Processor shimming

I've read the threads on adding a copper pad with arctic silver in place of the junk stock thermal gum found in most laptops.

Is it possibly to lower the heatsink assembly instead of adding a shim? I feel that a CPU-arctic silver-heat pipe connection would be way better than a CPU-artic silver-shim-artic silver-heat pipe connection.


Also, is the 1mm rule a solid number or just a guesstimate? I've got a Studio 1737, Inspiron 9300, Vostro 1500, and Vostro A90 that all could benefit from this, I just don't want to mess it up.

 

You only need to use a copper shim if there is a thermal pad in place.

If you want to lower the assembly, you often have to sand down part of the assembly depending on the model, where things could definitely go wrong...

1mm is probably a guestimate, it would differ because of the various laptop cooling systems.

 

I guess I'll get out the ol' ground wrist-strap and #0 screwdriver

 

Look into a thermal compound called ICD7, its made to be put on thick so you wouldn't need a shim. There's a thread about it on the Gateway forum: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=369732

 

That ICD stuff looks pretty cool...(Pun intended)
I work with metal, so machining/lapping copper shims would not be an issue.

I think I will go with some ICD and the largest copper shims I can fit. The more heat sinking ability, the better!

EDIT: Here is some quick data:

Thermal conductivity of Innovative Cooling Diamond thermal compound: 2,000-2,500 W/mK
Thermal conductivity of Copper: 401 W/mK
Thermal conductivity of Aluminium: 120-237 W/mK (Alloy-vs-pure)

Volumetric heat capacity of Copper: 3.45 J/(cm3·K)
Volumetric heat capacity of Aluminium: 2.42 J/(cm3·K)
Volumetric heat capacity of Diamond: 1.782 J/(cm3·K)

Bottom line: Use diamond thermal compound, and a copper heatsink.

 

I've been running my 1555 with a copper shim on my heatsink in place of the thermal pad for several months now. Temperatures on average are about 5C lower than before at idle, and a solid 10C cooler at full load (59C max, down from 70C before)

 

wow.. what the hell is shimming? Mastershroom, we share the same laptops! DETAILS?!?! I would like my laptop to be 10C cooler

 

"Shimming" (I don't know if it's really called that) is the process of eliminating the gap between the heatsink and GPU die surface by placing a small square of copper, called a shim, between the two surfaces and applying thermal paste to both sides of it to transfer heat better than the sticky thermal pad that comes preinstalled.

Usually the gap is around 1mm, so a 15x15x1mm shim fits nicely. Mine is 14x14x1.

 

wow.. so it is basically something I won't be able to do myself

 

Only do shimming if you have no other choice. On a couple of my laptops replacing the pad directly with paste was fine. On one I had to very slightly bend the heatpipe with my hands to get rid of the gap.