T61p DIY heatsink improvements possible?

Hi i'll have my eBay T61p in about 2 weeks and was wondering if anyone has tried to add to the heatsink with a sheath of copper or if they have improved the heat dissipation in the T61p. Is there any more you can do to keep the T61p cooler overall other than a reapplication of thermal paste on the CPU? I really don't want the laptop to succomb to the apparently fairly common GPU packaging improperly shrinking and expanding from rapid heat-up and cool down cycles, i am hoping to play GTA 4 and FSX without the GPU or CPU going over 80, under 80 would be good but any advice? I will obviously be using TPFan control.

 

Considering the machines are similar, I have put a copper plate in place of the thermal pad on my T60p and used AS5 on the GPU core. To be honest, I have not experienced much in the way of lowering my temps, as I'm definitely hitting 80-90C or so when I fire up a game... and my idle temps are in the mid-60s. Considering the two machines are similar I don't think you're going to be able to get it to run that cool. I'm not too worried about it with my FireGL, but with the Nvidia G84 core that you're running, I would definitely be a bit concerned.

I'm not sure about FSX, but GTA4 has definitely been a really hardware-intensive experience for me. I'm not sure if I have to apply some patches or if I need display driver updates, but even on my M1730 it can get pretty laggy. If you're going to play it, make sure to crank the details down.

 

i would stay away from playing games on the T61p.... i only kept mine T61p, because some one gave it back to me... and i dont use it for fears of wreaking the machine.

 

I'll see what temps, CPU and GPU usage I get on certain details. I'm fairly flexible with game details, one of the main reasons i want to play GTA 4 is because of the amazing Euphoria engine, seems like it can deffinitely create some euphoria in people especially since there can be so many possibilities of dying, i'll be having fun for days on end just crashing things and seeing how Niko reacts to flying out of the windshield. With regards to dialing down the settings, i'll be fine playing it in 800x600 res.. as long as it looks better than GTA SA.

 

I bought a t61p with the largest processor in it (a t7800 at 2.6 ghz) and have never seen the processor "warm", in Maryland.

Is there some background to this thread?

Renee

 

Here's a quick rundown. The Nvidia G84-based graphics cards in many recent notebooks(typically 8400M-8700M) have serious issues with overheating and related problems. The Quadro cards in the T61p is based on this core, but I will say that problems relating to the video card are relatively uncommon on these machines. Since the OP is wishing to do gaming on this particular machine, it is advised that he keep a close eye on his GPU temperatures just in case his machine develops a problem.

 

No, I'll just be getting it and don't want the GPU to fail like so many other T61p's.

 

it is not so much the problem of the CPU, the T7xxx series is one of the hottest Core 2 Duo cpu due to the high TDP.

But rather that the GPU... which may fail due to repeated expansion and contraction which may cause the Nvidia GPU to fail......

 

thanks LegendaryKA8 you answered the post before my iPod touch could post.

 

This may be anecdotal evidence on my part, but I have seen that the T61p seems to have better reliability rates than quite a few of the consumer-end notebooks(the Dell XPS M1530 comes to mind) I have heard about with similar cards.

Still, the fact that Lenovo switched back to ATI cards for the next generation(T400/T500) seems to suggest that there was a bit of a problem with these notebooks.

 

In the IBM era they had been tied to ATI almost since ATI's conception, for graphics solutions.

 

I have never played a game on this machine so I wouldn't have a lot to say about it. I AM concerned about the gpu though. I think I bought this one from Lenovo in Oct, 2008. I hear the problem may strike me, although they just did a board swap on it. That being the case I know nothing of the history of the gpu. If it's a new board, I may never see the problem.

Renee

 

I have a 14.1 t61p (standard, not wide-screen). When I first received the machine, it would get really hot when gaming or when using virtualbox. I have 3 year on-site warranty. Called up Lenovo, a guy was out to my house the next day. Replaced the heat sink and now my baby purrs like a kitten. No over-heating period.

 

14.1 inch T61p isn't really a T61p... the heat issue problems isn't that serious.... the GPU on it has only half the bandwidth and half of the vram. It is throttled down to deal with the heat issue in a compact form factor.

 

To the OP: does the T61p you're buying have any warranty left. It would be wise to get an extended warranty in case the machine mobo gets fried because of the GPU. That would be a shame. And honestly a shame, the T61p could be a cheap Thinkpad machine, but with the impending GPU issues on those nVidia chips is a real shame.
I think the cooling solution on the T61's are better than on the T60's BTW, and be sure that if you're switching thermal pastes, apply some MX-2 or MX-3 on the GPU core, those are far better TIM's than the outdated AS-5.