Dented heatpipe

Hi All,

I have a question about a dented heatpipe. I've changed the whole heatsink in my Inspiron 7537 due to fan failure and after finishing I've noticed that it's dented in one place, just before the fins:



Can this affect thermal performance? I've tested it for an hour or so while playing Dark Souls 3 and here are the results:



I think before changing the temperatures were higher, but I didn't test it in a few years so I'm not sure. The 2 degree difference between CPU cores also doesn't look bad, but I'm still concerned. Would you replace the fan in the old heatsink with the new fan? It's not much work, but if this dent won't be a problem then I will just leave it as it is.

When I touched the CPU, GPU and the part close to the fins after turning off the computer both were warmer, but I did not test it during load and the PC blows hot air from the vents so heat transfer is definately working.

I'm not an expert in this subject and thus want to hear some opinions from people who know more.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. I've seen dents/crimps in heatpipes in brand new computers. I'm no thermal engineer, but it's possible it could be there by design.
Consider that it would take a specific impact of quite some force to make a dent like the one in your picture. If it were unintentional, it seems unlikely such force wouldn't have affected/broken something else, or at least left a mark in the paint.

Your temps look fine.

Charles

 

Technically, yes, this will somewhat impede the heat transfer performance and capacity (Qmax) of the heatpipe: the more the heatpipe is flattened from round (maximum Qmax) , the cross sectional diameter reduces along with Qmax.

However as your temps are still well within the realm of reasonable, it is obviously not impacting the performance in any meaningful way

Tl;Dr replacing it would be overkill.

 

I compared both and I think it was bent and then straightened as there are no dents in the old one, but since the temperatures seem to be fine and so far I haven't noticed any impact I may try it out and see. Maybe the whole heatsink as overkill for those components anyway.

If anyone else has any comments or insight please let me know.

 

I was wondering if I put some thermal pads over the heatpipes on the way to the fans - would this be smart or stupid to try to dissipate heat on the laptop?

Unit is a HP Zbook Studio x360 G5... (I think it has a plastic bottom cover - not sure if this matters much or not..)