Heat sink upgrade for a P170EM???

During the course of my ongoing upgrade to the GTX 1060, I found out that it runs a lil bit too hot (80-85°) compared to the temps reported by @Billy2789 (65-70's°). After much repasting and screw adjustment I could barely do a dent to the temps.

Eventually I noticed that Billy and I have different heat sinks: I have the old 2-piece heat sink that first came out for the P170EM and he had an early P170SM version meant for the 780m. Some research shows these provide 10-15° cooler temps.

Further reading led to @Khenglish suggesting a 980m heatsink, as these have slightly better temps than the 780m one.

I'm asking around on European websites, but would apprecciate pointers on what I should ask for - Currently I'm asking for a P170SM heat sink for the 980m. Is this correct? Also, what would be an appropiate price, as I have seen numbers vary between 60 USD to 95 USD??? Heat sinks for other cards are valued much cheaper (around 35 USD).

Perhaps a recommended shop in Europe?

All pointers are appreciated.

 

Check ebay. I bought two new (SLI) SM-A heatsinks for 25$.

 

I did, this is where I got some prices, but they were from shops, not private users.

 

I heard, that Pascal GPUs have lower core, so heatsink don't fit good. My friend has 1060N in his MSI GT70 and he had to add copper plate with Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra to better heat transfer.

 

That's right, I did modify my current heat sink, but still not enough.

 

Bump, in case someone can offer assistance.

 

I found the following two heat sinks. Now I don't know which one is "the best"...

Option 1




Option 2:

 

It's hard to say, I would test with both and see. My guess would be the bottom one as the VRM/mem thermal pipe is not taking away as much fin space (but the VRM may run a little warmer).

 

I was thinking just the same, and also about that plastic slip that sits over the fins to aid in directing the airflow. It looks like the second set of pictures doesn't include that.

 

Can't, I don't have them. I'm going to buy one of them

@Khenglish answered the following in Techinferno:

"You want option 1 for the 980m heatsink. The 780m heatsink has poor memory cooling."

"The problem with the original heatsink was it came with dual 5mm heatpipes. The 980m heatsink comes with dual 6mm heatpipes. In addition, the core radiator is 4mm thicker on the 98m heatsink vs the 680m heatsink. The extra thickness on the 780m heatsink is mostly wasted because there is no heatpipe going through the back part of the heatsink.

The 780m heatsink would probably be fine for you. I don't like it because I always overvolt memory, so I need better memory cooling. The 980m would also blow FETs, which are cooled similarly to memory, so it needed better memory/power supply cooling than the 780m. Most of the heat on the memory heatsink mostly comes from the power supply circuits (power FETs, inductors), not the memory, and the 1060 uses less power than the 780m, and far less than the 980m, so it won't need nearly as much power supply circuit cooling as the 980m."

"Thinking back, the 8970m heatsink is actually the very best. The 980m heatsink is missing part of the radiator over top of the memory/VR heatpipe, while the 8970m heatsink is not."

Alas, I haven't been able to find any pictures or selling offers for the 8970m heatsink.

 

Yeah the 8970m heatsink was very hard to find.

Honestly either should be more than adequate. The 1060 uses much less power than even the 680m and 7970m. Making sure you have good die contact is much more important.

 

The only place I have seen an offer on RJ Tech, 20 bucks more expensive than the 980m heatsink that I found on Ebay. ( http://rjtech.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=30253)

Questions are:
- Is it the 8970m version, or do they just set the thermal pads accordingly....?
- Are 20 bucks really worth it over the 980m version? Prolly not.

 

I would ask them, they are usually pretty up front but it's likely the factory stock one, I doubt they mess with them like that.

I'd pay the extra for the best and a new unit that you know what has been done to it.

 

Wrote to RJ Tech, let's see what they answer.

 

RJTech replied, very nice fellows:

"I just checked the forum link, the video card heatsink for the SM model should be the one-piece heatsink compare to the two-piece in EM/SM-A models, it should look like the option 2 picture set in your forum posting.

My understanding is 8970M’s heatinsk is no different than 770M/780M’s in SM model besides the memory pad location."

Perhaps I should got for the 980m heatsink then? Decisions, decisions....

@Khenglish what do you think ?

 

No the 8970m heatsink is different. It is a two peice similar to the 980m heatsink, but the 980m heatsink does not have any radiator over the top side of the memory/ power circuitry heatpipe. The 8970m heatsink does.

 

So I contacted Nexoc in Germany and RJTech, and Nexoc sent me pictures of the heatsink of the 8970m - it was the same part number as the 770m one (see attached).

RJTech said they don't have it in stock atm, but that they are pretty sure it's the same as the 770m.

Apparently is either that or the used 980m one I found on eBay. Thank you @Khenglish and everybody else for all the input

 

Hmm, maybe it's only the P37XSM systems that had the different one. Those heatsinks are not quite compatible with P15x systems.

 

Well good luck with it

 

Looks identical to mine fitted inside a P170EM.

 

Actually, heatsink from p3xx series fits after "some" modification of housing.


From what I've observed, the differences between p17xx and p3xx heatsinks are at the end of the heatpipes.


With the heatsink from p3xx and the laptop standing on the cooler master notepal u3, 7970m does even not reach 75° during games. Only one pitty thing is that, the way how it looks.
I think that heatsink from Billy2789 is the best one. Question is where to get it.

 

It's quite available as I said. But due to @Khenglish 's suggestion I went for the 980m one.

 

actually you can see how fat the heatpipe is compared to stock
as mentioned earlier 5mm vs 6mm

im here again i was looking for the backplate gpu heatsink, trying to find link


ah... a little googling found it and found a few minor documents on it

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TEP-cooling-for-980M-or-970M-MXM-Videocards/172316747904

 

It does not do much, I would not bother with it. Put a thermal pad between the GPU and the motherboard to get the same impact.

 

You can get the SM heatsink on ebay for cheap.

I also have a GTX 1060 in my clevo with the same heatsink, it runs around 55 c on max load.

 

680m's heatsink is good enough for 980m or 1070

 

The later revisions did help quite a bit however,