Applying thermal paste, hard drive vibration dampening and upgrading RAM

So as my title suggests I want to apply some thermal paste to some of my components, try and reduce the amount of vibration that my hard drive gives off and possibly upgrade from 2GB to 4GB of RAM (if needed), the problem is I don't know where to start . Before I talk myself down too much I should add im not a complete novice, I have built my own desktop computer and take apart my laptop 4 or 5 times to get out all the dust and grime but i've never applied thermal paste.

So to start with the thermal paste, I was thinking of purchasing some "IC Diamond 7 Carat Thermal Compound", is there anything else i'll need to buy? How do I remove any old stuff that Dell (hopefully) would of applied when I first bought this laptop?

I've got some photos that I took last time of the insides of my laptop (sorry about the quality, i know they are FAR from the best)

1) http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9061/dsc00072bpj.jpg
2) http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6464/dsc00078pya.jpg
3) http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4012/dsc00079nuz.jpg
4) http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5975/dsc00077k.jpg

Would someone be so kind to take a few minutes and (if you can make out from the pictures) show me where exactly I should apply the compound? Thanks

Now for my hard drive, it's always made a lot of noise and vibrated so I was wondering if there was anything I could do to try and reduce the vibrations (im not so fussed about the noise, it only happens whilst the Dell BIOS screen is on), i've heard that I might be able to put rubber around the drive but im not sure if that's true or not.

Here's a picture of the drive: http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/1909/dsc00080ucm.jpg

Feel free to deface it to show me where/if I can put anything on it to help.

Lastly im thinking of upgrading from 2GB to 4GB, I pre-ordered Windows 7 and im led to believe that it's coming with both 32bit and 64bit so that isn't a problem BUT I don't know whether changing to the 4GB will actually help me? Is there a tool I can use to see how much RAM im using under full load etc?

I appreciate i've written quite a wall of text, so any help anyone can give me would be really appreciated. Once again thanks

 

I recently bought AC MX-3, and I'm loving it. I haven't tested it against ICD7, though.

AC Articlean is the best, but people use everyday cleansers. I've only ever used ArtiClean, though, so I don't know what's safe.

On picture two, use ArtiClean and some paper towels to cleanse the CPU core, which is the square shiny metal thing. You can use a turn the screw to remove the processor first, if you like.

On picture four, use ArtiClean to cleanse the heatsink of that goo. Leave the foam-looking pad thing alone.

 

Thanks for that!

Just to clarify, all i'd need is:
IC Diamond 7 Carat Thermal Compound - 1.5g and
ArctiClean 60ml Thermal Compound Cleaner

I'll add it to my shopping list haha

 

Yup. For ICD7, word on the street is that you have to put it in a cup of hot water for a minute or three in order to get it soft enough to work with effectively.


And to clarify on the instructions--just want to make sure--the CPU is the component with the pink stripe next to it. In the center of the pink stripe you'll see a screw. Turn that 180-degrees to unlatch the CPU. I highly recommend actually unseating the CPU durng the cleaning and TIM application process.

EDIT: Actually read the specs. You'll want to find your GPU and cleanse/re-paste that, too, if you can.

 

The GPU is the board that demonhotrod took out for the second picture that says 'PUSH HERE'.

 

You probably know more than me on how to apply to that kind of GPU. Asus makes weird GPUs.

 

When you say apply some to the GPU where do you mean?
I don't have it front of me right now but from what I can remember i could un-screw 3 of the screws and remove the big thing that says "Push Here" from the motherboard but I can't actually take the metal surround off, it needed some kind of special "star" shaped screwdriver that I don't own.

Thanks very much to everyone for the advice so far.

Whilst im at it, which of these sounds best:

- Kingston 4gb (2x2gb) PC2-6400 Hyperx Laptop Memory CL 5-5-5-18
- OCZ 4gb (2x2gb) PC2-6400 CL 5-5-5-15

They are what i've found so far just lightly browsing

 

Memory with lower timings is technically more responsive, so the OCZ would be better in that respect, but if the price difference is more than like 5 or 10 bucks, then don't bother, because it's the kind of thing that most people won't be able to notice.

If you want to apply thermal paste to the GPU you have to take that 'metal surround' off and then apply the paste between the GPU core and the metal surround.
The core produces heat, and the metal surround is designed to transfer the heat and bring it away with the fan. The paste helps with that.

 

That sounds a bit daunting, so i might leave it, not to mention im not even sure if I own one of the star shaped screwdrivers to separate the surround from the card itself. I'll have a rummage

Both sets of the RAM I mentioned are the same price (ish)

Does anyone have any ideas about the hard drive vibration?

 

I've decided against getting the RAM, I was just looking at the Resource Monitor in Vista and whilst in game it was only using about 65%, granted the game was only Team Fortress 2 but it's easily my most played game.

I'll save the pennies for changing my whole system in the middle of next year

 

You still going to paste it? The biggest problem solver and life-extender for notebooks is to reduce their heat.

 

Why bother changing thermal paste, if you're not having overheating temps no point in messing with the original stock system, it seems the heatsink uses a thermal pad on the GPU part so you should need a copper sheet to fill in the gap and then apply the grease.

 

On that note, changing to a better thermal paste will only help, not hurt. Since Hotrod already disassembled his heatsink, there really isn't a reason not to.

The only time I would be iffy about replacing the paste is if it would void my warranty to do so.

 

@ 'it seems the heatsink uses a thermal pad on the GPU part'

The one next to the CPU in the first pic is the northbridge.

 

Yeah I plan to still apply some new paste and hopefully, if i can find a way, decrease the hard drive noise/vibration.

Thats the exact reason im changing it. I noticed about a week ago that the fan activity was a lot more and my stock temperatures were up by about 6-8 degrees C, so i took the laptop apart, cleaned out all the dust and grime and thats when I noticed that the current paste seemed a bit flakey and poorly put on. Then I remembered about how people on here had good results when they applied new paste. I figured it couldn't be any worse if I added new stuff

EDIT: I don't know if this is what im looking for but would some of these Rubber Grommets placed around the hard drive help? I don't know if it's possible to do because of the way the hard drive is inserted into the laptop. I'm just looking for advice

 

I've turned my laptop on today and noticed a very feint but prominent clicking sound, problem is I don't know what's causing it, at first I thought it was the fan but that appears to be all fine, my next guess was the hard drive but the sound is happening both when the hard drive activity light is blinking and not blinking so i guess it can't be that right? The only other things it could be is the CPU or GPU, is it possible for either of those to click?

I'll try and get a recording of it but it's really bothering me as it's constantly clicking.

Note: It appears to do a succession of clicks, usually 3 or 4 in a row and then stop for a second, then repeat

 

GPU and CPU don't have moving parts, so no.

If you're sure it's not the hard drive, my next guess would be the optical drive.

 

I can't discount the hard drive but then I can't say for definite that it is. In my very un-scientific testing the sound did appear to be coming from the front left corner of my laptop, which as it happens, is where the hard drive is located.

Is it possible for a hard drive to just start clicking?

 

You'll all kinds of random sounds every once and a while.

Do you notice any negative performance?

 

Slightly actually, the time taken for the laptop to boot up and be in a "workable" state has gone up by about 30 seconds, despite me adding or removing nothing

 

Hmm.

If you have the time download HTune and run a check of your HDD.

 

Thanks, i'll probably have to do it later on. What test should I be running and what should I be looking out for?

 

Just run a benchmark and see what your health is.

 

I'm also interested in damping the vibration of my new drive, it's silent but makes the laptop vibrate a little bit, already the Lenovos have 2 rubber mounts on both sides of the drive, but I'm not sure where to put those grummets (I dont have available right now).

 

Just remember whatever grommets or washers you add have to withstand heat and you probably need eight of those, four on each side. I was thinking of O-rings. It should be alright as long as the HDD does not come in contact with any other components within its proximity... and don't forget to re-ground your harddrive.

I'd get one of the four screws that holds the HDD in place, go to a Home Depot or whatever hardware or automotive store you have in your area and find 8 O-rings that fit really snug. I think it's a lot easier to re-install the harddrive in its place also if the grommets/washers/o-rings are not loose. And don't tighten the four screws too much because you defeat the purpose of the rubber spacers just enough to hold the HDD down.

 

I ran the benchmark test and i got this
I clicked the "health" tab too and it said everything was ok
I don't know if it's connected to my problem at all but i've noticed that my USB transferring speeds have dropped considerably.
I was hoping I wouldn't need to format again until I got Windows 7 in October

EDIT: Conveniently when I first joined the forums back in February I posted this benchmark ( http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4026/wd1600bevsoh7.jpg), the speeds are nearly identical so I can only assume that my hard drive is fine