Official Guide: Putting a P870TM1 CPU heatsink into a P870KM1 (P870KM to TM1 partial conversion)

DISCLAIMER: This mod is NOT officially supported on the Clevo P870KM1 mentioned below, and YOU assume all the risk and liability by attempting this mod on your own laptop. This thread was created merely to show that these mods are possible!

Things you will need:

A screwdriver of course
P870TM1 Heatsink with fan, rjtech or @clevo-extreme are recommended suppliers to buy from
Dremel tool/hacksaw, anything that can cut the clevo chassis
A modified P870KM GPU vapour chamber heatsink with the cpu pipes cut off, if its not vapor chamber don't worry
Hammer, something that can smash the threads out of the cpu bracket

Things you should buy:

The P870TM1 CPU backplate, what I attempt to do successfully takes a long time, believe me its just better to get the backplate to avoid any problems with a bent bracket etc.

CHASSIS PREPARATION:​

Spoiler

You will first need to remove the motherboard from the laptop, this means disassembling the whole thing even take off the screen just in case.
We are going to dremel/hacksaw part of the chassis where the p870tm heatsink shroud needs to be put in place as can be seen in the picture below:



After this has been hack sawed off you should end up with something like this:


Now the CPU heatsink should fit snugly in the chassis with nothing blocking it, like so:

CPU BRACKET PREPARATION:​

Spoiler

So now you have modded the chassis the hard part comes, you see the p870tm1 cpu heatsink screw mounts are much lower then that of the p870km1's. As seen below:

The TM1 heatsink is at the top and the KM1 heatsink is below:


You can instantly see that the TM1 heatsink will not make contact with the CPU in anyway due to how long the threads are on the CPU bracket, stupid CLEVO changed the lengths, so now we have to mod the bracket!

First of all remove the bracket from the backside of the motherboard, take off the three screws holding down the retention bracket, you should be left with the bracket sticking to the motherboard as shown below:



Now screw in the retention bracket screw on the opposite side of the bracket and pull from the motherboard WHILST applying heat, you should end up with the bracket coming off smoothly:



Now remove the screws and put in 4 strong metal screws into the 4 threads, we are going to hammer them out. I used an alphacool radiator screw and it did the job removing all 4 threads. What you want to do is hammer the screw down so that the thread comes out of the hole. You then remove the screw and the thread is out! Sorry I didn't take pictures at this part but this should be the end result:




You should be left with four giant holes lol, now what I did was remove the screws from the TM1 heatsink so that the spring mechanism could be removed, this essentially allowed the screws to be of greater length so they could fit in the modified bracket shown below:


I superglued 4 nuts that were the exact size of the CPU heatsink screws, this applies pressure on the CPU backplate evenly meaning that there is no way to cause motherboard damage, clever right? Also the nuts, by maybe 0.5mm, cleared the top palmrest housing as you can see below:


Now it was finally time to assemble the whole laptop together and test to see if the nuts moved under the pressure of the screws, surprisingly they didnt and the CPU heatsink fits flushly on the laptop chassis, a mod well done!



The modified GPU heatsink also cleared the CPU heatsink meaning no problems in the fitting at all:


And thats it! You have successfully got yourself a Clevo P870TM1 from a KM1 chassis with modifications, enjoy the cool temperatures

@sicily428 some info for you to add to your thread
@Mr. Fox You'd like this lol
@Papusan would probably like this!
@cope123abc I know you wanted to see this thread!

Once again, I'd like to thank @clevo-extreme for sending me the CPU heatsink very quickly.

Please consider donating as I have literally worked on this project for at least a month now, I am a student and need the funds from somewhere to continue the mods I do!
Here is my paypal link: http://paypal.me/ZeeshanAkhlaq

 

Great Guide, I did the same last year with my DM3, it was a very successful upgrade,

 

Hmm, I think I will also try something similar with my Ranger in the future, thanks for sharing!

 

Nice job! Looks good. Is the vapor chamber you are using a TM1 or did you mod a KM1/DM3 vapor chamber by chopping off the CPU heat pipes? (Yours doesn't look like a modded vapor chamber.)

 

It's a KM1 vapour chamber, modded by an ebayer who sold it to me

Basically I got lucky finding it as it allowed this mod to happen...

 

Interesting. It doesn't look like it was a butchered version. He did a nice job on the mod.

One option a person might consider for the CPU heat sink screws is chopping down the CPU back plate standoffs flush with the top of the motherboard to leave the existing threads in place. You could insert a screw from the back side to "chase" the threads and clean them up after shortening the standoffs. But, what you did with the super-glued nuts on the back also works fine. If the super glue ever breaks loose, try using some JB-Weld on the outer edges of the nuts and they will never come loose. You'd have to knock them off with a hammer and chisel. But, don't get any on the threads or you'll never be able to remove the screws, LOL.

 

Yeah I complemented him too, he said he works in cnc milling, so he's a professional modder basically, good for me I guess

 

That!
Just cut the CPU stand-offs to the correct length. They are already threaded all the way, works perfectly. No need to replace them.

Also, only cut the small part from the middle frame that is required and leave the surrounding frame intact. That way we keep the frames integrity and have additional airflow through the small CPU radiator of the TM heatsink.

Well, that's at least what we did to upgrade our P870DM3's back then. Feel free to dig up those old posts...

@bloodhawk

 

If only I had a dremel I cant cut the threads with a hacksaw lol

@Mr. Fox I was thinking of literally soldering the nuts in place, they would never move then, but one of the nuts is placed next to the power button ic's. Too much solder and it would short the ic. When I mean the nuts just managed to make it through its literally less than a mm of space left, ofc I put some electrical tape on the ic and the superglue seems to be holding really well.

Pro tip, if you add any kind of dust/sand to the superglue you get a cement type of mixture, I recommend you try it, you will never have the superglued thing come off ever!

 

Yeah, I would like to see them before I start chopping my KM
Two main questions are:
- how many millimeters do we need to cut from stand-offs/what is this correct length?
- which part of the frame exactly is required to cut?

 

The amount of the standoff that is above the motherboard can be removed. Use a scribe to mark one of the posts before removing the bracket, or measure the height above the motherboard with a caliper and you'll be good to go. The back plane between the slave GPU and CPU radiators needs to have a section removed for the extra radiator attached to the CPU heat pipes. It is like a thin wall area that is perpendicular to the motherboard. You can see what area was cut in the photos posted by @DaMafiaGamer and @Prema was only suggesting to remove no more than absolutely necessary to help maintain structural integrity of the frame. He did not need to remove the entire height of the wall on the rear plane, but it was cut in exactly the right place.

There is nothing wrong with the mod. It was a great job. That said, every mod that I ever do, I can later identify something I would do differently the next time. That's just the nature of modding and the handiwork of creative minds. When you get two or more creative minds involved, then you can expect magic to happen or sparks to be flying (or a mixture of both, LOL).

 

@Mr. Fox
so the standoffs mod is clear, thanks. I was planning to use shims to fill the gap between heatsink and CPU IHS and from information gathered here and there it looks like 5mm of shim(s) is needed to do so. So I guess that translate to ~5mm cut of from standoffs.

My plan to modding the frame is to remove wall fragment marked with red arrows but leave both fragments with green ones intact:


Here is TM frame for reference (I`m still waiting for my CPU heatsink to arrive so I can only make prep work on official papers):

 

Here you go:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171204/a5b46adcd995590ac945a3649277e894.jpg

Make sure to strip the middle-frame naked ,before using the Dremel, and clean it thoroughly afterwards. Otherwise you will have to fight with metal dust shorting the board later on.

 

That`s exactly what I had planned, thanks for confirmation!

 

Here is another reference to TM CPU support backplate and its standoffs, thanks to OWNorDisown YT review:


I would say that`s about 1,5mm above mobo.

 

Great to know this is possible; I may need to do something similar with my next heatsink mod since it'll involve removing the socket + IHS and fitting an OC frame + vapour chamber instead

 

Guys,
I was thinking about, that the dm3/km1 joint CPU+GPU vapor chamber cannot be better for rigs with one 1080 and a 8700k/9900k? As the 2 heatpipes help the cpu to direct heat to the big GPU chamber which is desinged for 500W, however I would use only one 1080? Is it a rational idea, or I should go for the tm1 cpu as well. To be honest the km1's cpu heatsink is pretty much a joke... such as the TM1's heatsink.
Pls let me know if it is a viable idea or not.
thx

 

The DM3 is GPU biased and not suitable really for the 9900k.

 

Km1 is not suitable either as the tm1. My point was that the vapor chamber cpu joint cpu heatsink might be better than the km1 or tm1 heatsink.... however motherboard level i dunno if km1 or dm3 really manage to expoit 9900k with mod bios

 

I would cut of the pipes from the Vapor Chamber going over to the Cpu heatsink. Exactly as @bloodhawk did. Sorry i havent the post right in front explaining this now. Search it up if you can. Im limited for the moment.

 

Thx but let me ask why?? The big gpu part could help the cpu. I have one 1080 this dual vapor is way too god for one card, however coudl help the cpu as it suffers from 9-series.

 

Or just buy a new set.

 

I have already a tm1 vapor. Perect for the gpu 200w max 65degree. I am suffering on cpu side. Silicon lottery 8086k delidded, lapped km1 heatsink also lapped and barly stands under 80c auto fan 4,5ghz

 

I dont think the «puke over heat HS design» help much for Cpu. Be sure you have perfect fits from HS over die.

 

Which design are you puking over? Each has a plus and a minus.

 

The old Vapor Chamber design. And also Clevo enginners saw how it would go with more cores.

 

Made a lot of sense when combining a quad core CPU with 2 high consuming GPUs.

 

I am comsidering go with the heatsink direct die.... throwing out the ihs, get a der8auer oc frame, and put directly on the cpu die...

 

You would need to modify the VRM contact area heavily along with the screw mounts.

 

which vrm contact?

 

I will try and save you a bunch of time and headache. Going bare die wont help the temps but in fact increase them.
Even if you fix the vrm height offset that the heatsink has, you will create a hotspot without the ihs. Meaning instead of heat being spread mostly cross all 4 heatpipes, 2 of them will do most of the heavy lifting.

 

The CPU VRM. If you lower the main part of the heatsink by ~3mm by removing the heatspreader, it won't sit flush due to inductors and standoffs currently sitting within that 3mm zone.

 

Is there another VRM it contacts?

 

I feel like I need to drop my direct die idea project...

 

Or you could straight up solder the ihs to the heatsink and have direct die. But that depends on how bad you lost the heatsink lottery.

 

My biggest issue at the moment with my 870km1, that the 144hz IPS screen are flickering... I dunno if it is gpu or mb or what problem... I have changed the cable 2 times and did not solve it... the 120hz QHD or FHD panels work fine with gsync... any idea for that?

 

now wouldnt that be something... a clevo reseller binning heatsinks for each LGA/MXM clevo machine they sell

Sent from my Xiaomi Mi Max 2 (Oxygen) using Tapatalk

 

You forgot binning the Cpu Bracket

 

Oh man, I remember how much of a nightmare that was on my p870tm1! Temps were around 95c no matter what I did because the heatsink rested on that retention bracket instead of the ihs.

So I just removed it, good riddance!

 

Parts finally arrived so here is my attempt to this mod.
Went a different way of not to modify stock KM CPU bracket but to source the original TM one (that way I can go back to stock and simply it`s easier and faster to swap them).
Here you can see both brackets with part numbers (top: KM, bottom: TM):


After stripping KM and taking off the palmrest (top case) I used hairdryer to warm up stock CPU bracket until it was really hot - it`s glued to the mobo with really strong adhesive so high temperature helps in taking it off. Then I pushed standoffs with fingers while supporting mobo from the other side (to prevent too much flexing). Little by little and changing the sides (standoffs) it was removed.
Here is that adhesive on the KM bracket (left, notice different standoffs length):

and mobo without it:


Comparison of standoffs (left: KM, right: TM - obviously):

difference is exactly 3mm, so if you want to modify KM bracket and cut its standoffs, cut at least 3mm away.

For the aluminium frame I used blade from hand saw (for cutting metals) and metal file then a black marker to cover the marks:


Here is how the new TM CPU heatsink fits KM:




You can see that I filed a little too much of the frame and there is a gap between heatsink and frame but it doesn`t hurt anything (about 2mm less would just look better). Heatsink fits perfectly, there`s no need to use any copper shim, gap is non existent (at least with this sample).

Now it`s time for "before" and "after" . 9900K, -120mV undervolt (adaptive), 8x4,2GHz, max fans, 25C ambient temp.
KM heatsink:


and TM heatsink:


Nice reduction in temps (from close to thermal throttling to safe ones). Idle it`s better too, there aren`t huge temps spikes anymore and temperature is rising much slower than before (guess that direct contact with heatpipes helps a lot). In effect machine is MUCH quieter.
Highly recommended!

So yeah - with delid, custom IHS, liquid metal under IHS, IHS+heatsink polishing, undervolt AND TM heatsink 9900K can be tamed

 

Very nice, well done

 

@artpra smooth work. And sounds like way less effort to me. Hardest part is to swap cpu bracket. I also noticed that u get tm-s GPU VC.

Few weeks ago I ordered tm's sound board for very reasonable price. I might ask for this parts as well.

Can you share with us how much you paid for whole mod thing +GPU vc?

 

Hi everyone.
I am carefully observing all these mods that might expand the lifetime of my notebook. Not going to modify it at the moment but still keeping an eye on it for the future. My questions relate to the performance differences between the tm gpu vc and the km one (basically the main difference between DaMafiaGamer's and artpra's mods aside from the way they modify the backplate).
1)by chopping off the pipes on a km vc you also lose the capability to cool the slave gpu right?
2)how does a tm vc perform at cooling the master gpu compared to a modded km vc?
3) a tm gpu vc costs around 200$ so it can get quite expensive to buy it. But if you chop off the pipes it would be impossible to resell the km vc (obviously, as you're still using the gpu side of it, but still it would make it impossible to resell if you change the vc in the future). Wouldn't be better to go for the tm gpu vc so that you can resell the integer km vc?

 

1) No, the pipes are a heat guide, the vapor chamber is moving the heat.
2) Should be the same.
3) Mostly the parts are tricky to sell so really that's down to you and if you intend to sell it as a full system or not.

 

Hi guys,

please excuse the reviving of this older thread, but I think it fits best my concerns.

1.)Would anyone please tell my, which sli heatsink is installed in my device? Not to sure about the different types.

2.)I moddified the stock km1 cpu heatsink to transport heat to the unused area above the slave gpu.
I already prepared a second heatsink to apply it next to the other one, but before I do so, I wanted to ask if removing the slave gpu heatpipe crossing the cpu socket and leading towards the cpu cooling fins would be a smart move to prevent a useless heat cicle that returns the cpu heat back to the cooling fins. Any opinions towards this?

3.) Adding the first additional heatpipe lowers the temps at around 2-3°C on initial cinebench runs but that gain vanishes during a longer operation time, maybe because of that described possible heatcircle.
Iam currently seeing cpu temps on my delidded [email protected]@1.12V at around 79°C under heavy load in cinebench or Battlefield mp 64 servers @ auto fan mode.

4.) What are your thoughts regarding installing a watercooling circle. I recieved a watercooler that fits on the stock cpu heatpipes but I have to remove the above mentioned heatpipe that crosses the cpu socket coming Fron the slave gpu.
Pump, reservoir and tripple 60mm radiator could be installed on the backside of my cooler master u3 notebook stand and I would use fast connectors to unplug the watertubes if I need to seperate the device from the stand.

Thanks for your hints.

 

I finally did this conversion too.

For all who are interested, I will post a little report combined with a disassembly guide here. Although not each step will contain a pic l will try my best to give you guys some useful pieces of information.
So let's get started:

This not an official guide, I can not guarantee, that this is totally correct, all actions at your own risk.

First of all you have to remove the bottom cover, the the battery and cpu/gpu heatsinks. This should be doable for everyone without further hints.
If necessary, these steps are explained in the service manual, that also explains the required disassembly of the graphic card(s) and hard disk drives.

Now we start with the acutal separation of the top case cover that is requiered to get access to the downside of the motherboard.

Unscrew basically every black screw you can find around the mainframe. Dont worry about the screen hinges, they are mounted separately. In additon, there are some silver screws that have to be released too. I tried to mark each screw red on the photo, one is located under the graphics card.

In the follwing unplug the green marked flex cables and the subwoofer connector.
The blue marked screw is a fixation for the keyboard. After unscrewing it, it has to be pushed out by using a push pin through a whole that is located next to the top left thread of the cpu backplate.
To do so, open the the screen in a 90° angle and lay the whole device on the back of the opened screen. While pushing the keyboard out, hold it with the other hand because it is still connected to the motherboard with 2 flexcables. Unplug them and the keyboard can be released. keyboard removal is also described in the service manual.

The next step is to unplug 2 flex cables, remove the speaker connector and remove a black screw next to the wlan module.

 

We are finally ready to separate the top base cover from the middleframe and mainboard. Put the device in the same position as you removed the keyboard and gently push the top base cover away from the middle frame. Be careful while doing so, because there is a last flex cable to unplug that could not be seen before or at last I wasnt able to recognize.


We finally got access to the cpu backplate that can easily be removed by applying heat, providing that you already unscrewed the 3 cpu fixation bracket screws from the frontside.
I shortend each thread with an angle grinder around 4-5mm and used a file to get a propper result. The new thread height was almost even with the motherboard and I had no problems to install the TM heatsink in the end.

After re-applying the backplate with some spray-glue, I started the re-assembly in reverse order.

Now that your backplate is prepared for the TM heatsink, the chassis still is not.
I used a handsaw, driller and a file to shape the necessary spare section like shown.
You can find the dimensions in the picture.

 

Anyone know where I can get a backplate just the backplate for this mod
Or are there other more simpler ways to cool a i9-9900k in a Clevo P870DM-G

 

A delid and potentially taller IHS would help a bit.

 

Easiest approach is a shim mod. I used a shim mod in my P870DM-G with an 8086k and it really helped with the temps. I even used a shim in my P870TM1 with a 9900k p0 and it helped before going delid w/ custom IHS which leads to.....

.....Next step is a delid and a slightly taller (Rocketcool) or targeted custom IHS (BartX). I used a 4.3mm custom BartX in my P870TM1 with my 9900k p0 and it was insane how much it helped.

You will also want to find your power consumption sweet spot after optimizing cooling to really dial it in.