Legion 5 Pro Thermal Paste FYI it is dry (on my unit)

Pulled apart the Legion 5 Pro 3070 version today.
Removal of the back cover is as covered in many videos, plastic pry recommended.
There are 2 different screw head sizes needed, PH1 and PH000

To remove the heatsink there are 6 screws on the heat sink, 3 screws around each fan, and 2 additional screws (the third is shared with the fans) on each of the SSD heatsinks that need removed. Don't forget the fan cables

The Thermal Paste on my unit looked liked standard thermal paste. However it was dried out and crumbly, not at all like putty or pliable.
The heatsink was stuck on so hard I thought there were additional screws holding it in somewhere. Gentle constant pressure and the entire heatsink lifted off at once.

Normally my approach is too push / scrape off as much as I can with the plastic pry or a card before the alcohol so as not to smear, but since it was so dried and stuck it was more like scraping paint. Had to be really careful around the edges of the die so as not to damage anything. I ended up leaving a lot around the edges of the PCB because it wasn't worth the effort to get every last bit off after the dies were cleared.

Arctic MX-4 was the replacement at this time since I had it on hand.

Replace the heatsink and reconnect the fan cables before putting on the SSD heatsinks.

Based on what I found I would recommend replacing the thermal paste on arrival.
Sorry no thermal testings as I don't have time to run benchmarks these days.


Side note about kryonaut and other pastes:
A couple years back I purchased kryonaut to test against my older standbys MX-4 and AS5. The best done tests I had seen (multiple real world applications and retests rather than a single application) had these two pastes at or near the top of the pack while being inexpensive and having proven longevity, though none took into account AS5's curing over time which is supposed to improve over time. MX-4 is supposed to remain viable for 7+ years after application.

When Kryonaut hit the market I bought a tube to try it out a couple years after release given the purported better numbers. After 2 separate applications I did not notice enough of a difference to justify it (results were within margin of error). The remainder of the tube sat for about 2 years. When I went to use it again, the entire tube was dried out, like plumber's putty and was no longer able to be applied. This was sealed with the lid on tight inside their resealable bag. I don't know whether this applies to the thermal paste when under heating/cooling and pressure under a heatsink, but it sapped all my confidence in the longevity of the product. Perhaps they have improved it since then.

 

Do my eyes deceive me, or do those fans say 10v 0.8A? Can't say I've ever seen a 10v fan in a notebook.

 

Thanks for sharing. I received my L5Pro a few days ago and the AMD 5800H hits 93-95 C when running Time Spy -- even when I'm using a cooling pad.

Idle temps are around 58C in a 75F room.

I too have Kryonaut (from 2 years ago to repaste my Alienware m15) and it has also dried out.
Just bought some MX-4 three months ago to repaste the Alienware and now I am thinking about doing the same to the L5Pro.

Here are my benchmark results after replacing the stock RAM:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLaptops/comments/nxog1t/update_legion_5_pro_usa_rtx_3070_64gb_ram/

 

I just repasted my Legion 5 Pro with MX-4. It's ok, not great. I will give some days to see if it cures. Otherwise I'll try Prolimatech PK-3 and see it if makes any difference.

Very happy with the unit thou.

 

Shouldn't be any cure time with MX-4. I am old school when it comes to thermal paste application. Most studies now show that too much thermal paste doesn't insulate or negatively affect thermals as much as was once thought, on dies with heat spreaders. I experimented a long time with ultra thin line applications on bare dies in the ivy bridge generation, and these seemed to do better. But we are talking the bare minimum to get the paste to the edge of the die. This was driven primarily due to the relatively high viscosity of Artic Silver 5

That said, if you have the thermal head room and stability, the laptop will utilize it and take your temps all the way to the thermal limit (IE no temp change). And the efficiency of these newer chips vs older means that simply a little more thermal headroom doesn't give the small edge in performance it used to. The only way to really tell is if there is an objective change are canned benchmarks or change in average frequency.

On Blower style cards (without RPM limited fans) I would get at best a 3% improvement over stock thermal paste in terms of performance. Temps would be the same or slightly cooler (91-92c vs 95c).

EDIT: If you do try the prolimatech I would be interested to see if there is a clinically significant difference over the MX-4

 

As the repaste was very to do, I will try the Prolimatek on monday I think. Going away for a few days now.

 

No real difference with PK-3. Also, I found no obvious application errors from the MX-4.

Disabeling CPU turbo gives great results thou;

Tested with 3DMark Time Spy:

(Turbo Enabled)
Total: 10866
GPU: 11045
CPU: 9953
Max temp: 99C

(Turbo Disabled)
Total: 10770
GPU: 11034
CPU: 9489
Max temp: 80C

No big performance loss at almost the same performance.

Also, this is tested in a heat wave, so ambient temps are almost 30C.

 

Thanks for the results. It would have been surprising if there was much of a difference. All the tests that I saw almost always had most of the best pastes within a few tenths of a degree from each other, which to me spells margin of error differences.

So pick whichever is cheaper and has the best longevity.

Good to know about the turbo also. Unless you need that extra 5% of performance, the temp difference is substantial.

 

I have Legion 5 but both models share the same heat sink and M/B. I re-pasted and changed thermal pads as well. I used Cooler Master MasterGel Maker amd gelid extreme thermal pads (You only need 2x 1mm pads)

I tested system with BF5 Multiplayer. System run at performance state.

before re-paste CPU average 90C /GPU average 76C (Ambient 22C)
After re-paste CPU average 88C/GPU average 68C (Ambient 22C)

i start the temp monitoring software just before game start. What i observed is fans always slow to rev up to maximum speed. So CPU/GPU always show 3-4C higher maximum temperature when game started and once fans started to run at maximum speed temp come down and settled to average value. That is why i always check the average temperature.

 

Did you replace all pads with better brand 1mm ones?

 

Yes. I Used Gelid extreme 1mm thickness (80mm x 40mm) pads. You need 2 of those. 3 if you're planning to change ssd pads as well. I recommend changing them too. My ssd temps drop by 8-10c with those pads.

 

I may actually do that then. Did you make sure all the pads are connecting after changing?

 

Yes. This is the correct thickness

 

Cool. I'll go with Arctic Cooling pads thou, as those are the ones I can find locally. Still much better than stock I bet.

EDIT: Found Gelid-Extreme now. Ordered 3x 80x40x1,0mm.

 

After repasting does anyone notice any less fan noise ? Hate, hate , hate loud fans

 

The difference is not big.

Disable turbo if you want a big change.

 

Stock paste is normally fine and you shouldnt change it if your temps are fine

Problem with stock paste that it doesnt last long as mines is already dried out after 8 months

 

Jarrod’s review shows that this laptop loves extra airflow. And the fans apparently spin slower as it runs cooler. No way to manually change it on this model. So I’d imagine a repaste and a good cooling pad will give you the best results.

Not sure if anyone has a cooling pad to give some feedback?

 

Hi everyone,

I also have the problem that my L5P is getting pretty hot under full cpu load. Up to 100 Celsius.
I also shut off the boost or use ryzen controller to keep my laptop cpu under 82.

But I actually found a guy who said it is often the too little pressure on the cpu die and he did a warranty loosing solution but still I found it rather interesting.
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Gaming-Laptops/Legion-5-Pro-CPU-temperature/m-p/5083106?page=1#5363020

 

Hi, guys. My L5Pro also runs a bit hot, the average temps under heavy load (Red Dead Redemption 2) are about 90C for the R5800H and about 80C for the RTX3060. On one occasion I reached 99C on the Ryzen, but that was during stress tests. I use a passive cooling pad and the ambient temp is about 26C.

ps. wow this is my first post here after almost 10 years ;D

 

I've had good results with mx4 too.

 

You want to use SYY-157 on these laptops.

MX-4 is Ok and stable but I'm getting way better scores on Cinebench R23 with SYY-157 and my laptop runs quieter doing light tasks.

Both pastes don't seem to pumpout on the Legion 5...

I tried both pastes and SYY-157 was the clear winner.

 

Can't believe MX-4 is still in use. The paste is inferior to many others (GC Extreme/Kingpin KPx/Kryonaut/Kryonaut Extreme/ProlimaTech PK-3/Thermalright TF8-TG-50-TFX/Phobya NanoGrease Extreme)

e.g.

Massive difference

 

It's not dry, that's the way it is. Is a cured sheet, and works better than any paste you might try.