Heatsink Mod Dell M1330 XPS by BlackRussian

Above the two types of cooling units with standard heatsinks of the M1330 XPS

M1330 XPS Heatsink Mod by BlackRussian.


This mod is to provide a better cooling system on my Dell M1330 XPS laptops which already has a cooper plate on video chip.
The main mod is concentrated around the nVidia video chip, the CPU will be done at a later date for all you overclockers out there!

3x Aluminum Heatsink. I use a heatsink taken from an old desktop PC motherboard and cut/file to size.(Chipset or Video card)
1x L 38mm x H 6mm x D 11mm for the bigger heatsink and 1x L 38mm x H 6mm x D 8mm for smaller heatsink.
1x Thermal paste (AS5 etc to your fancy)
1x Thermal adhesive kit (Aritic SilverThermal adhesive) Warning! See foot note below.
1x Copper plate.
Cleaning agents (Pure alcohol or something like Aceton) , cotton face wipe..
1x Junior hacksaw
Set of flat files
Clean work area.
Oven. (Preheat on high temp 5mins before placing cooling unit inside oven)
Set of screwdrivers size #0 and #00 Philips or Pozidriv
Optional tools. 2 mini G clamps


Thermal adhesive Do not use this product on your CPU or Video chip as it will bond to it and you will not be able to remove the thermal adhesive once it set's on the chips without damaging the chips.

Measurements had been taken with the cooling unit still in place and allowing enough space from Ram cards & base plate inner edge for removing the final cooling unit. See
All done and back in my M1330 XPS laptop photo.
Once you have your heatsinks cut/filed and cleaned to the right size maximum height 7mm (5.5mm should be used to be on the safe side otherwise final adjustment with a flat file will correct any over high problem) we need to open up our laptop.



NOTE. Before under going any services to your laptop make sure that you ground yourself or be very careful of static change while workings on your Laptop refer to your handbook or service manual.

OK with PC off disconnect from mains and remove battery.
Now with the laptop upside down remove base plate cover over the fan.
Now we can see if the heatsinks will fit while the cooling unit is still in place by placing the heatsink against the sides of our cooling rail heatsink the area around the video chip, be very careful not to let the heatsink your adding touch any components other then the cooling rail heatsink (just a visual check at this stage). Some may want to remover the Memory cards while doing this mod, but I left mine in. Remove ones cooling unit from motherboard and then remove the fan from our cooling unit and put to one side.
The biggest heatsink is going on the cooling rail heatsink nearest the memory cards.
Mix up a small amount of the thermal adhesive a ratio of 1.1 from each tube was used in room temperature of 19 Degree C with A/C on.


Thermal adhesive kit

Once mixed together spread on the thermal adhesive to one length of our heatsink and mate up to our video chip heatsink on the cooling rail, both heatsink bases must be level so once place on a flat surface there is no play (flat) use G clamps if needed to hold in place. We need to keep at least 10mm clearance from the center of the screw on the video heatsink see photos to our newly fitted heatsink, basically we need to keep it away from the BIOS battery.


Original video chip heatsink!

Now place into a preheated oven for 3 to 5 mins on a high temperature, after the allowed time remove from oven and allow to cool.
Once cool down we can now do the same for the bottom heatsink.
Once done you should have something like this!


Close up of heatsink mod.

Refit our cooling unit back once clean if you have some over flow of the thermal bond on the underside of heatsink remove by filing using a smooth file, then clean with alcohol before fitting into your laptop, but make sure that your have cleaned your CPU and GPU and added thermal paste to both chips and the area on the heatsink which makes contact on both GPU and CPU.

Below some shots of my MM911 cooling unit.








Video chip


Underside end of Mod!


All done and back in my M1330 XPS laptop

Modified Heatsink plus copper mod M1330 XPS!
BIOS A14, video drivers Version 7.15.11.7597

##############################

Second stage.

CPU Heatsink mod 26 June 2009



Below are some photos of my CPU mod and the final cooling unit to date.
Heatsink used was from stock I had from the past and cut and filed to size to fit around the factory CPU heatsink cooling system.The length for this was just about 10mm longer the the length of the CPU socket housing and release unit.
Once I was happy with the final cut and fit I removed the cooling unit from my M1330 XPS and mixed up some thermal adhesive and applied to the cut away edges and top edge of the new heatsink then place the the cooling unit over the new heatsink so that the 2 heatsinks were aligned together with the cross brace from the factory heatsink on top of my new heatsink.



With the heatsink in place I made sure that both base's were level and used a G Clamp to hold the 2 heatsink in place and the adhesive to set.
I left the G clamp on for about 10 to 15 mins in a room temperature of 26°C - 30°C then left the cooling unit for a bout 1 hour before working on the unit again I would advice you to leave to cure for at least 3 hours unless you have used the oven.(The oven was not used on this stage of the mod) Use an oven if your room is below say 16°C as the adhesive will take more longer to set, and place into the oven on a high temp for no more then 3mins---- Remove cooling fan if using oven!!!!!!!! and allow to cool before touching cooling unit after the 3mins bake.



Once the unit had been cleaned and fan refitted if removed, we need to put some thermal paste on both the heatsink's GPU and CPU, my copper plate was still on top of the video chip.
Now just a matter of refitting unit back into my M1330 XPS great care is needed not to move the copper plate from it's already set position in my case on video chip.


CPU Heatsink up close


Final product
Copper mod heatsink mod & BIOS A15 in use now!

 

Update links working now 25 June 2009

 

Some temperature readings


System been on for 3hours normal use (web surfing 3 web pages loaded in firefox, checking anti virus update, SIW and Everest loaded and back ground music playing vis Spider player and 2 PHOTOS open in explorer 5meg pixel each in size)

This one below system had been on for 30mins or so before I had run the following > then took readings while, surfing the net 3 web pages loaded in FF, ran spybot to do full system scan, also ran a full antivirus scan of my HDD, Ripped a DVD to a firewire HDD and 1 5Meg photo loaded. Screen shot taken some 50mins into the above load.

 

well, the GPU temps are lower, but the CPU temps are a little high...

 

Yeah thats down to thermal paste CPU MAX TEMPS hits 55 now full load idle 43 to 46 now two weeks into the mod...

 

There have been many heat sink improvements posted before such as this one in a german forum:


http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/showpost.php?p=8891213

Some of them didn't really work out in practice, since they heated up the environment of the CPU/GPU but didn't help in getting the heat OUT of the notebook. At least not if at the same time an external notebook cooler wasn't used.

I don't understand your temperature postings. I'm missing before/after under the SAME conditions. If the conditions are different such as CPU +10° that means the heatpipe is hotter and certainly the GPU as well.

 

well, the thermal paste needs time to cure

 

I just got a new tube of thermal paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2.

In addition to it cooling better than AS5, there is NO curing time, lasts about 8 years, and is non-conductive (no metal particles).

 

Good initiative to think of a way to improve the cooling system, but a few points:

* The GPU copper mod is expected to increase your CPU temps. This is because the copper shim helps transfer heat more effectively from the GPU onto the heatpipe.

The side effect of this is that heat from the CPU is being transferred onto the heatpipe at a slower rate, hence resulting in slightly higher temps.

* Your temps look similar to what you'd get from doing the copper mod. As an example, my GPU temps fluctuate from 50-60 degrees Celsius during idle

* As 7oby says, your mod may improve the cooling if you found a way to remove heat more effectively from the heatpipe itself than it currently does. Without that, adding more conductive volume to the heatpipe will do quite little.

 

Yes one is aware of such issues this is why I stated that the CPU mod will be done once I have some time...
Thanks for the feed back to all..
By the way the prototype mod for CPU is in the making and will be testing out maybe two other thermal paste in the near future..

 

Updating BIOS from A14 to A15 today running some test right now..

 

BIOS A15 installed today.
System had been on for for 2 hours before hand.
Reading above-----defragged a 750 GB USB HDD,3web pages fully open in Firefox, skype voice call going on, full antivirus scan of M1330 HDD, and watching a divx movie in gomplayer..
room temp about 24 C.

 

3 days now with the full heatsink mod, with cooper plate, AS5 thermal paste BIOS A15 system see sig below.
My temperatures now are stable @ 51°C GPU / @ 45°C CPU trough out the day, max 54°C GPU / 50°C CPU.
These temps are for my normal use 3 web pages fully open in FF, VOIP Skype activity going on, msn messenger music playing via spiderplayer..
Where as in the past normal use was well over the above.
Should be getting a shipment of other thermal paste in the next few days to run some more test to see which best suits my needs as in summer here temps out side can hit 40°C winter a low of 18°C bring on the A/C

 

Nice write up...

 

Coper mode done by me as well, the result is not so impressive!

OK, coper plate I use a bit bigger size 14x24 on GPU to make termo exchange more inercial. GPU under loading of GoogleEarth with moving map heated up to 90 and stable, but CPU under a some process (scaning fprm twain sourse) reach 100C and comp can go OFF mode!

I am waiting new heatsink and new thermo grease (ocz freeze instead of AC5).

But! One interesting observation I like to report.

when I close by scotch tape the air inlet under heatsink fun the situation with temperature stabilisation become better!

It is easy, I make another distribution of air flow in CPU GPU zone by closing air inlet.

You can try this simple solution when fun reach 3000-4000 rpm.
I keep tape permanently now, will see!

 

AS5 there is a long curing time for this thermal compound so which every thermal compound you use take this into account as some need no curing time.
Your copper plate which is over size make sure the longest length goes in placed east to west (horizontally)and the extra 10mm over hang is towards the locking screw and BIOS battery.. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3272/2651771154_52b2d3f1e1.jpg As there are no/and less electronic components in this direction and less likely to short out if contact is made with your copper plate and components..
Better still cut to 14x14.. use steps laid out in the copper mod thread before you fry both GPU & CPU chips..very high temps you got there!
Scotch tape the air inlet
Sorry for my bad English and hope you overstand ..

 

Thank you and to all other members here on NBF.

I have a new mod mind with a redesign heat pipes (2) 1x GPU and 1xCPU and exhaust fins..
Just waiting for another donor cooling unit for our second M1330..
Keep you all posted.
Final report on this current mod running will be posted 12 July..

Thanks once again to all.

 

Using different thermal paste as of 6July..
Will load results mid week there about...

 

this looks pretty nice. but try posting restults of 'before-afther' under same conditions. Also I don't get the feeling you actually 'fully' stress your system. Try running orthos/3dmark next time to get more accurate results about your 'max' temperature.
Then you can compare those 'max' temps and have a better look on how things are working out.

Hope this helps,

grtz.

 

Yes I will dont worry. These test are more then enough for my needs as I am in a very hot climate best of times and normal use before the mod my temps hit sky high and had to use a make shift laptop cooler and A/C on in the room. Don't play games so no such need to push it..At the moment it's winter here local temps 25.0°C Humidity: 53% @2.17PM so already my M1330 is good to gooooooooooooooooo temp wise.
Thanks for the input..

 

Yes! I did it! result is surprising me! i have to say, probably my old heatsink was broken, becouse under loading with Google Earth comp easy to reach 100! for CPU. Second is my speculation: I am not satisfied with AS5, yes, I am waiting 10 days for curing or what ever, but nothing positive!

yestarday I get heatsing from e-bay which is presented on image! And i use thermo grease, normal one! without cheap treak with diamond or similar! Just normal thermal grease, CZ if I remember correctly, I mantioned right name in previous my post.

now in idle mode i have 0.0fan 62GPU 48NB 44CPU! so fan is OFF some time in idle mode, which never happens before!
OK, room temperatire is 22 now.

I am really can forget about 4 or 5 programs for temperature monitorig, and do not open comp so frequently for magic manipulation with heatsink!

shortly, I put cooper 15x25 to GPU and 14x14 to NB in this new (or old) heatsink dimension of cooper for CPU is 20x20. I do not know what king of information you will interested in! But I am ready to provide information and put some results of measurements, if it is interesting!

FUN is OFF! amasing!

 

I do not know how to attach image...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=35861&stc=1&d=1246970796

 

Machine Colour: Crimson Red
Model: Dell XPS M1330
Operating System: MS Windows XP Professional SP2
Processor: Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo 2.50GHz T9300 800 FSB
RAM: 4 GB DDR2 Memory
Hard Drive: 320 GB
Display Size (inches): 13.3" WXGA (1280X800) White LED Display
Webcam: Built-in To Screen
Optical Drive: Integrated Slot-Load CD/DVD+/-RW Drive
Video Adaptor: NVIDIA GeForceTM Go 8400M GS with 128MB dedicated DDR3 graphics memory

 

Above screen shot was taken a short time ago.
This is day 3 with thermal paste Arctic MX-2 with my normal use of the PC
(I have 3 webpages loaded, music via spiderplayer FastAccess, Everest & SIW running)
System had been on for 3 hours 15mins before I took the screen shoot above.
Weather nice and warm Humidity: 57%, 22 °C as reported by news channel for my area.
While this is just day 3 with MX-2 thermal paste the overall temps are very much down to when I had a standard M1330 also when I had AS5. To be fear with AS5 the weather at the time much hotter and 2weeks after AS5 had been applied temps became very stable and I was happy with the end results for my daily use of my computer.
So far MX-2 for me is holding its ground we''ll see how it goes by the weekend as weather is to get hotter .

 

Yes, I just replaced my AS3 with AC MX-2 and right away my temps were lower without any curing time required.

I am glad my AS3 ran out and I had researched before automatically getting AS5.

 

Just a small update on my heatsink and copper plate mod.
BIOS is still set @A15 with the use of Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal paste on my mod and is day 4 since I applied this paste.
Local temps here looking at 23°C humidity60% and looks as if it’s going to pure down with rain.

System had been on for 30mins using internet before log records had been taken with the use of CPUID HWMonitorPro 1.05. I ran a system test using BurnIn Test Pro.v6.0.1006.2 at the same time I defragged my external Firewire 750GB harddrive. My BurnIn Test was set @ 70% load for all test and set for 15 -20 mins full system apart from my external HDD as I said was being defragged at the same time.
As a none gamer and the type of climate where we are this mod has aided me to use my laptop (internet, skype, email are my main use) without hitting those high temperature that I was getting before this mod was done ie: GPU 68-70 C, CPU 65-70 C idel temps and having to use a home brew laptop cooling to keep things in check.

CPU load came in @ 100% Physical Memory use came in @ 75% while test had been running.
<o></o> Blow are the log results from CPUID HWMonitorPro
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Well one last test I shall /might carry out next week or shall I say one of my nephews could be to play hard action video game something demanding.. Well lets hope grim reaper does not claim my mobo.....

 

System is nice and stable here temp well down on what they had been.
Nuff said on nvidia.
While surfing the net GPU 44C max 52C, CPU 40C max 48C
Well that me done with my mods and still love this M1330 to bits..

 

Just an update my system is still stable and never goes above 58c in the summer. GPU sits at 44- 50 c and CPU 35 - 45C.
I still love the M1330XPS Why oh why Dell did not redesign the cooling system is way beyond me..LOL

 

sorry if this is resurrecting a dead thread but BlackRussian, are you willing to prefit the heatsink or mod my xps for me? (of course you will be compensated!)