Clevo M570TU Cooling Overhaul

ok, but you know you could re-write the dsdt table in your registry instead if you're worried about a bad bios flash.

Also I remember seeing a 4mm think fan, although it had a very poor CFM.

And it wouldn't be to hard to wire up a resistor and a switch to controll the fan.

But since you have nowhere to put it, I guess you should just forget I said anything

 

I'm not worried about a bad BIOS flash. I just don't want more fans in the notebook. Rigging up a resistor is like a fifth grade science project for me, but finding a place for the wire and control to come out of the chassis is the devious part. Even on an unmodified M570TU, there are very few effective places to put a 6mm or 4mm fan. It's still a very good idea though. Perhaps other notebooks can utilize an additional fan if a copper mod is not feasible.

The article is complete and has now entered RC. Later during the week, I will be rereading it and making minor changes and additions as the weekend approaches. Thank you all for reading.

 

Thanks for doing this.

What kind of wireless card do you have? (I noticed it's not posted in the specs). I'm wondering if I did the same to my own machine--room permitting--if it will disrupt my own wireless.

Also, when you put the heatsinks on, did you remove the intel sticker?

 

I have the Intel 5300 wireless card. Yes, I ripped off the sticker. Putting heatsinks on the card casing will not affect signal.

 

Good, then. I was thinking that because the 5300 is nominally better than the 5100 that the reason you're not having problems is because yours has more power. But if there's no reason to worry...

Hmm, the 5300s seem cheap on eBay.

 

watch out, some of those may be ES versions.
they lose the connection a lot and the mac adress doesn't match the one on the lable.

I think there was a thread about that on this forum, keep an eye out for it.

 

I agree. Be very careful with those ES 5300's on eBay. Hell, some of them aren't even ES, rather they are cards from a throw away batch from Intel.

 

Damn. I guess Newegg or Amazon should have something, then.

 

You can always get the newer 5350. It is identical to the 5300 but has WiMAX. http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38&_nkw=intel+5350

 

Not sure if I'll need WiMax, but I'll shop around.

By the way, I reread your section on the drilling. Is there a significant decrease in integrity after making it look like "swiss cheese?" (I remember you have two backpanels, so I was wondering for a quick side-by-side check at your leisure).

I understand your reasoning behind it. If the stock vents are well-designed enough, drilling would disrupt that. But drill enough holes and it will be the next best thing to not having a backpanel at all.

I might as well try that.

With graph paper this time.

 

There isn't a significant decrease in integrity after drilling it out. Only if you make the holes too close to each other in relation to their size will the backpanel start to buckle under heavy pressure. However, mine is perfect; I feel very little difference in flexibility between my stock backpanel and my drilled backpanel.

Make some graph paper on Calc or Excel. 5mm spacings should be good enough for a 1/32in hole.

 

Then that seems like a god way to go then, though of course your Clevo might have a higher quality backpanel, silly as that possibility is.

 

The M570TU backpanel is made of higher quality thermoplastic and is ~2.2mm thick after taking my calipers to my spare backpanel. Chupond-tech really makes the best chasses for Clevo. Compared to the backpanel on my client's Dell Studio 1535 that I'm fixing up right now, the Clevo backpanel is like a brick wall.

I'm pretty sure the G51 is made of quality plastic too. 5mm spacing is still very strong for a 1/32in hole. If you're paranoid, you can always make it 6mm.

 

True. Still have to reconcile the uneven 1/16'' holes around the CPU and GPU, though. Hmm. I'll think of something.

 

What do you mean by uneven holes? Could you post a quick shot of it?

 

Over the GPU. They are 1/16'' holes.

 

I thought you made way more holes than that? Or is that an old pic when you first drilled your backpanel?

 

Old pic. Now my bottom panel looks more like yours. I'll take a picture before I turn in tonight, if I can find the damned camera.

It's like a ninja.

 

Small update. X23 seems to be working a degree better than MX-3 on both the CPU and GPU. With that said, I have slightly upped my GPU clocks to 640/1600/960 @ 1.05v as my new primary clocks, and to retain a 2/3 ratio with the core/shader:memory.

 

What thermal pads are you using? I am thinking of buying some to give the memories a bit more care.

By the way, I reach 100C max on my 280M in the OCCTP test, although in gaming it never went above 80C.

 

PM sent. 10char

 

Nice mod Soviet Sunrise.

Can you add to the first post the parts you used and where to look for them?

I see two types of 'copper blocks' in your picks. One looks like the thermaltake memory heatsinks http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1305&ID=1612
I haven't seen anyone selling the other low profile type used on the system memory.

Also the Copper sheets. I think you indicated you got these from home depot? What thickness did you look for/get?
Did home depot also carry some of the copper block heatsinks you used?

 

No, I will not add the parts I used on the first post. I published this article to help others get an idea on how to mod their notebook on the general level. I want users to experience the feel of what it is like to mod their notebook using different parts and methods, not emulate my mod in complete verbatim. Giving away the answers and step by step walkthroughs is not the way I want others to get into deeper hardware modding.

Google is a very powerful tool. There is a vast multitude of "heatsinks" that you can use for your notebook. As for the ones I used, you guessed correctly. Those are indeed the Thermaltake BGA heatsinks. However, I have found a better heatsink that I will be implementing into my future cooling overhaul of my upcoming W860CU as I no longer have my M570TU.

 

You're going back to W860?

 

Yes. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5463640&postcount=327

 

Welcome back indeed.

 

I won't say I understand, as some of these parts especially 'good' thermal pads are very hard to find even with Google. I didn't find much in the US for the brand you talked about .

Maybe I don't spend enough time at Home Depot or smaller electronic stores, but to me the parts you used aren't common and don't seem to have a lot of distributors.

Eventually found what I think is a good source in the US for thermal pads: http://www.newark.com/t-global/h486-150-2-0a/gap-filler-2mm-sheet/dp/53M7867?Ntt=H486-150-2.0A. They have a verity of pads this is just the one I bookmarked. 3m also seems to have some distributors in the US that can sell pads in consumer sizes.

While on the Newark site I saw a nice collection of aluminum heatsinks. They could probably make a great custom notebook cooler/stand out of them.

Outside of various BGA heatsinks it was also very hard to find copper heatsinks. I still have not seen a low profile copper heatsink like the one you used on the RAM and I have thrown way more hours than I would like on that. BGA heatsinks are pretty common as a little of the overclocking sites stock them.

I did look at a veriety of BGA heatsinks, but none of them had the mass of the thermaltake. Most cut mass out to make pins or pegs. In a good airflow environment that might be better, but in low airflow laptop application I think the mass is better.

OnlineMetals looks like a good source of metal blocks, plates, sheets, etc. I haven't been down to my home depot to see what they carry.

 

This is a preliminary update before I purchase my succeeding notebook. I have taken a good look at my design and I have decided that I will be reworking it from the ground up. Quite a number of steps and "features" will be removed and better heatsink material and configurations will be used to improve upon the current revision of the cooling overhaul. I have already planned most of the new design out and I will begin implementing them onto my new notebook the day I finish putting it together. Of course, I am still under an oath of nondisclosure so you guys will have to keep guessing whether I will get the W860CU or W870CU. Both notebooks have extremely similar cooling systems anyway, so the upcoming revision of the cooling overhaul will be quite useful for users of either notebook, and for users of all other notebooks that wish to incorporate key factors of the cooling overhaul. Just like I did with my M570TU cooling overhaul, I will not disclose the "beta" design until several weeks, if not months due to outside obligations, after I have begun. However, I am still free to answer any questions regarding the current overhaul used on the M570TU.

To keep you on the edge of your seat, I have a number of new tools and equipment immediately at my disposal, so I will be able to further customize each individual piece the way I want it. I have up to $100 to spend on the materials so I can assure you that this next revision is going to send the Clevo engineers in Taiwan crying home to their mommies.

 

Last night I followed Soviet's example and did some light modding on my 280M.

I don't really like the weight so I've only used thermal pads from these guys:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180380635641&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

From what I've read 3.2w/m-K thermal conductivity is very good, most thermal pads have about 2 to 2.5. The best thermal pad I've seen had 3.6w/m-K. If you find thermal pads with better conductivity please let me know.

I bought a 9cmx7cmx1mm sheet from them - 13.5 USD, which was more than enough to add heat pads on the underside of the video card.

The result was a 5C decrease on the maximum temperature of the GPU.

I am going to buy 2mm thick ones for the GPU memories as well because the 1 mm ones are too thin.

Anyway, so if you want just a light version of Soviet's amazing cooling you would need:

Shin Etsu X23
- one 6cmx6cmx1mm thermal sheet (for the underside of the GPU)
- one 3cmx6cmx1.5mm thermal sheet (for the rest of the smaller components)
- one 6cmx6cmx2mm thermal sheet (for the GDDR)

The thermal sheets should cost all in total about 20 USD.

 

Very nice gains, Blacky. 5*C off load is a big chunk for new pads and paste. The GPU doesn't fully take advantage of the third heatpipe and the bottom half of the cage, so the thermal pads definitely help evenly spread the heat to the rest of the heatsink.

I am a bit curious of the OEM thermal pads on eBay. I've considered buying them before over the Bergquist pads before, but they didn't have the durability that I sought. Perhaps I will give them a spin this second time around on my W8x0CU. I will be gauging the difference between the pads that come with the notebook, the OEM pads on eBay, and my Bergquist pads.

Thanks for your contribution, Blacky. I will put you on the list of people I need to give +1 rep to. I gave you one recently so vB won't let me do it again until I spread it around a bit.

 

Thanx Soviet.

I haven't changed the paste yet, I am still using MX-2. I've just order the X23 and 2mm think head pads for the memories . The 5C drop was just with heat pads on the bottom of the card and on the smaller components on top of it and a new application of MX-2.

Also you are right, the OEM thermal pads I've ordered aren't very resistant but they are considerably better than the stock ones. They are more elastic and don't break easily.

 

X23 is still the most expensive paste on the market, other than the unconventional gallium based Liquid Pro, and is a real butthurt to apply. I would place it inbetween MX-3 and ICD7 in terms of application difficulty; the former being easier and the latter being harder. I'd still stay with MX-2 for the reasonable price and extreme ease of application.

 

On last thing I wanted to ask.

Why did you remove the black plastic cover around the GPU die ? My belief is that they wouldn't have bother to put it there unless it was for some purpose.

 

That black sticker is just EMI shielding to protect the exposed cache chips on the die wafer. This goes for almost every GPU or CPU that has exposed chips on the wafer. For example, with my i7, the CPU cold plate has a black EMI sticker on it that covers around the die.

 

I see, then there is no need to remove it.

 

Right, there is no need to remove it. But then again, there is no need for it to be there anyway as the huge heatsink itself already acts as an EMI shield. It's just a little bonus that Clevo added because they can.

 

I read your post concerning the mods to your M570TU and I wonder why you did not replace the aluminium plates with copper plates instead of mounting copper heat sinks on top. Wouldn't that be a better solution as the copper plates will dissipate the heat even better?

 

I did not have the equipment, resources, or time with me to attempt to produce a new copper hard drive bracket. Yes, it would be a better solution, but like I said before in my previous posts in other threads, the HDD runs cool enough that it doesn't need cooling additional cooling whatsoever. I placed more emphasis on the CPU and GPU for the cooling overhaul. Secondly, the HDD is not making 100% contact with the bracket as the exposed circuit board isn't pressed perfectly flat against it, and there is a layer of EMI shielding between the aluminium bracket and the HDD. The black shielding, as well as inadequate contact between the bracket and the HDD, are the major bottlenecks that is preventing the full potential of a HDD cooling mod to be met.

I'm going to go all out on my upcoming cooling overhaul on my W870CU once I get a new GPU for it.

 

I am going to attempt this actually. But don't hold your breath because it may take a while. What do you think about eliminating the EMI and loading up that space with thermal pads? My HDD does in fact run kinda warm, it can get in the mid 50's. On a hot day doing some serious grinding I have seen it get close to 60c(maximum working temp, according to the specs).

 

Removing the EMI shielding and replacing them with thin thermal pads (0.5mm at most) will suffice. But what I'm more concerned about is the moisture from the thermal pads. For other circuit boards and components, thermal pads wouldn't affect them, but because the HDD is the only mechanical component on a notebook, I dared not to try it, especially since I don't have the time to spare for a long term test to stress test it. I am fully aware of the operating specs of the HDD, emphasis on the operating humidity levels, but being the busy and conservative modder that I am, it is something that I did not want to do.

Regarding the thermal pads, because they are generally in the low single digit performance for conductivity, you aren't going to see a great difference between having them on and having just the EMI shielding on. Expect a 1-2*C improvement at best if that is the variable added to a HDD cooling mod. You would be better off using thermal tape to ensure that the entire face of the circuit board sticks to the HDD as heat would be transfering across a much thinner material. But then again, removal will be a sticky mess so I do see your point.

 

My remark regarding copper instead of aluminium plates was not especially tpwards HDD cooling. I was more thinking about replacing the CPU aluminium plate with a copper one. Has anyone tried that?

 

Thank you for being specific now. The aluminium plate on the CPU cold plate is probably just held down by those molded copper rivets. You would need to take a dremel and grind them off so that you can pull off the plate.

 

You've given me much to consider concerning the HDD bracket mod. After I get my various supplies (copper sheets, rolls of sekisui, therm pads of various thicknesses) I will take a hard look and figure out the best course of action.

 

Here is my progress thus far. Making the HDD bracket was easier than I thought. Cut .025" thick copper with utility knife and metal clippers, and used 3 amp drill for the holes in the bracket as well as the black plate. HDD runs a few degrees C cooler, keeping it in the 40's most of the time.

 

Very jazz, hyperbolic. I dig that HDD bracket. I look forward to seeing the final result.

 

Thanks, you can see I got a little lazy on the right side there because it was not necessary to cut it all the way out just to make room for the back plate screw hole. Makes it look a bit hokey though, I will finish it when I open up my system next.

 

On the contrary, hyperbolic. Leaving that extra material there acts as a a thermal bridge for transferring heat to the chassis. It also makes the screw mounts less susceptible to bending if in case something, like a table corner, were to bump into the HDD area of the backpanel and shock the HDD bracket.

 

I just took another look at your design again and noticed the two blocks sitting on your GPU radiator. You need to rotate them so that the fins are parallel with the rest of the radiator. Placing them against airflow will only making harder for exhaust to exit the notebook.

 

Duly noted, thanks for the observation. I will also be replacing them with the type of sink that I have on the CPU, and put them on the CPU heat pipe. Those sinks take a while coming from Hong Kong though... Air MAIL!

 

I got another shipment of copper sinks and I thought I would try something creative...




I also created RAM heat spreaders:


And completed the HDD cooling bracket (not as pretty as SS's but does the job, very well):


Max CPU temp after 1024 wprime: 68c
Max GPU/HDD temp after playing MW2 for an hour: 66c/49c
Max HDD temp after full defrag (PerfectDisk 10): 51c
Very pleased so far, still waiting for more sinks to cover GPU casing and WIFI card (probably not necessary but looks cool).
(3DMark06 temps in sig)
Idle temps: CPU: (35c/32c), GPU:48c, HDD 43c