little, and applied it under.

 

I am pretty sure some of the guys in the Official Studio XPS 1340 Owner's Thread have figured out the answer to what you want to do You could ask your questions agian, there, or flip back a page or two and see what they did. I don't really care about my graphics driver or WEI score, atm.

You shouldn't need to put any more thermal paste on, unless you're replacing it again in 20 years The best results are had by using MX-2, but AS5 is pretty much just as good...

 

Thanx for the help!!! Another good question that might help all XPS 1340 owners: .. now I did the paste mod, and kept the gpu thermal pad, and applied the paste on the gpu die. do you know if there is a better conductivity thermal pad that could be used to replace the one on gpu???

 

Since dell uses lousy thermal paste, they probably also use lousy thermal pads. Thermal pads aren't very expensive, you could buy a pack and try them out if you want. If it works better than the original one, good. I doubt it would be any worse

 

What temperatures are people getting in HWMonitor for THRM, GPU Core and the Processors?

 

THRM: 50C
CPU Cores: 36C
GPU Core: 51C

 

It is perhaps worth mentioning that Arctic Silver 5 is slightly capacitive: "While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical path" Just a small chance but still if you spill something accidentally, stuff could get problematic.
Arctic Cooling MX-2/MX-3 on the other hand are not capacitive.

 

It's better to do the copper mod than replacing thermal pad.

 

Anyone tried the new MX-3 yet?
I bought MX-2 because it was 14$ cheaper.

 

That is actually what im thinking of now. 1st I want to try find a silver piece thats 1.5 thick ( I think thats the perfect thickness to replace our thermal gpu pad). If I wont find that, then I'll try to look for copper thats a perfect fit, again if i dont find that then im gona buy a sony playstation 3 thermal pad off ebay