Cooling Modifications

I know there is another post on this, but I have to clear up this ghost town of a section.
As many people know, Dell notebooks overheat, a lot. I experienced this firsthand as I recorded my GPU temperature reaching 100°C, quite near frying the card. Being the TWEEK that I am, I decided to do something about it.
http://www.bay-wolf.com/8500videoheat.htm
Here is a tutorial on how to modify the Dell 8600's Radeon 9600 pro turbo. Perfect, that's exactly what I had. I proceeded to buy the parts, and the modification worked out better than I had hoped. I made a few adjustments:
1. This tutorial has copper transmitting heat from the core, to copper, to casing, to heat pipe, and then to the fan. I eliminated the casing part by directly connecting the core to the heat pipe. I did this by using two pieces of copper. The first was .7x3x3 cm, and was glued to the casing. The second one (which actually contacts the core) was a quadrilateral with two 3cm sides, a 4cm side, and approximately a 3.5 cm side. This fits snugly to eliminate the extra distance the heat has to travel.
2. I placed a 55mmx15mmx5mm piece of copper over the memory as well.

Results: Massive overclocking. The load temp went from 100 degrees to 75. I was previously unable to overclock with any stability, but now i can raise the core 75 megagertz, and the memory by 55. I raised my 3dmark score from 2900 to 3400. Who says you can't overclock a notebook?!

Questions and comments are encouraged. Note that this does not just appy to inspiron 8600's. Any overheating GPU can use these methods.

Completed mods:
GPU cooling (100°C->75°C)
Mods in progress:
8600c to 8600 keyboard swap (to get the eraser head).
Tweaks: Radeon 9600 pro (337/242) at 400/300
~TWEEK

 

I have seen a product on best buy store... Its a silver something. There is a syringe and a spreader. Whats your comment on this???

 

The brand name matters a lot. Arctic Silver is generally considered the best, as it has the most actual silver in it. Is that "spreader" a copper heat spreader or a tool to distribute the compound. the purpose of the compound is to fill the microscopic valleys on the surface of the heat sink with a conductive material, and make contact on 100% of the core. It was important that I use actual silver as I had to fill large gaps. The surfaces were oddly shaped. www.ewiz.com sells Arctic silver dirt cheap, less than $2 a tube. They delivered in about 3 days. Get the Ceramique variety, it insulates against electricity so it is much safer.

Completed mods:
GPU cooling (100°C->75°C)
Mods in progress:
8600c to 8600 keyboard swap (to get the eraser head).
Tweaks: Radeon 9600 pro (337/242) at 400/300
~TWEEK

 

Have you heard of the product you put in desktop that is like an "air conditioner". I think its ceramic and actually cold to the touch.

I wonder if that is cold as it says then it will condense water. And that is a problem.

Do they have this on laptops?

 

That is really interesting. The only mass-produced cooling systems I know of for notebooks are external ones like Antec's, which use aluminum and fans. You are right, I would be afraid of the condensation. I find passive cooling systems to be the best for notebooks, as they will actually increase the battery life instead of reducing it. The reason it works so well is because the manufacturers' systems are usually very low quality (this does not apply to boutique rigs), since the wax dell uses insulates somewhat.

Completed mods:
GPU cooling (100°C->75°C)
Mods in progress:
8600c to 8600 keyboard swap (to get the eraser head).
Tweaks: Radeon 9600 pro (337/242) at 400/300
~TWEEK

 

red_chief,

what you are referring to is a peltier cooler. it uses electricity to make one side of a metal base really cold, and one side really hot. it does a decent job of cooling, but it does use up huge amounts of electricity. not very suitable for a notebook.

 

Thanks Spets for that name. It does ring a bell. Just saw it as an advertisement in a PC magazine some time ago. Any experience on it?

How will you react to the condensation issue? That is, since it is cold to touch it will condense water. Like an iced water you put on the table, you will observe on the sides water precipitates.

 

A really small pad like this would be nice. It could be used to cool one end of a heat pipe instead of a fan, and be much quieter.

GPU cooling (100°C->75°C)* Inspiron 8600 * 1.8ghz Pentium M * 128 MB Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo (337/242 -> 400/300) * 2x256 MB DDR2700 SDRAM * Aquamark 3: 24058 * 3DMark'03: 3404 * 3DMark'01 SE: 13120

 

Quote - www.ewiz.com sells Arctic silver dirt cheap, less than $2 a tube. They delivered in about 3 days. Get the Ceramique variety, it insulates against electricity so it is much safer.

That cheap stuff doesn't contain silver, as your post suggests and isn't nearly as good as the dearer stuff.

For a cheap compound I have found Coolermaster Premium (I think there are two premiums and a cheaper one now) or Shin etsu MicroSi paste to be good. For example a review of multiple compounds is available here and the above seem to do rather well. Perhaps too well if you ask me and the testing might be questionable. Too much of some types, perhaps?

http://www.insideproject.com/showreview.cfm?reviewid=81

 

URL not found

http://www.arcticsilver.com/ceramique.htm
UR right. Being the first time I used thermal compound, however, I though I would play it safe. Ewiz.com is a great store though, I put it just below Newegg.com .

GPU cooling (100°C->75°C)* Inspiron 8600 * 1.8ghz Pentium M * 128 MB Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo (337/242 -> 400/300) * 2x256 MB DDR2700 SDRAM * Aquamark 3: 24058 * 3DMark'03: 3404 * 3DMark'01 SE: 13120

 

Do NOT use a Peltier cooler!! Peltier coolers have an unwanted side effect that when the surrounding air gets humid, condensation can form on the cool side. Water droplets flowing freely across your motherboard as you move the machine around is a sure way to destroy your computer and void the warranty.

 

If you really wanted to run a peltier you would have to remove your motherboard and coat it with a clear silicone spray. I did this for a friends machine when he bought a 96w peltier. Even then... this would suck the life out of a battery... and is probably not even do-able. He has to run a seperate power supply just for the peltier and water cooler that cools the peltier.

 

if you are concerned about conductivity of the thermal paste you are using, I recommend Arctic Silver Ceramique - very good TIM that I use on my overclocked desktop (Mobile Athlon XP overclocked to 2.6ghz)

Acer Aspire AS1662WLMi
Pentium 4 3.0G, 15.4"

 

ok i have some questions

are there any watercooling systems for notebooks. i have read they are the best, even better than peltier and phasechange cooling and liquid nitrogen cooling. and u mite be thinking wow liquid nitro cooling but the book said it doesnt last long...and i mean it the book said it was only 4 some quick games

 

Nitrogen cooling is only for extreme overclocks that live just long enough to get a benchmark, not a good long-term prospect. Nitrogen cooling has taken pentium 4's above 5 ghz, but the instability is not worth it. You also only have cooling as long as you have gas.
Liquid cooling is great for the long term. It is quiet, efficient, and effective. It is also expensive, bulky and heavy. It would be neat in a DTR, though. You could overclock tremendously, and there would be NO NEED FOR AIR VENTS. that allows for waterproof notebooks [ ]
Whenever something gets really cold, it condenses water from the air around it. That's why peltier coolers arent that great. It would be better to have cool circulating air than one extremely cold spot. Phasechange cooling is really expensive, and also makes cold spots. The best solution right now is: heat spreader->heat pipe->heat sink->fan

GPU cooling (100°C->75°C)* Inspiron 8600 * 1.8ghz Pentium M * 128 MB Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo (337/242 -> 400/300) * 2x512 MB DDR2700 SDRAM * Aquamark 3: 24058 * 3DMark'03: 3404 * 3DMark'01 SE: 13120

 

Would there be any problem if i used some generic brand of heatsink compound [from when i built my desktop 3 years ago], and superglue?

also, does home depot or any store sell these copper plates?

 

Go ahead and use the generic stuff if you like. I had to get two pieces of sheet metal and sandwich them, as i could not find just the right thickness. Chances are you will have to cut and glue them yourself.

GPU cooling (100°C->75°C)* Inspiron 8600 * 1.8ghz Pentium M * 128 MB Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo (337/242 -> 400/300) * 2x512 MB DDR2700 SDRAM * Aquamark 3: 24058 * 3DMark'03: 3404 * 3DMark'01 SE: 13120