I replaced the thermal pad on the Northbridge w/ copper

As I was changing the thermal paste on the CPU I decided I can replace the blue thermal pad from the northbridge with a piece of copper. I cut the copper from a Toshiba heatsink that I had around. Thickness was 0.81mm measured with an electronic caliper), perfect for the replacement.

Took the Vostro's HSF out and removed the thermal pad. After that I used some sandpaper to smooth the area where the copper will be glued. I used Arctic Silver's Thermal Adhesive to glue the copper to the heatsink. As thermal paste I used Arctic Silver both for norhbridge and CPU.

I'm sorry I didn't take a photo after installing it, but there wasn't much to see due to lack of space.

Here's the operation:

You can see the Toshiba heatsink above the Dell one and the copper piece I cut from it:



Here's the copper glued to the heatsink:



Since I don't use a program that allows me to see the northbrige temp (maybe you can point me to one), I don't know anything about any improvement, but I'm pretty sure my Vostro feels it.

Cheers!

 

which vostro is this? my 1400 only covers the cpu/ the other half is seperate an goes over the GPU.

 

Nice job Lao!
HWMonitor is an accurate thermal sensor monitoring utility.

 

so what temps before and after?

 

As I said, I don't know a thermal monitoring software that can read Northbridge temp.

 

No software can read it if the motherboard doesn't have the sensor. Your best bed would have been a infrared thermometer, but it's too late for the before measurements now! Good looking mod.

 

If you guys are still looking for custom cut pieces of copper i found a website based in the US. Shipping is expensive but, they do the job the pieces are not. I just ordered some

https://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?id=966&step=2&top_cat=87