HGL30 Build

Not much of a guide, but a few pictures and a description of my recent build of the HGL 30.

Barebones HGL30 with Intel 3945 and Windows XP Home ($854)
T2300E from FS section of notebookforums.com ($80)
2x1GB 533 Mhz memory from FS on notebookreview.com ($155)
160 GB 5400 RPM SATA Seagate HD from Newegg.com($200)
Total: $1289

Great deals on the forums made this cheaper than I expected. I couldn't find a builder who sold the 160 GB drive, so that was more incentive to build my own.

Here's the contents of the box, not including the laptop of course:



Here's the parts out with the bottom of the case:



Removed the heatpad. Highly polished surface on heatsink. Installed Alumina at first, but then replaced with Artic Silver 5.



Here is the bottom opened up.



Everything installed. The memory and the hard drive were straightforward. Installation of the heatsink and the fan were a little trickier. There are some wires that have to be routed over the heatpipe to the radiator. It is a little tricky getting the heatsink assembly in without smearing the AS5 all over, so go slowly. The other issue I had was getting the screw installed in the top right hand corner (w.r.t. the picutre. This was sort of recessed and I had to be careful not to drop the screw in. Other than those two things, it was na easy install.



Here's the bottom closed up again.



Installing windows XP Home.



At the end of the assembly I had extra screws. At the time I thought, how great, they put in extra screws. After reading up on the keyboard mushy issue, I did the double sided tape fix and I found out those screws were for the keyboard which was not screwed in. Between the tape and the screws, the keyboard is much, much better. AS5 is still breaking in. I run Prime95 on the two cpus and peak at 52C at the beginning and it drops to 47C near the end of the day.

Hope this helps people. Feel free to ask questions.

 

Thanks for posting your experiences while putting together your own HGL30. Very nicely done.

I'm sure this will help others who are considering the barebones route.

 

this is a great and informative post, can you just clarify how exactly one is supposed to apply arctic silver 5? and can i apply it onto the heatsink of the gpu as well??? to keep it cool, even though i know the hgl-30 is underclocked so it doesn't produce that much heat anyway... but isn't it beneficial to put as5 on anyway for better heat conduction?

 

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

 

thanks term..

 

The GPU looks harder to get to. You can see the other heatpipe going to it from the picture, but you can't really access it easily (it's to the left of the CPU under the cover. I think you'll have to remove the bottom casing completely (I haven't figured out how hard that would be). It doesn't look like you can get to it from the keyboard side without disassembling alot more either. It's a good question because I would like to do that to the GPU, but I think I will enjoy the HGL30 for a couple months before I go back in. Then again, I might cave. The 7600 never got above 60 C under 3dmark05 and hovers around 50C most of the time. The again, if I could drop 5C more...

 

Great! *Taps*

 

hi. my gpu core is starting at 40degC or so, but then climbs rather quickly to over 80degC at idle mode !!! the fan is just not kicking in when im in windows, while when i am on bios page, it does work. the BIOS version is 109A which came with the lappy when it arrived (from anadem technologies).
did anyone else notice this problem?

 

80 C is incredibly high at idle. I had not heard of a 1.09A It doesn't appear on the bizcom-us site which is where Compals' page links to for the US. Mine idles at around 47C, but the fan does kick in occasionally.

 

i have downloaded the bios update from bizcom site and updated it. on the bios page it does say 109A still after flashing, but now the fan showed some life. after the GPU core temp rose to 67, fan kicked in, and temp dropped to 62, when it stopped again. again temp rose to 67, fan kicked in, temp fall to 62. then again it rose to 67, this time the fan did not kick in, and it just kept on rising.

perhaps my lappy is fauly and needs to be replaced, but im gonna go ahead and try to flash with bios ver. 108, see if it helps at all.

btw, how do i monitor CPU temp?

 

update - i downgraded to 108, which made the fan work full on till windows came up completly (during startup page it worked as well, something it didnt do ths far). but when entering windows it returned to its annoying normal state of not working or working very rarely. the gpu core temp start at 47, but then very quickly is rasing to above 80degC. dont know what to do, i think a replacement is a must........

 

Sounds like you got a bad one. I'd send it back. My temps have never gotten as high as 80C even while running two instances of prime95 and running 3Dmark05.

 

couple questions
where did you buy the barebones from
and did you need instructions to help put it together or did you know already

 

I bought my barebones from RJtech. I'm selling my system by the way if you are interested (I'll go $950 now). PM if interested. I think the HGL30 came with instructions, but I didn't need them since this was the third barebones notebook I put together and there was not anything that tricky about this one other than getting in one screw for the fan. I followed the photo guide for beefing up the keyboard which is on another thread. By default, the keyboard is mushy, I do recommend doing the simple mod if you like firmer keyboards.

 

Mattk, are you not satisifed with the GL-30? may I ask why are you selling?

 

I am satisfied, I just decided to change my computer inventory a bit. In the past I've gone for a good midrange videocard in my laptop in conjunction with a good desktop. Recently the amount of travel I'm doing is increased. I've decided to go for a bigger laptop (almost completely given up on desktops) with more powerful graphics for home and a smaller, more portable laptop than can play some games for travel. I need the travel laptop to be smaller than the HGL30 because I also have to lug the work laptop around.

I'll admit sheepishly that I bought a Dell E1705 with a 7900gs and a Dell M1210 with a 7400. Not so sheepishly, I got great prices on both (Dell refurb, scratch and dents are the best deals around). I went for the Dells on price but also because they are easy to open up and work with. Not quite a barebones, but you can do quite a bit with them fairly easily. The E1705 and M1210 are pretty good machines for Dell. If I had to pick one laptop out of the three, it would be the HGL30, but since I can pick two...

 

cool, thanks for answering.