This afternoons project for X205, cooling

Well, had a free afternoon so spent a little bit tinkering in the garage, wanted to see if exterior fans do anything to help keep the 2 gpu's in the X205-SLi1 cooler while running, especially overclocked. I tried a Zalman cooler, which was highly recommended, and was very nice quality, but the feet of the 205 didn't quite fit, and hung off and just didn't quite work, especially for the $50 or so it costs... so, fabbed something up out of some fans and a sheet of lexan I had laying around, still gotta add better legs and feet, but testing out how high I want it off the table and what angle to tilt it. Used two 120mm fans blowing up directly into the intakes, a bit overkill but figured I'd try it and could always throttle them back.



I'll pass along if it helps at all, not sure if it will or not, but if this doesn't, then nothing will make much difference. Also pondering whether or not to leave the CPU vent open or covered, as without a cooling pad, it runs cooler with it taped over, so that cover WAS intentional. Anyway, just wanted to share.

 

Simple design, looks nice! I was under the impression the x205's all ran cool as it were? But you did mention overclocking, what temps are you at?

 

Yeah, the system itself does run really cool, keyboard, case, etc all never even hardly get warm.... but, with some overclocking I'm getting my GPU temperature reported being into the 90C's, which is warmer than I'd like. Without overclocking, it maxes about mid 80C's in a hard Crysis session, which for some reason runs everything the hottest, even more so than 3dMark06. CPU runs quite a bit cooler, usually staying in the upper 60C's, occasionally running into the 70's, idling around 48 or so. All these temps are without the cooler, and I'm not even sure it will help any, as that just might be how hot the stacked 8600 gpu's will run. Thanks for the compliment though

 

My x205 runs cool, but the SLI ones have double the GPU and thus more than likely a good bit more heat to deal with.

 

Have you look at their cooling settup its terrible. first thing i would do is get rid of that cast alumiunm BS on the gpus. For the cpu they have the northbrigde --> CPU --> HEATSINK. I would cut the pipe going to the cpu ans route it to the heat sink. Just some thoughts.

 

Well here is my modified Notepal cooling plate, basically attached 4 pieces of rubber were the rear feet of the laptop fit into and keep it in place, I haven't noticed any improved cooling but I mainly use it to keep a good air flow underneath the laptop.

 

Here are a couple of additional picks of how the laptop fits on the Notepal cooling plate, I am using the same setup on my son's x205-9349 laptop too.

 

Ha, glad to see your computer area is about as messy as mine!

Curious, how hot do your GPU's get during hard use? And at what clock setting... thanks!

And here's to Blades of Glory in the background my girlfriends a HUGE Will Ferrell fan

 

I haven't overclocked mine at all except to run 3DMark06 last week, but after a few online matches of Gears of War my gpu's are running at around 78c and 80c and that is the highest I have seen them go to so far. Oh and yes my desk is a big mess cause I am constantly taking something apart to work on it.

 

whats your framerate maxxed out in gears of war at 1440x900 its my fav game online atm and think it runs tons better in xp then vista on my desktop rig but curious what kind of speed your getting .

 

I haven't cheked the framerate but I can tell you for sure it runs better in XP, not sure if putting vista back was a good idea. With XP I could play online and it was smooth but with vista I can't play it cause it lags like crazy even at 1280x800, so I am contemplating going back to XP.

 

For those us [me] who are looking for a chillpad for these 17" Toshibas that's a bit more portable that the TC's fine creation, might there be one someone may suggest?

 

I'm keeping my eye on the new Zalman, the 2000 model.... I don't think its been released yet though. It's the same basic design of the 1000 that I tried and *almost* worked, but is a bit bigger, which should fit great. Still not sure they help much at all though on this laptop.... I've got WAY more airflow than any regular chillpad will offer, and so far aren't noticing any great reductions. Been tied up with work though, so haven't been able to do any direct testing or even try it in a game yet.

 

And if you've got a non SLI X205, I wouldn't even bother, as the one I had ran plenty cool just sittin on the table.... And the SLI does ok too, much cooler than my last Sager with a P4 CPU, but was just looking to cool the gpu's a bit better when overclocked.

 

Hey Jesse, Think it has something to do with Vista64 instead of 32? Ever try it when you had Vista32 installed? Still read quite a bit saying that most games are running faster under Vista 32. And, is it only multplayer that lags? Was thinking about picking up a copy while best buy had it on sale, and from other post, was reported running pretty good on other laptops under Vista.

 

Yeah, I did try it with vista 32bit and it did run a bit smoother, and it is even worst in offline campaign mode even in XP and vista 32bit the campaign mode stinks but that is a problem in the game but online runs ok in XP and vista 32bit.

 

I dont have a temperature checker program for my Sli3, but i think it may be running a little hot... the vent-exhaust-grill place under the dvd drive, that lets out on the side, gets so hot, that if i keep my fingers in the air coming out, it will burn them, or if i touch the bottom there, it will burn my fingers after holding the there for about 15 sec... and the exhaust-vent thing on the other side gets almost as hot, but the top part(keyboard and such) stay a decent temperature... and i havent touched it yet...no overclocking or anything... could be that i have it sitting on a sleeping bag in my lap, on my bed because i have no desk... I dont know.. all i know is im having problems..

 

be77solo, I wonder if my gpu temps are a couple of degrees lower than your cause I took the cards apart and put arctic silver on both the gpu's and memory. I know the temps are high anyway cause of the cramped space for the cards this is why I haven't really tried to OC' my cards yet.