Laptop Cooling Advice

Just have a couple of quick questions.

The hard drive in my laptop died recently, so I decided to upgrade to a 7200rpm one. The temperature increase seems to be higher than I anticipated, but before I run out and downgrade to a 5400rpm drive, I want to see if i can reduce temperatures in other ways.

I bought a Coolermaster Ergostand laptop cooler, and this has made a significant difference. I also undervolt using RMClock.

1) Is it actually worthwhile taking apart the cooling array and applying Artic Silver paste? My laptop has an MXM-based GPU, so it's a little bit annoying to remove the cooling array. Also, wouldn't this simply see more heat transfered from the CPU to the GPU/other components?

2) Is it advisable to remove the bottom panel of the laptop entirely, and have the laptop cooler blowing directly over the components? There are obvious implications here in terms of dust, but would is be worthwhile overall?

Thanks.

 

Are you seeing a temperature increase in the CPU, or in the hard drive? Just changing the hard drive shouldn't result in much of an increase in your CPU temperature. As for repasting, it depends a bit on how your cooling system is configured. If your GPU and CPU share a heatsink, it may result in slightly higher temperatures for the GPU, but the better heat transfer should also result in more overall heat being pushed out of your system as well, so usually your GPU temperature may rise by a degree or two, but your CPU temperature should drop by, say, 5 or so. These changes are estimated, of course.

As for removing the bottom panel entirely, certainly you can do that, but be very aware of the possibility for damage in that case. It's not just dust you have to worry about, but hair or other foreign objects. Also, if by any chance the notebook should shift, there's a much greater chance of real damage as something jams up into the innards of your notebook. If you think you can lock it down and not have it move, or not have anything get inside, it may be worth it, but you'll have to be very careful at that point.

 

I'm surprised
what 7200 drive was it?
i upgraded my laptop to 2 7200rpm drives and had no real increase in temps

 

Thanks for the replies. It may be pure coincidence that my CPU temperatures increased at the same time as when I upgraded the hard drive. The hard drive is quite close to the CPU, but it's in it's own compartment.

Nevertheless, I have ordered a tube of Artic Silver 5 and will see how easy it si to apply it. I'm perfectly confident applying it, I'm just a bit worried because I will also have to remove the MXM-based GPU, which I've never had to deal with before. I assume it's best not to apply the paste to the GPU at this point? The CPU is my main concern after all.

I think I should be fine removing the bottom panel. I have the laptop on top of a laptop cooler, and I never really take it off of there. Just wondered is this was a bad idea. It pretty much messes up the air flow for the laptop's cooling setup, after all. Maybe I'll just give it a go.

 

If there aren't separate fans and heatsink assemblies for the CPU and GPU, then you're going to have to repaste both. Actually, since you said you have to remove the GPU, you'll have to repaste it, just like the CPU. Every time you remove a heatsink from a component, you need to repaste. Well, if it's pads, you can maybe get away with not using new pads a time or two, but doing it multiple times will wear out the pads.