Upgrading my Phoenix

Alright, this thread is going to be nearly identical to my "Upgrading my Ranger" thread that I posted about a year ago.

Story
At the beginning of November, I saw a listing on marketplace for a Clevo P870DM-G. Price was decent, but it was all the way down in Atlanta, about a 7 hour drive there and back from where I live. I bookmarked it and kept an eye on it as it had been on marketplace for a few weeks. Early into December, I checked the listing again, and the seller reduced the price quite a bit and said a new battery had been installed. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that I would try to buy it after Christmas, even if I had to make the drive all the way down to Atlanta. December 25th comes, I message the seller with a decent offer and asked for shipping, and to my surprise, they accepted it my offer and were willing to ship it. Transaction goes through and it gets shipped out through USPS. It's been snowing quite a bit in Nashville, enough to where the roads aren't the safest, so it took quite a while to arrive, and after many delays it arrived today. The seller did not ship it well at all though, it was a small beaten up box with a tower wrapped around the laptop. I was very worried that it wouldn't boot up, but it did, and there are no dents or scuffs on the laptop

Specs
This P870DM-G came with a 6700k, 980M, 16gb DDR4 2133mhz RAM, and the G-Sync display (can't remember model number and refresh rate at the moment.) The drives aren't very important as I'm going to transfer the ones from my Ranger to the Phoenix.

What I would like to upgrade to
I've planned this out in my head for quite a bit, but I'd like to run an 8700k (maybe even a 9900k if I can tame it and find one for cheap enough), the 1070 from my Ranger, my spare 120hz N17HHE-G32 that I have, and 16gb DDR4 2666mhz RAM.

Unleashing the power of my 1070
The cooling will be a bit of a downgrade from what I currently have in my Ranger, but still good enough to tame the core. The biggest problem is cooling the MOSFET's. There are 10 of them crammed right next to each other, and the 1070 can be quite a power hungry card. I need some more thoughts on this idea, but I was thinking about maybe putting a heat pipe on the area of the stock heatsink where the 'FET's are, and using the 2nd GPU fan and a some fins to give dedicated cooling to the power deliver of the card. What are your guy's thoughts? Let me know if you have any other ideas.

Major Questions

• Would it be safe to run my 1070 at stock power limits without dedicated VRM cooling? If not, what could I do to "temporarily" cool the power delivery?
• Would I need a new eDP cable to run the N17HHE-G32? It's been a while since I've read about it and I can't remember if I need one or not.
• I know anything past Skylake will need the Dsanke BIOS to work, but is the pin mod actually necessary? I'd rather not bother with it as the future CPU will only stay in this laptop, but if I need to do it I'll do it.

Minor Questions

• I know that taming anything with 6+ cores with the stock heatsink is quite difficult. I also know that @DaMafiaGamer did a mod where he put a P870TM-G heatsink in, but I would like to use that idea as a last resort. I've seen some of these weird hybrid heatsinks on Aliexpress that are the same as the stock P870DM heatsink, but you can hook up a pump and radiator to help cool the CPU, does anyone have any experience with these, if so, how well do they perform?
  
• I also plan to use this "project" as a way to help me learn how to delid CPU's. What delidding kits do any of you recommend?
• Will I need to use modified drivers with the 1070 on this laptop, or am I good to go with the stock drivers.
• I'm split between ordering regular thermal pads, and K5 pro. I need some external opinions. If I do decide to get thermal pads, does anyone have a list of the sizes that are needed for each part of the CPU and GPU heatsink?

Conclusion
I'm still learning quite a bit, one of the main reasons I purchased this laptop is to help me understand more about laptops and computers in general, so I'd just like to thank all of those who have either directly helped me, or have posted guides and explanations of things that have indirectly helped me. Without all of you, I would probably never know laptops with desktop-tier hardware existed

 

Seems you reached the same conclusion I did when running into limitations imposed by Alienware...

Bought a Clevo lol

 

I guess you could say that lol. I saw it more as a "I have good computer, but I can use parts from it and move to significantly better computer for really cheap while being able to still use older computer."

 

eDP cable should be easy to figure out. Compare the existing panel and G32 on panelook and look at the pins.

As to the BOS trickery that's another animal as you can brick the entire system if it's not proper.

CPU swaps.... should be straight forward. Cooling... I'm not familiar with what you can do on this model as mine has a HS w/ 2 fans on either side exhausting heat. Some models have a split HS for independent cooling of each.

Taping the pins for other CPU's makes it work from what I've seen around here in MOBO's not designed for that particular CPU.

Pads vs Paste - this is contentious around here. I switched to Graphite pads for consistency and not having to clean the dies every time I crack the case and clean the fans. Temps stay consistent with the pads though they're not the coolest option they're stable. Sizing doesn't really matter as a 30x30 or 40x40 pads is easy to mark for cutting them to size with your fingernail. For the FET's though proper foamy pads come into play and it's a bit more of a stacking to get the right height to apply proper contact / pressure for cooling.

The first item of planning is probably crack it open and take some photos to see what you're working with. This way you have something to reference w/o having to pull it apart several times to look at things when planning your attack on replacing parts.

 

Thanks for the input!

I've torn this thing down too many times today lol. A few hours ago, I tried flashing the Dsanke BIOS and bricked the machine. I tore it all apart and used my CH341a to erase and re-write the Dsanke Bios. I just put it back together enough to turn it on and it's working now which is good.

The P870DM has single 3 pipe heatsink with a single fin stack. It's quite abysmal, but I don't know if it can tame the 8700k, we'll see what others have to say.

I'm probably going to end up going pads, I just need to know the thickness. The pads I have right now are filled with dust and measuring each one manually would take a while. I have heard of people having to fiddle with the CPU VRM thermal pads though as they tend to be strange, I'll keep that in mind.

I have already taken the display off to check if I could easily swap panels, but the N17HHE-G32 has a 40 pin connector on the panel itself whereas the stock LG panel has a 30 pin connector on the panel. My main question is could I use my eDP cable from my MSI GT72VR on the P870DM motherboard, or is the cable part that connects to the motherboard different on the GT72VR

 

You need a 40 pin EDP NVSR cable for the DM. In rest look at my signature of what you can safely put in a DM (also a 9700k can work, dunno about 9900k).
I warmly recommend you to do the mod or find someone to do the mod for you, otherwise G-sync will never work and that n173hhe-g32 will wither for nothing (you sure that you do not want to sell me that display? ).
Anyways, in conclusion:
1. I strongly recommend you to do the mod.(for Clevo GPU compatibility).
2. I have confirmation that Gsync works on dsanke bios as long you follow a default TM configuration (meaning CPU (8th or 9th), GPU (has to have gsync), display(the ones that came with the tm - see manual for that on https://premamod.wordpress.com/)).
3. see this image of my modded p870DM https://i.imgur.com/5C2vnp2.jpg

PS: What 1070 you have in your ranger ?
If it is the MSI one follow this link for a t-shaped heatsink mod for DM: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/topic/11137-p870dm-g-980dt-heatsink-mod-for-msi-1070/
Otherwise you might have problems with dell/zotac versions of the GPU on the DM - something about Clevo EC not able to read the temp sensors of the GPU)

On the cpu coils and mosfets pads are as follows:
- 0.5 mm for the coils
- 2 mm for mosfets

 

You MUST cool the GPU VRMs if you intend to load it at all. Limited air flow and reduced phase counts will kill the card.

I'd recommend the 9900ks over the regular one or the 8086k over the 8700k unless you can guarantee a good sample. Minimising the voltage and power helps a lot.

 

I have a spare N17HHE-G32, that I might be able to get you lol.

I have the MSI 1070 in my Ranger. It has the 1DE1 vBIOS meaning it has support for G-Sync. I'd rather not bother with the heatsink mod as the 980m heatsink will work the 1070, I just need to find a way to better cool the MOSFET's on the 1070.

And thank you for the CPU thermal pad sizes

 

Even if the msi card is gsync it will never work because different subvendor id. I recomended the 980DT heatsink mod exactly to better cool the 1070 mosfets (you can practicaly get away with better thermal pads taking in consideration that they have only 15w of difference in TDP).

 

Hey @runix18, could you get me a specific model number or link for the 40 pin eDP cable needed for the N17? I’ve been looking and don’t know what to get.

 

@ Tenoroon

Have you looked in the repo for the service manual?

https://repo.palkeo.com/clevo-mirror/ UN/PW: repo

When I did a 4K upgrade from FHD I needed a 30P eDP <> 40P panel cable an ordered the panel & cable from kreplacement.com so they arrived at the same time. If it's not listed on their site they still probably have it. Just e-mail them for the cable to be added to the site to put it in your cart.

 

I probably need to spend more time looking at the service manual (I've had one) lol.

As for the cable, did you use this one? I think this can be used, but the cable doesn't bend at a 90 degree angle like the stock one does.

 

That's the one I used. It's a 90 on the panel side and clips into place on the eDP side.

There's enough give to thread it through if your edp port is oriented slightly different. Mine runs perpendicular to the panel IIRC and the cable took a bend to the side to route it through the hinge to get behind the lid / panel.

 

Clevo P870DM2 NVSR EDP CABLE 6-43-P8721-010-1L 40p NVSR QHD P650/P670/P655/P775DM2/DM3 LVDS cable
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtdIhBO
I have bought this. It is the one recommended for upgrading the DM to the 4k. It will also work for the n173hhe-g32

 

What's your original screen? It's interesting if you get yours to work.

 

My stock screen was the 75hz G-Sync one from LG I think, and ever since I flashed dsanke BIOS, it only maxes at 60hz without G-sync for some reason.

 

Easily fixable with cru (force 90 hz fhd resolution...it works).
G-sync will never work (even with a Clevo card) on this display because the panel in the DM is LG LP173WF4-SPD1 (if I recall correctly) and gsync on dsanke will work only on this displays (the default ones that came with TM):
LG LP173WF4-SPF1
AUO B173HAN01.2
Innolux N173HHE-G32
LG LP173WF4-SPF5
Remember what I told you about Bios-Cpu-GPU-Display combo?

 

Ordered some NAB cooling pads, (2mm and 1.5mm respectively) and the 2's got shipped out as 1mm's. Should I return them and wait for the new 2mm's to arrive or would stacking them be a decent idea? I know stacking reduces heat transfer, but how significant is the change?

 

Stacking reduces heat transfer significantly, especially if the pads get dirty/greasy or air gets trapped between them, so I would say do not stack them.
What will you use the 1.5mm pads for?

 

Okay then, i’ll probably buy some 2mm pads then

I bought 1.5mm pads because it seems the pads for the VRAM are 1.5mm (i could be entirely wrong). I couldn’t find any reference pad layouts for the 980m heatsink and i don’t have a caliper to measure the current pads.

 

Here's a thread you can read... http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...71dm-p775dm-thermal-paste-replacement.789825/

All is about trial and errors. Correct imprint in the pads from the components is trial and errors. Always a good idea buy pads in different thickness. And softer thermal pads of ok quality is better than stiff/hard high W/mk pads.

 

I'm going to keep both the 1mm and 1.5mm pads actually now that I've read that post. OP said that 1.5mm pads would also probably work, and if they don't for me, I can probably add a bit of thermal paste on top of them.

As for the MOSFET one, I'll probably just re-use the pad that's already there as it isn't very dusty and seems to be alright. I also just realized that I have some very squishy 2mm pads that I can use from by dead 770, so I could also use those for the VRAM chips if needed.

 

Yes that is true, I had 1.5mm pads on 970m vram, dunno if that will also work best for the msi 1070.

 

You are look for it to leave a slight impression.

 

What do you mean?

 

he means that put the pads, aply heatsink with screws. unmount heatsink and see if the vram, coils and mosfets left any impresion on the pads. if impression left and core and heatsink have good contact, you are good to go

 

It does not need to be a huge dent, just a fraction of a mm in, that will give you optimum pressure on the core and ensure the pad is as thin as possible for best heat xfer.

 

Alright, 1070 is in Phoenix now and is alright, none of the pads really had a problem besides the MOSFET’s (my luck). That 3mm pad was too thick and if I used it, I would have had an extreme bend for some reason. I had to use different screws as the 1070’s X bracket needs thicker screws. I had to end up using 2 of the previous VRAM pads stacked and pre-squished to ensure there was minimal bending. I’m going to order some K5 pro as I’m worried about using the 2 stacked pads.

The contact with the VRAM seems fine and same thing with the inductors. (also, just out of curiosity, do the inductors really need to be cooled?)

I tried putting the 980m in my Alienware, but because Clevo uses a slightly different bracket, I can’t use the 980m, I also would need to remove the copper backplate and find a new way to cool the VRAM on the back. As much as I would have liked to avoid this, I’ll probably be selling the 980m and buying one of those cheap M3000m’s off of ebay to throw in the Ranger .

 

It's just glue holding the xbracket on if you can source it.

 

Yeah, I'd rather just sell it though then wait for a bracket to come. Last time I took a bracket off of an MXM GPU, half the glue stayed on the backside of the PCB.

Otherwise, 1070 is working fine, I'm running it at around 60-70 watts max right now as to not stress the MOSFETs too much, I'm probably going to try to measure the gap for the MOSFETs and see if I can obtain a thermal pad that fits well for it. I'm just paranoid about either bending the card, or not adequately cooling the FET's.

 

The glue is certain a pain.

 

The glue easily comes off with acetone.
I always heat the bracket good with a hair blower and naturally the glue will stick better on the hottest part (the bracket) and comes cleanly off.

 

Just don't have the heat setting to high and it should be pretty safe I suppose.

 

Took some measurements today and am having a friend help me create a 3d model for a heatpipe that I could use over the GPU VRM area and route to a finstack at the 2nd GPU fan area. Making the model in Solidworks won't be too hard, but obtaining the heatpipe with the exact dimensions and bends will be rather difficult. Any of you guys have any tips for obtaining a specific shaped heatpipe?

Also, here's a really bad drawing I made in MS Paint the other night... (white being heatpipe, black being the fins.)

 

Isn't it easier to just buy and mod the 980DT heatsink?
Also, second fan will only work on dsanke bios mod.

 

Well, can the 980DT heatsink adequately cool the MOSFET's of the 1070? That's what I'm mostly worried about as they can get quite hot and many people have killed their MSI 1070's by not cooling them. From what I remember seeing, people had to put mini heatsinks on top of the FET's to cool them, and even then I think those people had some problems.

I have the dsanke BIOS, and even if the fan doesn't run on default fan speeds, will it run when I do fn+1?

 

1. yet it will cool the 1070 mosfets, dont forget that 980dt was a 200w card. you can always solder a copper piece where it lacks, and adjust with thermal pads.
2. if you have the TM ported version, second fan should work by temp. Fn+1 will work on any bios.

 

Alright, I might be able to acquire a special CPU heatsink that is basically the same as the stock one, but is a hybrid cooler, so I can hook up a pump and radiator and have it water cooled.

The only problem being that this heatsink was intended for the P870TM, which I'm assuming everyone here knows that the TM bracket is shorter than the DM bracket. And while I could modify my DM bracket, I would prefer just buying a TM bracket and swapping them, but I can't really find where to obtain the TM bracket. I know the part number is 6-33-P87F0-011, but the only one I could find was one on Clevo-Computer.com and it was out of stock and the page was in Greece.

So to put it best, does anyone know where I could purchase one or does anyone here have one I could buy?

 

I had to mod mine because I could not find one to buy☹️

 

I'll keep searching, but if I cannot find one, I'll probably just mod mine. I'm just afraid of messing up, but I really want the hybrid heatsink as the CPU cooling on this thing is sub-par.

I'm also a bit confused on what you're supposed to do, I've read both @DaMafiaGamer's and @matyee's threads but I'm still not entirely sure what to do with the current screw mounts. From what I understand, I remove the screw mounts entirely, add some hex nuts at the backside of the bracket, and use longer screws on the heatsink.

 

after you remove the bracket from the mobo, just cut off 3mm on the screw mounts legs and it will do. you can also sand of after you cut them on a flat surface because it is imperarive that they are exactly at the same lenght.

 

Just took off the heatsink to take some more measurements, and my god the paste was terrible. I noticed no indents on the pads and the paste seemed to show that there wasn’t too much contact between the GPU and heatsink.

I’m wondering if it’s my screws. I’m a bit worried about using longer screws, but it seems like that may be the problem.

 

You can see a slight mark of the VRAM on the 3rd pick, that's what you want it to look like.

 

Yeah, these pads are quite firm, but more pressure can safely be applied from what I can tell. I noticed that on both the MSI GT72VR heatsink and my Alienware 17 R1 heatsink that the screws used appear to be M.2 X 4 screws while the ones I used are M.2 X 3. I don't have any and can't find any M.2 X 4 screws to use so I added some more paste to the die, and ordered some screws which should fix my poor mounting and allow for more contact between thermal pads and heatsink.

I'm probably going to buy a super squishy 3mm pad for the VRM's, do you or anyone else know of any squishy pads? I've read that Arctic's pads are quite squishy, but I can't seem to find 3mm pads from them.

 

Thermalright Odyssey pad has 3mm pads but are fairly expensive. If you feel you only need a bit of it you can order a pad for $20 USD on Amazon (this is a generic link)

I myself bought their 1mm and 1.5mm pads to replace the ones in my Sager and they worked well enough to increase thermal headroom.

 

I've always used the stock squishy pads included with my heatsinks. They tend to last a long time if treated well.

 

New screws came in and all is well, paste spreads a lot better and there is more contact between the heatsink and GPU. I had to take the 1mm pads off of the inductors because they were giving the heatsink less contact with the die, but inductors don't really need to be cooled from what I've seen so I should be fine.

Something I am a bit worried about is a bend. Even with the heatsink on, the card bends just a bit from where the card is screwed into the 2 standoffs. It's doesn't look too bad, but it does have me worried. Should I try re-seating the card or is a minor bend fine?

 

Define a bit, because usually if you can see it is not a bit. Try to avoid bends in the core area because in time you could get cracks in the solder balls beneath the gpu core.

 

Using the picture posted earlier as an example, but the bend starts to the right of the red line. If I were to guess, the bend at the worst point is about .5 centimeters lower compared to most of the card.



I've also found a potential source for a P870TM bracket. So I don't have to worry about messing up my current bracket. I planned on purchasing a cheap 8700k local to me, but it sold so I'm looking for other 8700k's or 9700k's.

 

Does it bend towards the camera or away from it? Is there something under the card?