MSI GT/GX 7xx Series Vent Mod

Hey Everyone,

I made this mod a while ago and never got the chance to share it with everyone. I figured it's time I share the benefit of increased cooling with everyone else. Basically I noticed that the bottom vent was horribly inadequate for proper ventilation as it was a half circle and covered with a metal shield further restricting airflow.

Basically what we will be doing is removing the metal grating glued to the inside of the access panel and then using a dremel or other rotary tool to cut out a hole in the panel and recess a 80mm fan grill. As you can see below.



This started out as an idea to dremel out the slits to try and allow more airflow while keeping small items out of the fan. I was originally planning on mirroring the "D" patten of the plastic grille on the opposite side but as you can see I was nowhere near able to properly make the cuts with my tool.

Since that failed, I moved on to plan B.

Grab a pencil and trace around the outside of the 80mm fan grill and up to the four mounting rings. This will give you a nice idea of the proper cuts needed to recess the fan. The small plastic studs on the inside are a nice guide to ensure the cut will be as centered as possible.



After making what some would struggle to call a circle I dropped the fan grill in to see how it would look like as a finished product. I think we can all agree I might need a little more practice before I go pro. Next was to make a few passes with the dremel in each of the four stenciled grooves that would house the four mounting rings of the fan grill.



After a little cleanup and a generous application of super glue here's the finished product. It looks quite nice and works even better.



Here's an angled shot to show you how flush it is.



I have to look around and see what I have for registered temps, but what I do find may be kind of skewed due to my alienware 4850 cranking up the heat. In any case I wish anyone who undertakes this mod luck and let me know if there's any questions I can answer. All in all it was a very cheap way to keep temps down and maximize airflow of an otherwise ingenious design.

 

You know one reason for the airflow is so that the system has a slight vacuum and forces it to pull air in from the other vents and not just the one right below the intake fan. This makes it cool the entire laptop via airflow (things like the HDD & RAM) and not just the components like the GPU & CPU that have heatsinks attached to them.

 

Very true however, I needed to get more cooling to my nonspec parts versus my ram and other system components. I considered that before modding and my 4850 needed the cooling much more than anything else in the system. Ambient temperatures are still acceptable throughout the machine compared to before with the 4850 running considerably cooler. Eventually, I had plans to add a second slimline fan somewhere in the center of the panel to augment the cooling of all the other parts of the system but that plan is on the back burner for now.