Penryn upgrade observations (seems to run hotter!)

I upgraded my laptop in my sig to a Penryn T9500 2.6ghz 6mb CPU about 3 weeks ago. I previously had a T7800 2.6ghz 4mb CPU in that laptop which I had for several months. I performed the upgrade without incident, cleaned off all the cheap heatsink goop and spread a thin layer of artic silver 3 in meticulous manner when replacing the heatsink. After the upgrade, the laptop performs well and benchmarks show the performance increase. However I notice that the Penryn actually seems to run hotter than the older 65nm T7800. In addition, the fan comes on and spins at higher speeds more often than it did before with the T7800 which I found odd. The only thing I can think of is that my using Artic Silver to replace the stock crappy heatsink goop actually helps transfer heat much better to the heatsink and thus it seems like the computer is running hotter than previously.

Other things to note: The fan and heatsink had a little dust stuck to it but not much at all, I cleaned them out completely while I had the laptop open. Also, I had the latest BIOS installed and had been using it for at least a week before the upgrade.

Just thought I'd post my observations. I thought it would run noticeably cooler but doesn't seem like it. As said before I am thinking the increased L2 cache may make a warmer operating CPU, or just the application of Artic Silver thinly spread on the CPU really transfers heat WAY better than the stock heatsink goop, thus making the fan spin more and make it seem hotter. The laptop plastics itself don't really seem to run hotter - so maybe that is what it is. Opinions?

 

why did you used Arctic 3 when there is Arctic 5?!

 

How old was the AS3 you applied? You should have used AS5

Did you check for any gaps between the CPU and heatsink? If there is, thermal pads are needed. Gaps are very bad

You can undervolt for now and lower the cpu temps by 10c or so

 

What was the default voltage range of the old T7800 and what is the voltage range of the new T9500? Each CPU is different in this respect. You might have swapped to a CPU with a higher voltage range and hence higher power consumption and heat. As already suggested, you can probably undervolt to get the heat down without any loss of performance. See the undervolting guide.

John

 

I used AS3 because I simply had it lying around. It still works fine, thermal compound doesn't expire as long as it doesn't dry up, or wasn't exposed to freezing temps or what not. There is no gap between the CPU and heatsink, otherwise heat wouldn't increase at the heatsink itself, it wouldn't even be transferred to it as well. I am pretty sure that the heat is just due to it being transferred to the heatsink a lot more efficiently than it was when stock.

The old T7800 voltage was higher than the new T9500. I don't remember the range of the voltage off the top of my head but it was the usual range for any T7800, I had looked into that before. Also my T7800 was a newer stepping (I have seen different steppings of that CPU). In any case the T9500 is definitely running at lower voltage at the proper voltage (As confirmed with CPU-Z, the version that gives correct voltage readings). So I guess that the improved transfer of heat to the heatsink is all that it is. I just didn't expect it to be noticeably improved in that respect - I think that shows that stock heatsink goop used by OEMs can really be improved on. It really seemed low quality, and was gooped on everywhere and in excessive amounts so that it was sandwiched out all over into adjacent spaces.