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    Thermally couple the VRMs to metal backplate - is it a good idea?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by abujafar, Jul 19, 2018.

  1. abujafar

    abujafar Notebook Evangelist

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    I have a new laptop with an aluminum backplate (XPS 9570). I repasted, undervolted, and so on. I am happy with the laptop now. I have one question for you guys.

    Through temp monitoring, I have noticed that under heavy stress tests some MOSFETs get really hot (up to 100c). This does not appear to be a problem performance-wise, because the laptop doesn't throttle based on the MOSFETs temps (it throttles based on other parameters which have been taken care of).
    Previous models (9560, 9550) did throttle based on MOSFET temps and some people used thermal pads between the MOSFETs and backplate to avoid throttling.

    My question is, in general, is it a good idea to thermally couple the VRMs and backplate (through thermal pads or similar) or not?
     
    abujafar, Jul 19, 2018
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  2. Reciever

    Reciever D! For Dragon!

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    Sure why not, some people couple the North Bridge to the keyboard and that helped them reduce temps on them.

    Just might be a little troublesome when you take apart the laptop for maintenance I would think.
     
    Reciever, Jul 19, 2018
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  3. Dr. AMK

    Dr. AMK Living with Hope

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    In general, it will be better to cool down any components you can, but with the right way and right materials.
     
    Dr. AMK, Jul 19, 2018
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  4. bennyg

    bennyg Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yes, of course your case will heat up but there is no downside to cooling components like that better. It even helps lower stress on the power delivery as FET inefficiency (heat loss) rises with temperature and with heavy prolonged workloads you may find that if residual heat builds up in the area from a lack of airflow those uncooled FETs may get much higher than that and start throttling.

    Pretty common for things like VRM and PCH crashes to be remedied by adding pads to case or internal frames and MXM boards tend to die from blown FETs once old thermal pads connecting them to the heatsink degrade
     
    bennyg, Jul 19, 2018
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  5. abujafar

    abujafar Notebook Evangelist

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    @Dr. AMK, what I plan to do is to stack some thermal pads from the MOSFETs so that they touch the backplate.
    I know that stacking thermal pads is not the optimal thing, but that's simple, not dangerous (they are not electrically conductive), and is what I available.
     
    abujafar, Jul 20, 2018
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  6. Dr. AMK

    Dr. AMK Living with Hope

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    Good luck, and let us know the results.
     
    Dr. AMK, Jul 20, 2018
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