2014 Razer Blade 14 temperatures

So i've been reading multiple threads in the past 2 days trying to figure out if my temps were normal. My CPU would hit 99C while gaming and sit at 95-97C most of the time (CPU intensive games like the newest MMORPGs).

I tried limiting my max CPU frequency to 99% to avoid Turbo Boost and that did the trick, now my CPU tems are 85C max and 80-82C most of the time with absolutely 0 performance drop on any game, that got me pretty happy.

Now the thing is i was thinking on repasting my CPU/GPU but everyone says it is not recommended because of the heat pipes design, that makes sense on a brand new laptop but mine is over 2 years old...

Useful info:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/razer-blade-14-2015-repaste-log.788861/
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/repaste-those-razer-blade-2015s-at-your-own-risk.771707/

What do you think?, should i repaste my CPU/GPU making sure i fill the gaps between the heatpipes?

 

He did get a drop in temps in that first link. And your thermal paste is probable dried out and loosing effectiveness. While your at it make sure to get the dust outta the fins and fans. Electrical contact cleaner works great to remove old paste and get dust outta the fins.

 

I already opened up my laptop and cleaned the fans/grills but they didnt have too much dust, temps are pretty much the same.

Don't get me wrong, i've been working with computer hardware for several years but this is the first time i encounter this kind of heat pipe design. I'll wait until saturday (i don't have time to properly repaste it now), meanwhile im going to read your comments just to make sure i dont screw up anything XD

 

I would defiantly use a non conductive paste maybe a thicker type one like diamond ic7 that wont wick out the heat pipes when they get hot

 

Undervolting my CPU -80mV and 99% usage limit to avoid triggering turbo boost got my temps down to low 80s, that's awesome compared to my previous readings reaching 99C. Under load while playing graphic intensive games my GPU goes up to 85-87C and my CPU peaks at 85C max.
But my CPU is throttling down from 2.9Ghz on all 4 cores to 2.5Ghz if i use turbo boost and my temps go up to a maximum of 95-97C.

Most games run perfectly fine with 0 performance loss with undervolting+turbo boost disabled, but some CPU intensive games like TERA love higher clocks over more cores (bad optimization) which results on 8-10 fps higher when turbo boost is enabled.

Gonna repaste it later today then share my results here.

 

You definitely need a direct to pipe thermal compound. They are not the same as compounds that are designed to be used with a flat metal plate type interface.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

can confirm what hfm wrote.

Mine (the same) with a lot of normal MX4 in between the pipes and such, im havingit at:

CPU < 101 with ocasional throtteling in XTU
GPU < 71 with Furmark

So something is different here, but i can't tell waht. Maybe its the benchmark.

Probably going to put more paste onto the CPU.
Or i find some of that stuff hfm mentioned.

 

There's another thread with someone lucky enough to have made it work.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

I've always had really good experiences using Gelid GC Extreme on these razers, just make sure to apply enough as you need more on a heat pipe direct than you do on a copper plate. I would also suggest using thermal pads with much higher thermal conductivity. I like fujipoly ultra extreme-its awesome and recommended since ive seen some VRM's failing under the heatsink on these models. I havent narrowed down the exact cause of this yet, but in any case, better thermal pads can only serve to help. Besides the cpu undervolt you're running, you can also try my MOD Vbios for this system.

 

Failing VRM cause is that they run near max spec constantly. Check Louis Rossman on youtube for a detailed explanation

As for the thermals - a user here managed to get temps as low as 77*C with IC DIamond under a stress test - thing is, he sanded the pipes.

 

lol, pbhenry is the guy Louis Rossmann was interviewing

 

Yes, I was the guy who did the video with Louis. 77C is pretty good. Usually what I saw after the gelid gc extreme, fujipoly ultra extreme pads, cpu undervolt via throttlestop, and my mod vbios is around 74-75C max on cpu stress test and about 77 on gpu under maximum simultaneous loading on both cpu and gpu. I never tried lapping the pipes, didnt see a need to, but id advise being cautious as they are quite thin. I dont own one of these, besides parts boards, I just played around a bit with some repairs when in the testing phase.

 

Oh wow, did not see that xD - sorry for the misconception. Yeah, I refer to Rossman since youtube won't allow me to view your channel for some reason, not sure what's up or if it's a region thing. Again, sorry for the confusion on my part.

The thread about the sand was on the Razer forum somewhere, the original pipes were very rough and full of small indent holes - I'd wager that your methods + a bit of sanding may go long ways in actually fixing the horrible thermals/noise that most blades ship with.

 

No worries, that's strange you can't see my channel. Yes, I did notice the imperfections in the direct heat pipe. Its possible sanding could help but I personally never have tried lapping, as i've seen "anecdotal" reports of it "sometimes" causing even worse temps. From what I have seen there is about a 50/50 ratio of people reporting that it helps, and people reporting it makes it worse. My theory for these latter such reports is that sanding will increase the gap between the sink and the die, even if by a minute amount. We don't want a larger gap, but we also don't want imperfections. It makes it really tricky, and why I find it to be not worth it(just my opinion)

 

Hey there, could you possibly write down a guide or make a video about how to do that? Where to put the pads, how much paste and so on?
I received my new 2015 from razer in November, but temps are getting higher already as the paste is already 2 years old, I guess.
99C CPU, 85 GPU Max Temps under heavy loads, even just as spikes, they seem too high.

Thank you very much for the mosfets video by the way, my first 2015 failed cuz of an AC jack related part too..

 

99*C is 1*C away from thermal shutdown on Haswell AFAIK.

 

Thank you for all this info!

I just ordered the Gelid GC Extreme thermal compound, i really want to see how good of a permormer it is on heat pipe direct configuration.

Do you mind explaining how you apply it on the razer blade?. i was planning to fill the gaps between the heat pipes, then put a dot in the middle of the CPU/GPU and let the heatpipes sit on the chip to spread the thermal compound.

 

on the cpu i recommend a thin line to account for the layout of the cores and on the gpu a dot is fine. i filled all the gaps in the contact area of the heatpipes with paste you dont really want it outside of the contact zones because the heatpipes need to be pulling heat from as close to the end as possible for them to function best. they "wick" the heat up to the other end where the heatsink is.
I posted about my lapping and repaste experience but im taking it one step further my reflowing an extra heatsink and swapping to copper fins and filling the gaps with tin/silver/copper solder. i just have to finish forming the fins to size and ill be reflowing it sometime this week. im making sure to document everything and include measurements etc.

 

Sure, I can make a video on repasting and repadding the 2015 14 blade, as well as some other tips for dropping those temps. I have one coming in for repair later this week. 99C, ouch. Yes, 100C is the shutoff point, thats just dangerous. Razer should release a firmware update to change the throttling point of the cpu to something a little lower like 92C as a precaution. i understand we want good performance on these systems, but we dont want temperatures at the boiling point of water either. I did do a modded system bios and tried changing the DPTF(dynamic platform thermal framework) settings, but it had no effect. Its locked down in the Embedded controller firmware. I did manage to take a quick look inside the EC Firmware in a hex viewer as I was going to make a mod to change this, but I did not recognize any of the patterns. Its completely different EC than I've ever seen from any manufacturer, and would take a lot of time and work to figure it out. Our best bet is to just avoid letting it reach those temperatures in the first place.

 

Thank you very very much, I'm on this forums mostly looking for tips regarding temperature management since I've bought my notebook more than a year ago, with no luck at all yet.
Yea, BIOS settings won't work at all, I tried this before, as well as trying to handle the EC FW directly through notebook fan control, but it eventually bugs out.
My best bet is to find a way to properly mod the cooling system, would you help with this, I guess this whole community would be really greatful.

 

So far the temperatures on my Blade 2014 with Gelid GC Extreme didn't change much but CPU temps are a bit lower tho:
Note: CPU undervolt -0.80mv.

• GPU:

No changes here, stays at 85°C most of the time with occasional 87°C spike under full load on AAA graphic intensive games.

• CPU:

Before:
94-96°C under full load while playing graphic and CPU intensive games with occasional 99°C spikes
85°C max with Turbo Boost OFF
87-88°C during Intel XTU CPU stress test.

Now:
88-90°C under full load while playing graphic and CPU intensive games with occasional 96°C spikes
82°C max with Turbo Boost OFF
82-83°C during Intel XTU CPU stress test.


Application method:
1) Cleaned everything with alcohol until there was absolutely no thermal paste on the chips and the heat pipes.
2) Filled the gaps between the heat pipes with thermal compound, making sure to make it even to the surface with the plastic tool included in the package.
3) Cleaned the surface of the heat pipes to remove the remaining thermal compound.
3) Line method on the CPU, dot method on the GPU.

First Attempt: Temperatures were higher than before, i took the laptop apart again just to realize i didn't add enough thermal compound on both the CPU and the GPU, the top right corner of the GPU wasn't covered, same issue with the right side of the CPU. (Less is more rule does no good to this notebook)

Second Attempt: Used a larger amount of thermal paste on the CPU and GPU this time, temperatures improved but not by much (check results above).

 

I chose ic diamond for mine because it has a better bulk conductivity and doesnt thin or wick out as much under heatcycling. With larger gaps some compounds actually work worse than others. and there are lots of large gaps relative to how a heatsink should contact with al the rough divits in the heatpipe surface on the cooler. its ~$20 for a replacement cooler so buy one and lap it.

 

Sources for that 20$ cooler ?

 

ebay! ive bought 2 from here.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Razer-Blade...639193?hash=item4651c5f799:g:ducAAOSwIgNXj-V7