Question regarding overheating i7-4940mx (Clevo p170sm)

First, I'll give some background information:

I have recently purchased a Clevo p170sm and the specs are as follows:

Intel i7-4940mx
NVIDIA GTX 980m
32GB RAM
1TB Samsung Evo 840 SSD

I was told by the previous owner that the CPU runs hot and after some research I have discovered that Haswell CPU's are notorious for running very hot. However, what I didn't expect is that when I play various games, the CPU is running at 93°C - 98°C almost constantly which is causing a lot of thermal throttling as you might expect!

After doing some further research, I have decided I am going to purchase some Liquid Ultra (as suggested in THIS thread) and apply that to the CPU to see if the issue with overheating is resolved. I will also purchase a can of compressed air and give the inside of the case and fans a general cleaning.

From what I have read, Liquid Ultra is basically liquid metal so it is a bad idea to get it on any electrical contacts. Does this mean I will have to somehow cover up the area shown in the following picture in order to avoid the thermal paste touching the electrical contacts?



I have also read in another thread on this forum that an incorrectly fitted CPU heatsink may also be the cause of the high temperatures I am seeing. Is this correct?

Also, I am considering buying a vacuum cooler to fit over the vent at the back of the Clevo. Has anyone had any experiences with these and do they make a difference? I have heard great things about them on normal, everyday laptops but I haven't seen anyone post their experiences with them on gaming laptops and if they are effective at lowering the CPU temperature or not.

Any help on the matter is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

Liquid metal is well worth doing, some people use foam to create a barrier for protection of surrounding components. As I don't move my machines much, I simply use kapton tape to cover nearby components.

Keeping the voltage reasonable will help, for my Haswell based Clevo machine I stick with ~4ghz. Anything over that required a good bump in voltage and results in bad temps.

Keen to see what results you get after the liquid ultra.

 

To get an idea on how to apply and protect the system from the LM please watch this video:

 

I see you moved with Donald

 

Thanks for the reply. I don't plan on overclocking (at least not for now). I would just like to lower the CPU temperature for the time being - so I'm not constantly getting massive FPS drops in game due to thermal throttling.

Thanks for the video. I'll be sure to check it out!

 

That's right

 

Best of luck