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

Shrooms, can you put the pic on here to show every one.

 

Sure, why not.



The copper shim I installed is on the bottom, to the right of the fan. It's a 14x14mm square, 1mm thick. I stuck it to the heatsink with AS5, and applied AS5 to the GPU die on the other side. You can see the GPU die's indentation in the paste.

 

Hmm, why is the thermal paste on the gpu heatsink white, my artic silver is actually silver or gray color.

 

It's not white, it's the same grey color on the CPU heatsink above it. It just appears lighter from the lighting at the angle from which I took the photo.

 

I couldn't, it should have been a thick enough layer IF the heatsink has enough pressure on the CPU and doesn't leave a gap as with the GPU.

 

There should not be any gap between the processor die and heatsink.

 

You have to tighten the screws until they cant be tighter. Or if that doesnt work, unscrew all the screws and apply pressure while screwing it in.

 

Unless I'm looking at the wrong chip, the copper shim is not applied to your GPU. It is applied to the ATI chipset. The GPU is actually located top right, with the largest thermal pad seen in the photo.

So if the heat sink can't be screwed in after applying a copper mod, force it into place.

This is not advisable, given that you can damage the chips and flex the motherboard. The heat sink is designed to be secured without need of any force; hence why coppermodding the GPU does not work.

The reason why is simple: the copper shim not only raises the whole cooling assembly on a tilt because it is thicker than a thermal pad, but it also expands when heated whereas the thermal pad becomes gooey and elastic in consistency. For these reasons, the angle of the cooling assembly when secured in place is no longer straight. As a result of raising the cooling assembly from the GPU area, the CPU actually starts to run much hotter (about 15C) because it no longer makes proper contact with the tilted heat sink.

This problem is compounded by the fact that the GPU heat pipe cannot be manually bent to accomodate for this modification on Dell's 1535 model. Look at this image of the innards of the Studio 15 and you will see why:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=27698&d=1228524333. The GPU pipe can't be adjusted because it is reinforced with an inflexible metal, made either of magnesium or zinc (or both). Likewise, the length of pipe running up to the CPU cannot be adjusted as it changes the elevation of both the CPU *and* GPU, which is not desirable.

In short, copper modding the Studio 15 can't be done; at least, not without a) forcing the heatsink assembly into place and b) ruining the CPU's contact with the heatsink surface. It really sucks becaues K-tron was generous enough to provide me with the copper shims for the mod, but I found that the Studio 15 introduces complications that the 1330 does not surprise you with.

 

False. You are indeed looking at the wrong chip. That large pad on the right is the northbridge. Not that I have this laptop anymore anyway.

The copper mod worked just fine for me. CPU temps never changed, and my ATi 3450 idled around 5C lower on average, and maxed out at 10C less than it used to under full load.

 

Do you have any documentation on hand that confirms this? It's not that I want an argument, but I just want to be sure.

 

My "documentation" is physically looking at the chips and heatsink.

 

I am pretty sure that that large pad is the chipset
The ATi 3450 chip is actually very small, about 5mm x 8mm in dimension.

I wish I took pics when I modded my friends 1535 from the onboard GMA to the ati 3450

Mastershroom has the copper piece in the right spot, that is about where I installed my piece. However I lapped my copper piece fine to about 0.6mm to fit the gap. I used Arctic silver adhesive between the copper piece and the heatsink, and ordinary AS5 between the copper and the silicon ATi3450

You should not have much flexure at all. You want to make the copper as thick as the pad under pressure. You can calculate the thickness with a caliper, or those gap measuring pieces (basically a tool with about 20 different thickness metal pieces, you find the thickness by sliding them in. The one which is tight is your thickness)
If you are having troubles, you can file down your heatsink to make it fit. Be careful and file in one direction, and relap the surface with at least 600 grit sandpaper before applying the shim and such.

I dont know why you are having these troubles, it was very simple for me to do. Just lap the shim, and clean the surface of the chipset. It really doesnt take much.
I am not demoting you, I think your problem is that you are not seeing that the ATi gpu is the small one. I believe is says Ati on it.

K-TRON

 

The CPU heat sink is indeed the one with the four screws (bigger copper plate showing) along with the chipset
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/1535/en/SM/cpucool.htm#wp1179839

 

Above the cpu is the northbridge i know FOR SURE. And it kind of make sense because the two pads above the gpu are for the memory chips. And if you take the heatsink off you can see it says ati. So i agree with shrooms.
Btw, i benefited from overclocking. I notice my games running alot smoother with o.c. rather then not o.c. So you do gain a little more fps which can help.
I just can't see why you cant add just a little as5 to the gpu with the thermal pad on. I did it with my hp and i notice like a 2 C drop. And if you notice you have to screw in the processor first so there would be no gaps. You just have to use pressure.
Hope this helps

 

KTRON,
Can you explain how you modded the gpu in the studio 1535 because how did you take out the chip. It seems soldered. This would really help. And This means the putting a hd 3650 could be possible.

 

What a dumb mistake on my part. Well, I applied a copper shim to the GPU and found a ~5-6C drop in temps, down to 77C or so. I then proceeded to undervolt my T8100 from 1.2125V to 1.000V across all the multipliers; this resulted in a decrease in max temperatures from 74C to 61C. Stress testing so far shows that I can probably decrease the voltages even further.

The GPU on the 1535 seems to be secured to the mainboard with some kind of epoxy glue, which is rather unusual. Still, simply because it isn't soldered doesn't mean that it is upgradeable, as the 3450 isn't meant to be removed. Even with the glue, the chip likely uses precision solders.

 

I did not solder remove the Intel IGP for the ATi 3450. I swapped motherboards, so that the owner could have dedicated graphics.
I do not think you will be able to desolder the 3450 for a 3650 graphics card.

I am glad you fixed your problem Bog,

K-TRON