Asus ROG GL702ZC owners lounge

ahhhh dam ok that's kinda what i figured .thanks a lot for the speedy reply

 

Hello again guys. Got another 8gb ram stick. Now it's 16gb dual channel. But when I installed it I noticed something. Is it ok that thermal grease is a little came out by sides of all that cooling system (it's where socket for ex.) It's not on motherboard but I can see some of it came out.
Do I need to clean it or leave it like that?

ALSO: Can you advice some tool or anything to boot up Win 7 installation. I integrated all needed drivers (usb 3, nvme etc) but it's stuck on Win 7 "Starting windows" installation and that's it. Do someone installed Win 7 successfully?

 

As Caretaker01 mentioned, overclocking the RX580 in GL702ZC (at least on Windows) is not possible for now probably because the laptop's BIOS is locked.
We either need to unlock the laptop's BIOS, or modify the existing video bios and then flash it back onto the GPU (though as you might imagine, hardware overclocking can be problematic, and flashing a vBIOS incorrectly could result in a non-functional GPU).
I think the GPU was successfully overclocked on Linux using this laptop, but it needed a BIOS flash, etc.
MSI Afterburner can also be used to undervolt the GPU (which to me is eminently more important) and lower the temperatures by about 10 degrees Celsius.

If the paste isn't producing any difficulties, leave it where it is right now. If something happens, you can always take the new RAM stick out, RMA the laptop and blame it on 'spontaneous hardware problem' (don't mention to Asus that you upgraded the RAM).

As for Windows 7... I wouldn't bother with it because it doesn't support some features that are needed by Ryzen CPU.
You can always disable Windows 10 snooping as much as possible.
There is no inherent advantage to having Win 7 anymore... unless you use legacy software that doesn't work on Win 10 (though, generally, if it works in Win 7, it should work in 10 too).

 

Hey guys, finally I bought this beasty laptop.
only one thing. i'm trying to download Ryzen Master for have a little downvolt of my cpu (gpu already undervolted by afterburner) but seems that AMD has unified Threadripper version with Ryzen version. Is there someone that has an old Ryzen Master Threadripper version and give me a link? I would be very grateful for your help

 

If AMD unified Ryzen Master, then it should work on GL702ZC.
I downloaded that unified Ryzen Master and used it upgrade my existing version. Seems to work fine.
Otherwise, I have the older Ryzen Master for Threadripper in my GL702ZC driver folder.
I could send it to you via email or some other method.

 

Thanks Deks. If my daughter decide to sleep I will try this evening

Inviato dal mio ASUS_X00ID utilizzando Tapatalk

 

The latest Ryzen Master Utility works perfectly on my new GL702ZC.

Has anybody benchmarked their OpenCL performance? My 3d performance measures up like I would expect, but OpenCL is extremely disappointing.

Geekbench 4 I get just 33,000 using the latest drivers from Asus, and 66,000 using the latest drivers from AMD set to Compute mode. It seems nearly every other RX 580 gets around 120,000+ in this test. My GTX 1060 laptop that this was going to replace got 125,000.

Temps are good, and GPU-Z reports the core and memory frequencies are staying at 1077 and 2000 the whole time. I've run some other OpenCL benchmarks and they all show similar results.

Am I doing something wrong? Is this because it's a laptop chip and not a desktop 580?

 

This laptop has a desktop GPU witch has been undervolted and underclocked. To my knowledge there is no mobile laptop RX 580, however it was the choice Asus made to include a very powerful energy hungry desktop GPU in this laptop and in order to do so some tweaking was made. You can only further undervolt the GPU lowering you're temp's, but as of today there is no way to OC the GPU to match the desktop one (at least in Windows).
And I'm not sure if this laptop would be a able to power up a full RX 580 and the ryzen Chip during heavy gameing and streaming and keep it cooled. It was just an ambitious project that had some compromises to fully load a desktop grade GPU

Sent from my MI 5s Plus using Tapatalk

 

Does your computer show similar deficiency in OpenCL? My GL702ZC matches the GTX 1060 in my other laptop in 3dMark Fire Strike within 5%. However, multiple OpenCL benchmarks show it performing anywhere from 30% to 60% of the performance of the GTX 1060.

I am quite aware of the thermal and power limitations of the computer that has resulted in certain compromises, but it seems that even with the lower clocks this graphics card should have significantly better OpenCL performance.

 

Actually, the RX 580 in this laptop is mainly underclocked.... with lower voltages being a standard of sorts at existing frequencies... plus the chip is limited to only 3 P states (desktop ones have 6 or 7 of them with different voltages for each frequency).
OEM's almost never touch the voltages on GPU's... they usually modify the clocks... so I suspect that Asus modified the RX 580 desktop video bios that it uses only 3 P states and voltages for those frequencies.
The chip can usually be further undervolted (as you already know).

Unlocking it to a full blown desktop part is probably possible through vBIOS modification and flashing... however, it would need to be heavily undervolted due to the inadequate cooling in GL702ZC and VRM's limitations.
I suspect that we could still unlock the GPU to the desktop part, but lower the frequencies to the point where they are fairly close to the desktop, but voltages allow it to go lower.
I wouldn't recommend it though. The GPU is limited to 68W as is. The existing cooling is barely coping with that... nevermind the VRM's.

The performance of RX 580 in GL702ZC should be more or less within 5% of mobile GTX 1060 limited to 80W.... or it would be equal/better under DX12/Vulkan.
That's in real world performance (such as actual games, etc.).
Bear in mind that benchmarks aren't always representative of actual gaming performance.
I suggest you run a few games on GL702ZC and on your GTX 1060 laptop and compare the performance between the two with latest drivers.

 

I do some mining with our laptop and if I can keep it cool, i achieve a performance similar to my desktop rx 580's.

Sent from my MHA-L29 using Tapatalk

 

downloades this
https://download.amd.com/Desktop/AMD-Ryzen-Master-for-AMD-Ryzen-Threadripper.exe
and works! I've tried the latest version some days ago and won't start. I dont want to investigate why..

 

Play around with MSI afterburner latest or beta version and you may achieve some lower temperatures, by undervolting

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Windows 7 works fine. I created my install media via MSI smart tool. No issues with booting, or in operation after install.

I can't comment for Windows, but I'm in the progress of getting OpenCL/ROCM working on Linux, will let you know how performance measures up.

 

For anyone who ordered this thing stock, how are the temperatures out of the box? Is it something that desperately needs re-pasted, or would an undervolt with standard paste be OK?

 

Standard paste seems to work fine.
Repasting apparently doesn't bring too low temps... maybe in the area of 3 degrees... possibly 5 deg C at most.

I'd sooner recommend undervolting both the CPU and GPU and only repaste after the warranty expired and the temps are rising.

Out of the box, temps are actually fine... about 43-46 deg C for CPU and GPU in standard Windows operations.
Under stress, it depends... can be up to 88 degrees C for the GPU on full, and similar for the CPU.
If you undervolt, you can drop temps by quite a bit... up to 10 degrees C for CPU and GPU independently.

 

So for now I'd say I'm happy with my new laptop. Installed another 8gb stick and now it's 16gb dual mode 2400.
It's was a little tricky with drivers for chipset and gpu but I did it. Still no Win7 for now, but I'll try another solutions)) Win 10 is ok.
FreeSync is enabled, Ryzen Balanced installed manually. Mixed oem drivers from Asus website and newest drivers from manufacturers.
Latest chipset drivers don't even want to start installing (some bug from AMD as I understand) so I manually installed OEM Asus drivers through the device manager and then installed gpu drivers etc.
Personal advice - if you're using Win10 LTSB 2016 - install recommended drivers (18.2.1 in my case), not latest. Latest drivers works badly with this OS build (for ex. in two monitors mode).
About temperatures. In short - I'm using ryzen balanced (don't understand exactly what's the point but just in case) with some personal settings.
CPU min 90%, Max 100% (maybe it's good to set 99% but I don't), AMD Powerplay: max perf.
In regular browsing, copying files, work with archives (casual, not stressing), music, videos; with torrents, vpn and messengers in the background my temps are:
CPU ~60c; GPU ~55c (is it Ok?)
With some more hard work (big archives, photo editing etc) it's about ~70c +-5. GPU ~same as casual

So here's my personal pros and cons for this laptop.

CONS:
- Overall build quality could be better BUT it's Ok. I mean my old mid-ranger laptop (10 year old) was like a tank. But I think all new laptops goes with the same "cheap-like" quality. Maybe Alienwares is Ok but I don't use it.
- Keyboard. But it's personal. My old laptop have keyboard like on Alienwares, also with more pushing depth.
- No ODD. No slot for third HDD/M.2. They could do it. But they don't. For a workstation it's not good (yes it's a "gaming laptop").
- HDD is warming a little bit higher that I prefer. On my old laptop it was 35-38 max. here is 43-45.

PROS:
- Working power. Great CPU (even my 1600) with a very good GPU (all what I tested run's 60fps on max). But I'm not a hardcore gamer. It's a mini PC build, not a laptop I'd say. Workstation if you want.
- 17' IPS display with FreeSync - really nice bonus. Yes it's 6 bit with a drawn 16m colors but it's really great. At home usually I'm using ext. monitor.
- Easy to change thermal grease (as I seen) and cleaning all that stuff if needed (in future)
- Sound is REALLY great. I mean I did not expect so good sound, bass etc (even without SonicStudio). Great little speakers!
- Has all needed i/o - USB's, Type-C, DP, HDMI, CardReader
- I like cooling system. It's doing it's job. Yes it's noisy some times (in stress work and games) but it's better then burned components (I know that).
- You can play games between browsing and serious work : )
- Price. It's strange but price for the power is great. +- same desktop build is about ~$200 less in my region.

Some questions:
- what temperatures is ok? I can achive 43-46 only with 30% fan boost or even 50%. 25c outside (streets).
- can you please one more time advice presets for undervolt cpu (ryzen master) and gpu (afterburner)? And do I need it?
- maybe some advice for soft power configuration?

 

Hello everyone,
I bought GL702ZC R7 1700 version on March and I was really surprised its power (both cpu and gpu).
On my previous notebook there was i7 3630qm+GT650M.

Unfortunately yesterday notebook just died...
100% fan power, no manual fan control... seems familiar?

I just read couple topics, check cooling solution pics on internet and I have bad news my dear friends.

It looks like Asus made hudge mistake in cooling solution design... they forgot to cool B350 . This plate-thing-cooler on early models isn't anough to cool it down.
They made new thermal solution with heat-pipe to GPU radiator.
I'm talking about this type where there are no heat-pipes above RAM slots.
I checked over a dozen desktop atx boards witch B350 and there is large passive radiator on every single one of them! Not flat metal plate!

Unfortunatelly fan bug is only beggining of problems - i tried bios/uefi factory reset, windows restart, i've tried new ubuntu too.
After 1 hour i decided to plug off "brick" and give it some time.
After couple hours - fans are still at max, but.... there is nothing on LCD .

I made RMA, they probably replace the board...
Now i'm wondering if they replace cooler too.
I don't want and don't have time to play around with service center any more.
Do you guys can tell me about yours repairs? Is it working after repair and do they replace cooling system?

For me it is really strange that this happend when I was reading PDF datasheets, and had only libreoffice calc and some CAD software open... no load cpu and gpu, fans were quiet.

So, wish me luck with repair, and i wish you guys the same!
It WILL happen to most of you!
Just make sure it will happen on warranty peroid!

P.S.
By the way now i'm forced to use my wife's Ryzen 5 2500U on Envy x360 and it's working great! Just because it IS WORKING!

 

Your problem sounds identical to what I had.
I was playing Mass Effect Andromeda, when suddenly, fans started blowing at 100% and refused to cycle down after powering down the game.
I shut off the laptop, and the moment I turned it on, fans just went straight to 100% and didn't cycle down.
My GPU was functioning though...

I had to RMA the laptop. Waited about a month before getting it back, and Asus said they replaced the motherboard, but couldn't say what caused the problem.
I told them that the problem is likely rooted in the inadequate cooling which might have caused a control circuit which regulates the fans to break down, or worse yet, the VRM's (voltage regulators on the motherboard).

Anyway, since I got the laptop back, I usually keep the thing undervolted on both the CPU and GPU when doing things on it that stress the hardware, such as playing games or using 3d Studio Max.

Asus really dropped the ball on cooling, and makes me wonder if the same problem will occur again down the line.

 

Yeah... one month without laptop... nice... I'm wondering how long does it take in Poland to repair it... warranty says up to 45 days for repair!
I'm glad that they agree to take HDD off and do data backup on my own. I called them today and ask about it because warranty says that i can't do that.

Do they replace whole cooling system to "new type" with new board? Or just replace mainboard and left old cooling system?

If they did not replace cooling system in mine, it will probably burn couple more times on warranty period . I dont want to do ANY modifications (undervolting etc.).
Actually when it will happen again it will be evidence of mass hidden defect.

 

I figure it out by myself with very helpfull advices of Deks on previous pages (thank you!)

Firstly I tested latest MSI Afterburner tool with settings adviced by Deks:
-93mV on Core Voltage

Then I tested latest AMD Ryzen Master tool with settings also adviced by Deks:
3.2-3.3 GhZ with CPU voltage 1.05V

This works fine for my laptop too. But I'm not planning to use this tools for now.
Except the advice by Deks to undervolt GPU before starting some heavy games.
I think it's good for prevention (but not necessary?).

Then I checked my drivers and realize that I have old chipset drivers.
For some reason latest chipset drivers ( 18.10.0418) even don't want to execute.
So I go for 18.10b ( 18.10.0312) and it installed well.

Now my temps on idle/copying/browsing is 48-55c for CPU and 45-50c for GPU.
Without fan boost and any tools/undervolting.
Outside is 23-25c so I think it's a pretty Ok.

I will try to find out how to install newest one (7-Zip can't even unpack/read it).
Maybe find some unpacked drivers. Very thanks to Deks!

P.S.
Why when I try stress test with AIDA64 fans just don't starting? It goest to 90c and they still 2200... Is it game center and auto fan?

 

To be honest, I don't know.
I never opened my GL702ZC when I first got it in October last year... so I don't know if the cooling assembly was altered or not (it is possible that it was, but Asus only said they replaced the motherboard).
When I opened the laptop after the RMA to install another 16GB RAM (and gain dual channel along with 32GB RAM in total), I noticed the cooling assembly had a heat pipe running above RAM slots, which made it very difficult to upgrade the RAM (so I had to remove the cooling assembly to install the second stick).

Now, whether my laptop didn't have that heat pipe running above the RAM slots is anyone's guess (as I said, I hadn't opened the laptop when I first got it/prior to RMA-ing it), so I cannot say whether changing the cooling assembly to just include that 1 heatpipe running across the RAM slots would make any difference).
But I also know that initially, the GL702ZC was being sold with a cooling assembly that had a heatpipe running atop the RAM, and another design that didn't have that heatpipe - though, I'm puzzled as to whether this would have made any difference.

Nothing like that problem happened for me after the RMA, but admittedly I hadn't been pushing the laptop as hard as possible since then, and I usually keep it undervolted when doing stressful things.

I tried explaining the cooling issue to Asus, but I think they simply made a 'passing acknowledgment' to get rid of me.
If it happens again, I might ask of Asus to give me a newer model if they make one because they are the ones that made a huge mess in creating an inadequate cooling system.

The GL702ZC has enormous amount of space in it... so Asus could have easily installed a proper cooling system with the same thickness to cool everything properly... heck, even the GPU could have been MXM.

 

If you had problems with installing additional RAM - the cooling system is still "old type".
New type has heat-pipe to B350 chipset for proper cooling.
I check a lot of asus ROG laptops cooling systems on internet and they even made 3rd FAN for cooling chipset on some of them.

On GL702ZC motherboard there is also sign near B350 chipsec "FAN3" but there is no fan connector soldered.

BTW - B350 has 5,8W TDP so this little screwed metal plate is unadequate!
It is even unbelievable for me to made so "simple" cooling system especially when there is a lot of free space near it!
If you check photos of "old type" cooling system you will se that there is even milled space for this special heat-pipe on VRMs for B350 cooling.
For me it is simple - they just made it chiper by this modification.

One more - you will probably not burn it with gaming or heavy cpu load.
And there will be no defference if you undervolt CPU/GPU.
B350 has its own power which you can't change.
It is only for PCIe for NVME, SATA controller, USB controllers etc - so heavy long term I/O load should fry it. When you have IO load and no CPU or GPU load air flow is unadequate (no fans or very low fans speed).

I have second GL702ZC (we bought 2pcs for oure company) and second one is still working.

 

What would the new style cooling look like exactly?
Do we have any photos of that system for GL702ZC?

EDIT: I know that the 1600 version has been sold without the extra heat pipe running above the RAM slots... but I didn't know Asus made changes to the 1700 version cooling assembly.
If they have, what does that look like?

Btw... my GL702ZC fans broke (started working 100%) when I was playing Mass Effect Andromeda. To me, this indicates a cooling issue that was directly influenced by gaming, not the SATA or I/O load.

I can easily see the heat pipe going on top of the VRM's in my laptop's cooling assembly.
Unless you're talking about something else.

 

Typically the chipset doesn't get a separate run / coverage into the heatpipe cooling, and cooling it depends on the draw of air over it being pulled in from the front of the laptop by the exhaust fans in the rear.

That arrangement also cools the storage - usually near the front so it gets the cool incoming air first, and then the air is drawn over the motherboard components that aren't connected via heatplate / heatpipe to the heat exchangers at the exhaust.

This small amount of air draw is enough for 2.5" HDD / SSD and the motherboard components like the motherboard chipset.

If as some are doing, you cut holes in front of the exhaust fans to "short-circuit" the air draw from front to rear - or reduce it greatly - you can cause heat stress to the motherboard components and storage higher than if they got that fresh cooling air draw over them.

For the hotter running controllers on M.2 SATA and more so for M.2 NVME, you need additional heatsink cooling or air draw in addition to that "passive" front to rear to cool it.

Same goes for hot running motherboard chipset's, there isn't enough air being drawn even when the full back pressure is being generated and pulling air front to back.

Off hand I think this is the first time I've seen the motherboard chipset included in it's own heatpipe add-on to the main cooling.

 

If someone interesting, here's both versions of cooling system.
The first one (I got this):


And the second:

 

Thx for sharing, they chose to correct the ease of upgradability to ram slots to my observations, otherwise they look like they would perform the same

Sent from my MI 5s Plus using Tapatalk

 

Undervolting is recommended for lower fan noise when the GPU is stressed to the maximum, and it's always a good idea to reduce power consumption of the system on both the CPU and GPU as it will increase efficiency and make the components last longer.

Latest chipset drivers do seem crucial for better operations... but AMD should have segregated in the Installer to make it easier to select what exactly one is installing/updating (the GPU or chipset).
Because, if you just want to update one of the two and download only GPU or chipset drivers, the installation usually says 18.4.1 presently installed and 18.10 local driver available (with the local being the only thing that you can actually install - for some people, this can be misleading).

The first picture shows the cooling assembly design usually shipping with Ryzen 1700.
The second one is cooling design shipping with Ryzen 1600 (notice the lack of SSD) in it.

I can see that 1 heatpipe on the 1600 version (left side) extending to the chip which is on the motherboard (the one that has a metal bit on it and doesn't have the heat pipe in the 1700 version). What is that chip again?
As for the VRM's... they do seem to be covered by the heatpipes on both systems.

The 1600 cooling does seem a bit better thought out in regards to RAM... but the 1800 cooling is lacking that 1 heatpipe going to the motherboard chip.
Crucial/critical?

 

*Deleted*

Double post

 

But that's not an upgrade.
It's a standard cooling design that was initially present since GL702ZC launched with Ryzen 1600.
Unless Asus made the 1600 version after 1700 and modified it for easier RAM upgrade (and also added that 1 heatpipe to extend to the motherboard chip), but chose to release both more or less at the same time.

I remember that this cooling design predates release of GL702ZC with Ryzen 1700 as pictures of the insides with both cooling solutions were shown in different reviews.

 

I haven't seen the 1600 one so far giving that it's also a desktop CPU I didn't figure that they would design it a bit different inside.
However the cooled Chip is something I couldn't find anything online and, yet. Here's a picture of my Chip maybe someone can shed some light

Sent from my MI 5s Plus using Tapatalk

 

Nothing comes up on Google here for me... though I found CSM designation which indicates: Corporate Stable Model.

 

I also found that but it usually referred to BIOS software specific

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Could you provide a clearer picture of that chip?
Would likely be helpful in trying to put into google other numbers

 

I dont think that small heatsink is available separated from the motherboard, at least not that easily, there is no reference to order it besides getting a mobo.

 

I could but Tapatalk app or forum services compress the image, this is a crop of the picture I took when I installed the SSD. I don't have the laptop near me to open it. The code goes ASUS CSM-13NB0FV0AM0501 13N1-2VA0J01 0A 178K-01BQ

Sent from my MI 5s Plus using Tapatalk

 

I got 1600 version with the first revision of cooling system. I can't tell for sure is the second one is a upgrade or downgrade.
p.s. - Ryzen Master is a good tool. 3.5 GhZ on 1.175 + with settings of Win10 power managment it's a nice instrument to correct temps etc for browsing/work/game scenario.
For example for Skyrim special edition I drop down cpu to 1.05 with 2.6-3.0 Ghz and undervolt GPU to -87 with Radeon saving mode and it's run quite and cool on ultra 60fps.

 

I can run 3.3GhZ on 1.05V with my Ryzen 1700... you could try the same. Experiment with the voltages though until you find your comfort zone. You could keep running Prime95 in the background, and then just increase or decrease the voltages as you go and note which ones are stable.

As for the GPU... you can get away with -91mV undervolt if I'm not mistaken... I can usually.

 

That's the B350 chipset that the poster on the previous page was talking about.

 

Yes, this is B350 that I was talking about.




On top left black radiator you can easly see rounded milled place when should be heat-pipe to B350.

BTW R5 1600 has 65W TDP too so there should be no difference in cooling design.
Cooling system type can't depens on SSD - mine R7 1700 was without NVMe (I bought samsung 960 evo separately)

In my opinion someone just did not predict that when there is no CPU or GPU load and both fans are off or at very low speed - there is not enough airflow and B350 5,8W TDP can be a big problem.
Yes I know that yours just get fried B350 when you was playing but again... I think that yours undervolting makes your problem it just makes your fans were spinning SLOWER!
It was good for your ears but not for B350 temperature.

I'll say it again... be aware of cooling design flaw - cooling B350 entirely depends on CPU or GPU load but it DOES NOT depend on B350 temperature nor load.

So theoretically there can be situation as i described - fans are off and you are copying a lot of data from usb to nvme or hdd or whatever... and this is worst case scenario - short instruction how to get new MoBo... and undervolting just getting everything worse (CPU and GPU are cooler then before so fans are off most time at iddle or when copying data).

I hope I'm clear enough with my rubbish english .

EDIT -
I think - when I get my laptop back without upgraded cooling system - I will place radiator on top of this B350 "cooling" metal plate. There is a lot of room there. And you can easily buy small radiators with adhesive thermal pad - like for raspberry pi etc.

 

Wow, there's even a "FAN3" Header right next to it, can't see if it's used, but maybe tap into that and get an active cooler to drop on it.

 

Its only sign - overlay PCB layer.
This connector is battery plug.

 

So I work around with CPU and GPU undervolting.
Unfortunately my GPU carshes even in games on -93. With -87 all working great.

CPU. For now I found "my numbers":
3.3 with 0,975
3.2 with 0,95
The tests were successful with Prime95 and AIDA64 cpu only test.

I choose 3.2 with 0.95 and decided to run AIDA64 full test.
- cpu 3.2 with 0,95
- gpu -87
- in windows power managment min and max for cpu is 100%
- aida64 settings for test - all boxes checked except disks (cpu,fpu,cache,gpu,mem)
- HWMonitor for monitoring

1) Auto fan, 10 min run
mob 88
cpu 88
gpu 75

2) Don't stop the test and turn on 30% fan boost, another 5 min
mob 74
cpu 74
gpu 64

3) Don't stop the test. Just for fun I turned on max fan boost for next 5 min
mobo 60
cpu 61
gpu 51

Stop the test. Turn on auto fan.
Should note that SSD and HDD was mostly Ok for the temps.

p.s. - for test I close all doors and windows, in room was about ~23c

 

The thing is, I didn't undervolt the GPU or CPU when the fan controller (or motherboard) got fried the first time around and I had to RMA the laptop.
I only started undervolting after I got the laptop back.

As for undervolting making things worse... I don't agree that this is the case because the temperatures dropped as well as the fan noise did.
Point is that because of undervolting, there is less heat being produced inside the whole system (B350 included) and as a result, it would have been easier for the fans to filter it out.
Also, my fans turn on usually anyway when there is file transfer in progress... things like that kick start the fans anyway to maintain adequate air flow and preserve lower temperatures inside the system.

Undervolting isn't the problem here... and I suspect it can extend longevity of the system as a result... but, one cannot compensate entirely for Asus shortcomings in the cooling and not creating adequate airflow for the whole system, so we can at least try to manage it the best we can.

Btw... where would you get the radiators with the adhesive tape for the B350 chip?
I suspect Ebay, but what would it look like and which ones to get? How would they be mounted?

EDIT: Located the radiators on Amazon. Pretty cheap little Aluminum heatsinks... but.. how can we ensure they stick to the chip and don't fall off?

 

So can this laptop be upgraded with a Ryzen 2XXX CPU? 2700 might not be a big improvement over the 1700 but if you can replace a 1600 model, you could save yourself a bit of money future-proofing it.

 

Doesn't Ryzen 2 run a lot hotter? Even if you could upgrade, can the cooling system handle it?

 

Don't mix it with the X version. Minimal differences in power consumption (stock). But none know if you can upgrade..

 

The thing is... I test laptop couple of weeks with really high CPU and GPU workload. And nothing happend. Temp were below 80 all the time.
And then i just do my normal work a little bit longer and after a couple hours of doing nearly nothing... it just died with no reason...

Now I'm wondering about one more thing... after upgrading to 303 bios fan noice was really reduced... Do you fried it on 303?
I'm not saying that undervolting is bad, I'm just saying it will paradoxically help to fry MoBo.
Cooling design is bad as it is even without undervolting.

YES, undervolting will reduce temperatures on both CPU and GPU.
YES, it is really good for electronics to reduce temperatures.
I can agree with that.
BUT...
You agree with me that fans are a lot quieter with undervolted CPU and GPU.
So they are not spinning as high as they design them to do.
Cooling od B350 is reduced then.

You have to understand one crucial thing.. CPU and GPU load and temperatures are not directly related to B350 temperature.
I'll say it one more time... it seams that B350 temperature do not have any influence on fans spinning speed and this is the problem with cooling system (except to "light" radiator on it).
You can even don't know how hot B350 is as well as your fan control module (whatever and wherever it is).
If fans are iddle CPU is <45C but B350 can be even 80C and nothing will happen <-- this is only examlpe for better explanation of issue.
When laptop died (but LCD was still working) I checked it with open cover and you can't even imagine how hot B350 was.

I know that it is not 100% correct because it was already almost fried...

We can check this and be sure by leaving powered on laptop without internet connectivity on windows desktop. Leave it for 8 hours. If center-right side of keyboard will be hot as hell - then this is it.
I'll try it with external temperature sensor when they repair mine laptop.

You can't be sure . That's why I'll find radiator with adhesive thermal pad.
Main goal here is to not get asus know that you made some modifications - in case of another RMA...

 

Not doable with the existing BIOS and AGESA versions.
We'll need to see if Asus releases updates for Ryzen+ and Zen2.
Problem is I already tried asking Asus about updating the BIOS for exactly that, and they never replied to me.

 

Technically, I didn't 'fry' it... I think the control circuit for the fan regulator broke because the fans suddenly started turning at 100% when I played Mass Effect Andromeda and just never cycled down after resetting everything, etc.
And, the system's fans were working adequately in that situation to cool the entire system.
My BIOS was not 303 version. I think it was the earlier one before it.

Cooling design is bad, that's what probably caused the problem, but undervolting didn't affect it because I hadn't even undervolted the unit at that time at all, and I don't think that it would paradoxically fry the mobo.

The fans were only quieter when the CPU and GPU were under load, not under general operations (the undervolt only works for higher P states when the CPU and GPU are stressed).
I don't think it matters if the fans aren't spinning as high as they usually do after undervolting, because the fans only go up to a certain level depending on the temperatures in the system and how much the hardware is stressed.
Without undervolting, temperatures are higher, and fans run louder. With undervolting, the temperatures are lower and fans are running lower (but they are working at a level that is appropriate for those temperatures and manageable for the system - if the fans were running at higher RPM, they'd just cycle down again when reaching those temperatures - that's what they do, they cycle up and down depending on the load).

By dropping the voltage on CPU and GPU, you reduce power consumption of the overall system and drop temperatures on the motherboard as a result too. End result = a cooler running laptop that consumes less power and has less of a strain on the hardware.
If undervolting caused a problem with computers in the sense that it helped fried them, no one would be undervolting, and long term, we'd see laptops frying all the time (and yet, we don't see this happening at all).
My old Acer 5930G with 9600m GT GPU was undervolted and the laptop is still running after 10 and a half years.

My laptops fans come on in idle mode as well.
So, even if I left it to idle for 8 hours, the laptop fans would still be coming on periodically to cool the system... that's because heat accumulates in the system and this signals the fans to cool it. But no, it doesn't mean that the laptop would be getting hotter and hotter in the center right side of keyboard after idling for 8 hours. That areas IS warmer by default, but it's never 'hot' unless I actually stress the system for a longer period of time.

I still maintain that undervolting is safe and effective and does not really contribute to 'frying the system'.
However, getting a radiator with adhesive thermal tape for the B350 chip is a good idea to 'patch' the flaw Asus left us with the original cooling.
This is the radiator I found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aluminum-H...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3M3QN0CZ0DSEYFB6QGVG