Dell Inspiron 15R Cooling Upgrades...

I haven't had any overheating issues at all with my notebook. However I'm tired of hearing the fan sounding like a turbine after watching hd content. It would be nice to see lower temperatures too.

Notebook Specs: Dell Inspiron N5010
Intel i3 Core @ 2.26ghz
ATI Radeon HD 5470
4GBs of ram.

So I want to use artic silver 5 to replace the stock thermal compound and buy a copper thermal pad/shim for the GPU.

Is it safe to replace the stock silicone thermal pad from the gpu with a copper one?

Is it safe to add both AS5 and a copper shim to the GPU without damaging it?

Is there a better aftermarket cpu fan that I can use to replace the stock one?

 

I personally don't trust copper shims. If improperly installed or wrong thickness, you can destroy your GPU die. AS5, MX-4, IC Diamond 7, are all good thermal pastes. TBH the difference between all of them are 2-3 C TOPS. I don't think you could get an aftermarket fan, they are all OEM probably from Delta. Any case, a higher RPM fan would make it even louder.

 

I think that I'm just going to add new thermal paste and not mess with shims. BTW, how would you personally apply thermal paste to the i3 cpu if you had the 15R?

I always applied a dab of AS5 (size of a pea) and then spread it across evenly with a credit card to my Acer notebook and Xbox 360 c/gpus.

 

You can spread it thin with a business card or old credit card, or put a dab on the middle and try to squish it even with the heatsink.

 

After owning my 14R for about a year and a half I took it apart and swapped out the paste for arctic silver 5. Use q-tips and rubbing alcohol to slowly remove the old paste until it is completely clean, both the proc and heatsink(i.e. the qtip does not turn grey). then let everything dry for a few minutes.
I applied just a pea sized amount in the center and then sandwiched it all back together then took the heatsink off to chekc the spread. I was satisfied that the amount was adequate I repeated the process and cleaned all the paste off and applied a new dab. I heard once you squish it you do not want to take the heatsink off and back down, creates air bubbles or something.

I noticed about a 5-6*C drop in idle temps.

However my i7 14R still overheats from time to time :-(

-Luke

 

However my i7 14R still overheats from time to time :-(

Have you cleaned out the fans - as in opened things up, remove the fan assy and cleaned it out, along with cleaning any of the heat pipes.

If so a cooling pad maybe your best option.

many basic laptops are not really designed to handle high heat loads with the provided thermal solutions so adding a cooling pad can go a long way in boosting the air flow.

 

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the ideas. When I replaced the thermal paste I did blow out the fan but do not recall checking the tubing at all. Things were actually surprising clean(at least to the eye). What's weird is it occasionally overheats with no apps open. Most of the time if and when it overheats it is under heavy load, but not always. Since I use it everyday I think a cooling pad will help in the long run regardless.

Thanks!
-Luke