Improving P170EM 7970M GPU cooling performance (foiled)

Go to your local hardware store, like ACE Hardware, Lowes... etc. to get your aluminum tape. It's a life time supply if you are only using it for this application.

Adding the shims to the heatsink ain't exactly going to help the temperature. Adding the shims increases the thermal mass, but does not increase the heat dissipation. It does help to a certain extend, but in the end, it's how fast you can get rid of the heat that counts. If the games you play has a 99% utilization all the time, it's going to hit max temperature anyhow.

I'm more interested if there is anyway to have that fan replace to increase the airflow. I could care less about the noise. Anyone has any idea what replacement fan we can get?

 

Taking a nice long 5 day weekend to do absolutely nothing but game and tinker with my new toy, so I'll check out ACe. perhaps they have some small shims there as well.

You are right about the fact they wont do much to cool, just add to the thermal mass, but by increasing the time it takes for that mass to heat up, you allow the fans more time to cool, although at full utilization it will hit its max temp at some point. I also kind of like the look of the shims; makes it look like the copper heatsink got a real bad case of the metallic herpes.

 

Doesn't EC control how much amps/volts the fan receives though? Unless you can find one that produces more output RPM at the same input it won't make a difference AFAIK.

 

EC should control voltage (controlling current/amps is tricky), so a bigger fan will have more current flowing through it but the EC won't care. A bigger fan due to a larger area should also push more air.

 

should be tricky to fit a larger fan in there due to the already pretty much maxxed out space. maybe one could leave out the fan casing but then the airflow wouldnt be directed anymore and dust would accumulate in the whole system, not just the fan and heatsink fins.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I know there are vents on the bottom that suck air into the chassis, but where else would air flow IN to the machine? Keyboard perhaps?

 

yep, keyboard is correct, albeit a very small fraction of the total air sucked in. problem would rather be the airflow direction once the air is inside the chassis.wouldnt be directed straight toward the back vents anymore but rather go wherever it pleases

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

My friend was telling me about a new cold air intake for his turbo in his subaru, and i got to wondering if it would be possible for a laptop - instead of normal going in, heating up, and being exhausted, why not just push cold air directly into the system. I know it isn't possible, but fun to think of.

 

With enough duct tape you could force the output from a leaf-blower into the laptop, but this probably isn't an ideal solution for many people so best not to consider it

 

theres always the possibility of having a super compact and silent water cooling solution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz4a1RukOzA

 

It's always possible to do anything. However, if this is the case, might as well go for a desktop set up.

Anyway, I jumped the gun and purchased 2 pack of the 8 pcs on Ebay. Since I primary play batterfield, and it does not constantly push 99%, I figure I can overclock higher

Shipping in from China, so going to take a few weeks.

 

I bought the 8pcs of heatsinks online and received them today. To apply them I just stick them to the plate covering the CPU like in this picture right? (I only want to apply it to the CPU)



How does that help with cooling and how much does it help?

 

Base on Jaybee83, it does not lower the ultimate temperature. However, your CPU is not consistently runs at 100% load. By adding the heatsink, you are adding thermal mass. It takes a longer time to heat up and reach the ultimate temperature.

 

Actually I found the extra heatsinks only prolong the time it takes to reach the peak, but once the peak is reached the temp is slightly higher than the peak temp without the extra heatsink, kinda useless when you are using a CPU like 3740QM with XTU's extra 4 speed bins. Unless you have external fan blowing directly at those little heatsinks.

 

Yeah its a stupid idea. If the heat has nowhere to go why try to dissipate it in there?

....ttalk

 

wouldnt call it stupid. prolonging the time span in order to reach max. temps is fine with me havent noticed any higher temps cuz of that.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Well your keeping heat near all of your other components with no way for it to escape.

....ttalk

 

mmm yes and no. basically ure of course correct in saying that adding heat dissipating mass would actually "trap" more heat inside the chassis, but keeping the back of ur machine (with a pair of plastic bottle caps in my case lol) raised helps keep a nice strong n steady airflow through it, thus u wouldnt notice any significant raise in max. temps while still benefiting from a flatter temp curve.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Alrighty, I got the heatsinks. Arrived from China, and pretty impressive with the shipping time.

Does the thermal tape has any curing time on it?

I ran my game at 99% of the GPU load. Personally, I didn't see any prolong of the time hitting the max temperature. It also seems like the max temperature went higher. It got there just as fast. I managed to hit 78 degrees. I think my previous max as 74 degrees.

From what I'm seeing, this mode is not only useless, it's also making things worst. They are coming off. Luckily, I bought these for $9 over ebay with free shipping (16 pieces). It's not that expensive to make me feel upset about the wasted $.

My advise (no offense to anyone), don't do this mod. Eventually, it's about how fast you can get rid of the hit. It's just like m3noob said, all this does was creating a bigger heat source that is trapped inside of the laptop resulting in higher temps.

 

weird, ive never seen such a significant temp rise when using those copper ram heatsinks. where did u put them exactly? and was the back of ur laptop raised to provide improved airflow?

 

Yes, it's raised. And it's actually sitting on a metallic notebook cooler. Well, not bad for a $9 try

I actually have 10 of those heatsinks on the GPU. 8 directly on top of the GPU just like yours, and 2 on the heatsink pipes just next to the fins.

 

....as I said. The mod doesn't make any sense. Heatsinks need air flowing over them to function properly.

....ttalk

 

This mod is for those running on a cooler with extra holes in their covers to allow more air to flow.

 

dunno, runs fine on mine

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Just another quick update. The temps don't look as bad last night. That may be because of the possible curing time for the thermal tape that comes with the heatsink. I will leave it in running for the week and see how it goes.

 

hm, interesting point u make there@curing time. keep us updates

 

I got my 7970m replaced a couple of weeks ago, and the card is running quite cool. At max load, it never passes 81, where as the other card rocked 95 degrees quite easily. A thing to note is, the heatsink is now flush against the fan itself, and it seems more compact.

well thought i might give you a heads up on it

 

Good to hear you have solved your issues at any rate.

 

tried this with my laptop, and it reduced my game GPU temps by 5 degrees, which is good, but it significantly reduced the temps on my CPU by around 10 degrees! :thumbsup:

 

I agree. I just took mine off because I found that since there is no air blowing on them to cool them, they are actually countering the effect of the heatsink getting cooler since it is not allowing the heat to go where the fan is..

 

How many days did you leave yours on?

Mine is still on. I guess there is a curing time on the thermal tape. It did hit a max of 78 degree C on the first day. After that, it's a max of 74 degree C. That's the same max prior to installing the ram heatsink.

The only thing to do now is to drill some holes on the back plate directly over the GPU heatsink. However, I'm not sure that will do anything. Heat rises upwards. The holes will be at the bottom. Heat will still be trap. Question will be if the holes will improve the airflow. Plus, I don't fill like modifying the back plate.

 

making holes will definitely help. some people have done it. but you are right, i don't want to try it either..

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

I thought somebody here mentioned we can get a second bottom to drill into? Does somebody have a way of buying one for cheap? I wouldn't mind trying to drill the holes if I had a spare

 

You can 3D print one uf you have a printer
Yeah somebody ordered a custom-made backplate which he designed himself, with holes and everything. It was for the P370EM though and I dont know how that went, last time I checked the manufacturer had some problems( it wasnt a clevo reseller, some independent company)

 

I did send an email directly to Sager and they quoted me USD$15 plus shipping for the backplate. It's not that bad.

Well, I did end up drilling a couple of mesh holes. Not really sure if that helped with the temperature, even thought it did look like it helped. The reason was because I had already flashed with the 1.037V bios. With the overvolt and higher than normal "stock clock", it will naturally increase the temperature. Plus summer temperature didn't help with the cause at all. My room ambient did go up as well. As for as temperature goes, I get between 78 - 82 degrees playing BF3. However, this temperature data is totally useless without logging ambient temperature.

 

I just ran the kombuster and it's attached.

I'm running about 75-78C during this test but compared to the OP my FPS is pretty low. Any suggestions or is this a valid test and I don't *Need* to do the foil mod?



Edit: I tried to attach the picture using the forum but it kept giving me an error. I hope linking it is ok.

 

Hey guys I am going to do this foil mod. I have a couple of questions though, are these tapes conductive? Can it be or not? Copper or aluminum? Will it melt under high temps? Cover the hole top of the fins or just enough to create a direct path to them? Cheers

 

u should consider using the same settings as the op when comparing fps (which arent even important in kombustor,since its about stres testing, not benchmarking ) for instance, op was using the msi logo, whereas ure running the donut

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I'll make sure I try that. My concern is the fps on the computer. I've noticed when I run games or do the testing that I have average or low fps where I should have higher

 

I ran with the same settings and only got 19fps as the max. Any idea what's going on?

 

whats ur config? u got switchable graphic? maybe ure running on the igpu? got the most current drivers for igpu and dgpu? what are ur temps like?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

whats ur config?
I7 3610
Gtx 780

u got switchable graphic?
Yes

maybe ure running on the igpu?
I went to kombuster and right clicked and chose the nvidia one so I'd say no

got the most current drivers for igpu and dgpu?
Yes. Updated them last week on the nvidia. I'll have to check the intel one to be sure but its current-ish

what are ur temps like?

No higher then 75c. But the fps are crap. I also notice that the clock only hits 719mhz never higher

 

wait, what? u already got a 780M?

 

My bad. GTX 680

I was reading some articles about the 780 so I guess it leaked into my post. Sorry about that.

 

well, isnt 719 mhz the default core clock, anyways? so that should be fine...

what kinda scores do u get on benchmarks? try 3dmark11 for example, u should get something in the range of 6000+ on performance mode.

 

Kombuster throttles automatically anyway in the nvidia drivers.

 

I just finished the 3dmark 11 one. Here is the link (Hope it works) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor,EUROCOM NEPTUNE 2.0 score: P5949 3DMarks

The system is completely stock as I'm waiting for somebody to recommend a overclocking guide for me.

 

score is looking good, i guess meaker was right with his comment about throttling on kombustor ive only heard of this in furmark before, so i didnt know about that.

cheers

 

In glad I'm normal! I just didn't think 60 fps in tribes 2 was normal. I figured I would get better performance.

Thanks for both of our help. Now I just have to research over clicking to see what more I can do with my system

 

did u enable vsync in tribes 2? maybe thats limiting ur fps to 60

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2