Has anyone used AS5 on their Studio 15 3450 GPU heatsink?

I tried but there is a small gap so I had to stick with the thermal pad. I'm not sure whether AS5 would do a better job of cooling considering the design. I'm just wondering if anyone was successful in eliminating the gap and noticed improved cooling. Thanks. =)

 

I haven't done anything about the GPU thermal pad, but I noticed a pretty drastic difference when I swapped CPU's, got rid of the thermal pad, and applied some actual thermal paste. On my old T5750, I used to idle in the upper 40's C. Currently, on my T9500, I'm sitting pretty cool at 32 C. Of course, it was also a move from 65nm to 45nm, which would account for some of that, but I think actual paste is definitely much better than the thermal pad.

Of course, it wouldn't kill Dell to make a heatsink/fan that actually comes in contact with the GPU. :/

I know there is a popular copper mod for the XPS notebooks, since their heatsinks have a gap with the CPU. You can get a thin layer of copper in between, and it gives direct contact to both the processor die and heatsink. I imagine a similar solution would probably work with the Studio 15 and the GPU gap.

 

Yeah, it's a pet peeve of mine to remove any stock thermal grease/pads. Firstly, it doesn't work that well, and secondly, it's quite messy. I've never had any problems with AS5 which is why I have devoted my time to applying it on everything, lol. Thanks for the XPS copper mod info I might look into that and post back the GPU temperature results.

 

Excellent, let me know how that goes. If it gives good results, I might try it out on my 1535 while I've got half a syringe of paste just sitting around with nothing to apply it to.

 

I think I'll try it too - my GPU temps were hitting 91oC while gaming.

Did you find out whether we can still use the 14mmx14mm copper piece?

 

Wow! That is really high. Are you overclocking your GPU? Mine hasn't gone past 74oC while gaming.

I think a 14mmx14mm sheet will do just fine. I'll search my garage tomorrow and see if there is any copper lying around. If this mod doesn't provide at least a 5oC difference then I don't think it's worth it. We'll see! =D

 

No overclocking. I'd love to undervolt though - if I could hack into the System Bios to get at ATI's powerplay settings, I would.

 

My Studio 1535 also gamed at 91 degrees. Haven't tested it with this 1537 yet but the GPU seems to run pretty warm too.

No OC because the 3450 won't benefit that much. (you can only do so much with 40 shaders...)

 

Yup. The left side of my laptop gets pretty hot during gaming or torrenting. Hopefully upgrading to a T9300, a solid-state drive and this copper mod for the ATI HD3450 would help lower the heat a bit.

 

Beware of the SSD adding heat. I just read the review here on NBR a few days back and that SSD actually spat out more heat than an ordinary HDD though performance was through the roof.

 

Don't think I'll be torrenting on an SSD anyway =) Someone else can be the one to test the limit of MLC technology.

 

Guys GPU temperature stays in idle 48-55 C always...
And it is the only one thing that cause and force the fan to work on lower speed.
I remember when It was winter in my country my GPU temp was 47-48 and my fan was very often off.
the fan on low speed is very typical for studio 15 and it is not problem (i had my motherboard replaced and i'm sure for it)....
anyway I wish dell will made better video bios

 

Idle temperatures aren't the problem, the 91 degree Celsius load temp is the problem.

 

i dont know how well it would work on the 1535, but on my old inspiron 6000, i used alu. foil to bridge the gap between the ram and the heatsink. AS5 was used on both sides, and it really helped temps.

 

You mean under the left palmrest? That's not the GPU, that's the RAM. The RAM does get pretty hot after running for a while, and that's where it's located on the Studio 15. The GPU is somewhere around the "A" or "Q" keys.

 

That's the hard-drive, actually.

 

The Hard-drive is on the right.

 

Whoops, yes, that's right. My bad.

http://www.pctipguys.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=99&Itemid=36

 

It's all good.

I've yet to find any copper in my garage. I guess I'll be forced to go to The Home Depot or ACE Hardware.

 

Huh. Interesting. I think I am going to try that before copper. What were your temperatures before and after?

 

Honestly, I couldn't tell you exact temps. It's been a long time since I had that laptop. I do know that the mod dropped the temps enough to overclock the ram more. Default speed was 400 or 450, and it would overheat at 500 before the mod, and after the mod I was able to hit around 640mhz, which was considered the high-end of OC speeds for the X300.

 

I tried the aluminum foil and I noticed slightly cooler temperatures. I can't believe it actually works, lol. My GPU never went above 73oC, not much of a decrease on the load side, but hey, it's nice to have AS5 on there rather than that purple pad junk. =D

 

So, I just installed a 16x16x1mm square copper shim in the gap between my ATi Radeon 3450 and the heatsink. I applied Arctic Silver to both sides of the shim, and installed it. Before this mod, average idle temperatures were between 55 and 60 degrees Celsius. Currenty, after about half an hour of being on, it's sitting at 49. It'll need a bit of time and several heat up/cool down cycles to fully cure the paste, but it looks good so far.

For anyone who's interested, check K-TRON's For Sale thread in the NBR Marketplace. I bought my shim from him, and he's still got some left. They're all 16x16mm, 1mm thick, the same size I'm using.

Project verdict: Success!

 

Sweet! I am definetly going to do that now.

As for the Aluminum Foil: EPIC FAIL

I removed the heatsink and the aluminum foil basically baked the AS5 into a dry crackling mess. I suggest you DO NOT use aluminum foil.

 

Haha...it was your alleged "success" with the aluminum foil that inspired me to try the copper shim.

 

It was successful for 3 days. Then I started notcing higher temperatures.

EDIT: By the way, I installed home premium 64-bit and now I can't adjust the GPU clocks. I am back to square one. This time I will take note on what I do and share it with everyone else.

 

Hah...that's probably got something to do with why I can't adjust them either. I've been on Vista 64-bit this whole time.

 

You know, that was probably my fault. I forgot to mention I used the alu. foil on only the ram chips so they would touch the heatsink. I didn't put alu. foil on the die slug (the main shiny chip part).

 

Oh hahaha. That might explain it. It's all good



Mastershroom how is the copper mod going for you? You mentioned that you saw lower idle temperatures. How were your load temperatures?

 

I haven't gotten around to testing load temps yet.

 

Sort of off topic as I'm referring mainly to my CPU, but anyways, 2-3 days ago, my idle temps have gone up 10 degrees. I haven't done anything different and didn't install anything new (software or otherwise). I took off the cover to look at the fan (for dust and stuff) last night, yet it looks pristine. No OC or anything, what gives???

 

Do you have Arctic Silver on your CPU or the thermal pad Dell put there?

 

I think it's the thermal pad, either that or some weird stuff that Dell puts on at the factory. Bottom line, I have stock everything... As soon as that warranty goes out this summer though... AS5 here I come

 

That's the spirit! I didn't even wait for my warranty to go up. The technician who was here took everything apart and saw the thermal paste on the heatsink, and even the copper mod I installed to the GPU, and didn't give it a second glance.

 

Haha, I bet he silently agrees with what you've done.

 

Haha, probably. He's not a Dell employee, he's a third party contractor from a company that Dell hires, so he's allowed to have his opinions.

 

I would do this, but I don't have anything to put on the chip, heh. I've been tempted to take the heatpipe off anyway though, because I like to look at the shiny die slugs

Edit: I am NOT HAPPY that the GPU's heatpipe is underneath the metal frame and that I'd have to pull the motherboard to get at it, though.

 

You can get a syringe of Arctic Silver 5 for like $5 at most computer stores, or online.

It's actually really easy:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/1535/en/SM/cpucool.htm#wp1179839

All you have to do is remove the bottom panel, loosen the 6 screws on the heatsink and one smaller screw on the fan, disconnect the fan cable, and it's off.

 

Yes, but I'm both cheap and lazy

MMM, nope. I have a 1737 - the GPU heatpipe is underneath the fan support bracket - see pic here* - directly to the right of the CPU's purple socket.



*Pic is from the NBR review - i'll stop rehosting if they ask me to

 

That would be because it's a 1737

 

Hah! What post are you quoting? That doesn't exist! Slander and lies!

But yeah, for realsies, I'm going to go learn to read now.

 

Ahahah, cheater!

 

Hello guys. How large should the copper piece be? Currently, the size of the copper I'm using is the same size as the GPU core. Can it be larger? I'm just afraid a large copper piece might touch the conductors on the GPU. Thanks.

 

The GPU die is raised slightly above the conductors, so your copper shim can be larger than the die itself with no problems. The one I'm using is 14x14mm, which goes past the edges of the die in all directions.

 

Ok, I'm also looking into this, mainly for the NB though, as I believe this is the main culprit for having my fan constantly spinning on low speed.

I've recorded temps for my NB of 103°C while running an Orthos "blend" test for only 12 mins. CPU cores rise to 96 & 98 respectively which seems a little high. Undervolted temps drop to 88°C for the NB and 79/82°C for the CPU though. My GPU hits 89° stressed with atitool & orthos running.

I remember when I first got my studio, temps were a lot lower (idleing at high twenties/low thirties if I'm not mistaken)

I recently applied thermal paste to my CPU but am not entirely satisfied with the results so I might push it a little further.

Now, would replacing the GPU RAM pads be a good idea? And what would be the best way of doing this? Using a copper mod as suggested or these Liquid Metalpads I read about in another thread?

 

Yikes. Something's definitely wrong there; none of your temperatures should ever go nearly that high. If your CPU is hitting the high 90's Celsius after you applied thermal paste, odds are you did something wrong.

 

Can one of you guys take a picture of the copper mod on your gpu, also can i just add some as5 on the thermal pad.

 

Those temperatures are without undervolt and factory cooling, undervolted they are 79/80°C (with factory cooling & thermal paste applied).

I can't see what could have gone wrong, other than using too little paste.

 

Adding thermal paste to the thermal pad would be useless. The whole point of the thermal paste is to fill/eliminate tiny air gaps between the copper shim and the CPU/heatsink, because air is up there as one of the worst conducters of heat. The gaps exist because at the microscopic level, nothing is 100% smooth. Thermal pads work completely differently.

Direct contact between the shim and whatever it is cooling is still the best. Thus, you don't want to add too much thermal paste.

 

When you spread your paste, could you see any of the mirrored surface of the CPU die? If you can, then you don't have enough.