VPC-Z Change Thermal Paste

Anyone done this yet? I tried it this weekend and pretty much I got stuck trying to remove detach/remove the fan/headsink mechanism from the mainboard. If anyone have a video guide or some screenshots, that'll be helpful. Thanks.

 

you're a brave one! Are your temps bad enough for you to have to attempt this or just doing it for kicks?

 

Just wanted to see if it makes an improvement or not. After playing around a little more... it seems like no thermal paste is even used... Instead a small block of foamy tape is used... quite confuse at the moment at how the cooling mechanism work... I might be wrong.

 

Oh i see. the VPC-Z uses Thermal Sheets for cooling. No thermal paste at all.

 

Figured it out! Changed the CPU and GPU Thermal Paste! CPU idles at 39*C and load never passes 80*C. GPU idle around 43*C and load never passed 82*C.

 

Care to share with us some instructions on how to do it?

 

damn you, you created an itch that i must scratch now! what paste did you use? my cpu idles around 50*C

 

Heck, you just created an ever bigger itch for my unrelated VPC SC...

I have some 45C CPU idle temps in Stamina mode, higher than I'd like to see!

 

If anyone technologically savvy would be willing to break open one of the new S series that would be amazing. They are running far too hot to be reasonable. I'm sure a fresh application of thermal paste would drop temps by at least 10 C.

 

I'll try and post a guide on how to do it the VPCZ. It's quite easy really.
1. Take all the screws from the back.
2. Take out DVD Drive (3 Screws)
3. Take out sound/usb peripheral (1 Screw)
4. Take out SSD.
5. Unscrew the screw that holds the mainboard down, unplug everything you see that would restrict you from taking the mainboard off.
6. Remove the 2 screws that holds the heatsink to the CPU.
7. Pull apart the fan from the mainboard.

This procedure isn't for a person with a faint heart because you're really disassembling everything piece by pience. However, the process is very straightforward and easy (unlike the VGN-Z).

 

When my VPCZ had a FAN replacement, I think the service guy pasted it instead of putting thermal pad on. It used to idle between 45-50*C, now it idles around 28-35*C which is excellent. I'm using HWMonitorPro to check the temps.

 

Amen.

If anything, my VGN-Z used to idle on STAMINA at 30'C (which is when the fan turns off), and steadily goes back up to 38'C where the fan turns back on, till the temps drop back to 30'C. This is on an unaltered HIGH PERFORMANCE power plan while on AC.

Sometimes it idles and stays at 28'C, but I usually only see that while on the move on POWER SAVER battery plans (when I guess the CPU is throttled down to save on battery power).

 

Darn... that's a harsh way to get about it considering i'm a college student and any mistakes = $$$$$$ that i don't have ><

 

Very interesting...
I replaced thermal shirts with paste on VAIO CW but nothing changes in temperature after although thermal shirts were dry

 

i may actually try to do that as i plan to do some HDD/SSD swapping in the near future and i got some artic silver in the fridge still

may post pictures of it if i get to it; need a good point and shoot camera though as i have shaky hands

this is how hot my Z is when idle with no programs open from cold boot, under stamina mode and balanced power settings and balanced thermal settings:


core0 raises up to mid-40s as im typing this, core1 at mid-50s

 

I just did this when working on my screen, just for the CPU, and I'm finding the fan's running more. Initially, temps seemed pretty low, but now they look like they're edging higher. Anyone have pics of where they put thermal paste (AS5 or similar)? I put it on the two cores of my i7, only. Left the GPU pad in place. I wonder whether just separating the heatsink from the GPU pad for a few minutes affected its performance.

 

doesnt AS5 need curing time? (that's the reason i got MX-4). Also, i think you should've also done your GPU since you were already there and paste is better than pads

 

Hey now thats a good trick and if you manage to do that for the gpu also maybe adding some high quality oil to the coolers clean pipes you could degrease the temperature from bought and the sound of the coolers

 

man i need to do this on my z11. Any specific paste to recommend? I think i might have some artic silver.

Maybe also a great time to upgrade from i5 to i7

 

hello, i'm currently attempting to do this, but it looks like the pad for the gpu was thicker than a spread of thermal paste. Did you take off the pads off the gpu memory as well and put thermal paste on there ?

 

I think any is better than the pads, but i got the mx-4, i think arctic silver has some curing time?

I don't think the OP did that, but i'd suggest you add some thermal paste to the GPU itself too (does the pad cover the gpu's vram?)

hey take some pics while you're in there for the rest of us please!

 

I wanted to take a pic, then was so into it that I completely forgot !

OK, my main issue is :

- The pad for the GPU is not a thermal paste pad, its a thermal conductive foam. That means that this foam is about 1mm thick, and therefore should not be replaced with paste (I replace mine at first, and teh gpu went to 75°c at idle...) as the paste will not insure contact with the heatsink
- I did change the cpu paste, so we will see what this gives in the long run (it does seem quieter, but I don't think the temps changed much)
- The other thing i did was, since I took off the gpu foam, I added paste between the foam and gpu, and between the foam and heatsink... I know I shouldn't do that I was just curious !

Edit : The temp of the gpu and cpu seem the same, although the paste might need some curing time (akasa AK-455)-

 

Yeah, I once tried replacing a GPU pad on an old laptop. Bad idea. You have to match the thickness and other specs exactly or you just mess it up, and replacing a thick pad with paste simply doesn't work.

 

Mine's cured for a while now. It's odd - sometimes everything seems fine and sometimes the fans really ramp up. But I haven't seen wildly extreme temps, just more fan action than before (I think). Replacing the GPU pad with paste is a no-go (tried on an old laptop and totally screwed it - paste will not fill the gap and conduct properly). Did clean out my fan really well, though.

 

Many people think paste is for cooling and reducing temps. It is to some extent; paste is meant to fill the microscopic holes in the copper heatsink to ensure a better contact with the CPU/GPU chip. If you put too much paste on, you only take away from the cooling ability. The pads are a certain thickness and you need less than that for paste to just fill the holes.

 

Yeah, I've always kept paste as thin as possible, although I always find from the factory that it was put on pretty thick, and I have seen some people say that spreading leaves bubbles, and to just blob it on and let pressure push it out. As for why mfrs use pads on GPUs (means there's a little gap), I'm not sure, but I know from experience that you can't substitute pads for paste or vice-versa.

 

That's what I do when I put on paste: blob then press. The problem with laptops is sometimes you can't put that kind of pressure on the CPU/GPU.

 

Since I don't want to put more pressure on than the heatsink itself applies, I think I'll stick with the spread method, but maybe spread just slightly thicker.

 

For what its worth, I put a blob in the middle, the pressure from the screws should have spread it evenl over the cpu

 

So in a nutshell, no use doing these things, is that right?

 

Short answer: no use replacing with paste.

 

Well from the results I got, yes, there is not really any point in doing this. I would like to have some details from the first poster on this thread, to figure out what he did exactly. Maybe theer's something I'm not seeing

 

what are you before temps under load, and what are your after temps under load... at idle, the temps should vary too much as the fan is pretty small, but what matters is what you get under heavy load...

 

All temps given at ambvient temp of approx 25°C, with Z11 out of the docking station (I get 3-4 ° higher in the dock). Running speed mode. Unfortyunatly, I didn't jot down the temps before doing the thermal paste change....

CPU-RAM-FPU load only (through AIDA64 stress test) :
max : 90, average 86-87

Crysis 2 (with slight GPU overclock)
Average CPU 92, max 94
average GPU 81, max 83

 

Core0 36°
Core2 31°

in full idle with sony default fan and pad

 

Lol, you can play Crysis 2 on the Z? (got my desktop to do that for me)... that's crazy.

Hmm... if i let my Processor TurboBoost... when i play BFBC2, i can get 100 C on CPU and 96 C on GPU..., if I dont, i get 97C on CPU and 95C on GPU...

default fan, pad on GPU and paste on CPU?

 

Crysis 2 runs on a lot of systems (optimizations and IMHO, a worse looking engine), just doesn't run butter smooth like a powerful desktop

 

Yeah... was actually playing Crysis 2 on my desktop last night... my GTX 570 OCed to 870mhz Core is getting owned at 1080p, Highest Settings + tesselation and DX11 pack... I need another one for SLI >

 

I should add I only have an i5... and I'm only a poor student... no money for a nice desktop

 

You can get a nice desktop for less than $600

 

Sorry for not clarifying. I changed the CPU Thermal paste and I also replaced the thermal pad from the GPU. The OEM thermal pad is approx 1mm thick so I replaced it with another 1mm thermal pad just for kicks. In my case, my GPU did get a few degrees cooler under load. (Current: 83*, Past: 88*). My CPU saw a tremendous difference under STAMINA and SPEED. Not sure why but maybe they did a bad job initially w/ my CPU's thermal paste?

Although I think everyone probably knows this but do note that CPU temps will be higher in SPEED mode compared to STAMINA because the CPU and GPU shares the same heatsink. Therefore under STAMINA, there will be less stress on the heatsink/fan due to the absence of GPU activity, hence cooler CPU.

 

I completely agree. In fact, it would mean that if you have a good heat transfer beteween GPU and heatsink, your CPU temp will go up
What brand thermal pad did you use ?

 

Haha i guess i'm a slightly less-poor student

Mines cost me $650 after all was said and done. Won the case in a FB sweepstakes, won a LGA 1156 CPU which i sold to get the 2500k, and amazon price mistake on the 570 brought it down to $265 and i had $180 amazon credit from swagbucks that i applied to it. Not to mention everything else i got off of deals from slickdeals (except my motherboard... splurged a bit on that...).

Check out swagbucks... you can get at least $10 a month in amazon giftcards... this month is looking like $20 for me

If you want to sign up, use my link: Earn Reward Points and Redeem Them For Free Stuff at Swagbucks.com

I'd rather the CPU + GPU be more balanced as they share a similar heat envelope.. i'd be scared if my GPU was at 105C and my CPU at only 80C... then my GPU would throttle when my CPU isn't even at its peak.

And good question, what thermal pad did you use? (I don't know any since i've always just used paste).

I figure just getting one of those laptop fan thingies will do much more to lower temps at much less risk (of me snapping my motherboard)

 

Dunno, I never opened my Z is still in default sony mode



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Hi, can someone post pictures of how to remove the motherboard? I'm trying to do the same thing with my SA, but after opening it up, I can't remove the motherboard after removing the screws. It refuses to budge and there seems to be 2 layers of motherboard on top of each other.

 

LOL... I spent more than that on my ViDock4+ and GeForce GTX 570 HD

 

OK, i've ordered some new thermal pads, and artic silver, so I can try and change the thermal pads on the z this time (instead of just using the old ones). I will try and take a video as well

 

And you are happy with your ViDock

 

Am I ever.......

 

I fiddled with this some more, and tried phobya xt pads (higher heat transfer I could find). I think the correct size for the gpu is 0.5 and for the memory chips is 1mm thick. 1mm for the gpu seems too big. However, with these phobya pads I was geting higher temperatures than with the origonal pad. I don't know what they put in that pad, but its definitly not a normal pad !
Also, after all this tinkering, I seem to have torn my orginal gpu pad. So I decided I would order myself a 0.5mm copper shim and put thermal paste on it and see how that goes. Copper should definitly be better than any pad, I'm just hoping its the right thickness... will keep you posted.

Just installed the copper shim, with AS thermal apste on the gpu and on the heatsink. The GPU memory modules have 1mm phobya pads. Now I just need to wait for the AS to cure. For anyone wanting to do this (with very limited, if any, temperature improvement) you must buy a copper shim of 0.5 mm thickness for the GPU. Themal pads are not as good. I will be posting a video of the complete dismantle (did it about 8 times now) as soon as I have time to edit it. Note that all my recommendations apply to vaio z11 (don't know if its the same for z12 and z13)