Hot M680? Try this (AS5 tutorial)

If you aren't up to date with my exploits thus far, check this thread
http://www.notebookforums.com/showth...7&page=1&pp=15

So, as promised, here's the step by step picture tutorial for applying as5 to your heatpipe assembly. Make sure you work in a low static area, and take precautions to avoid dust and moisture. Also notice how sloppy my job is and try to do better, the smoother and more even your application is, the better your results will be.

1.) Turn your laptop over and take out the battery and disconnect the AC power. Loosen all the screws circled in red. They are not meant to completely come out, which is good because they are easier to keep track of.



2.) Stick a thumbnail, or a small screwdriver into the indention in the bottom of the plate to allow you to pry it up and away from the body of the laptop



3.) Remove the screws circled in red (the three around the processor do not come out entirely, just loosen them until they are slack), and take note of the various parts for your own reference. Also take note of the numbers on the screws surrounding the processor (1,2,3) and gpu (1,2,3,4). This is the order you'll need to tighten the screws when you put it back together again. Also, make SURE you remember which screws go where. The screws in the gpu heatsink assembly are different lengths and they need to go back where they came from. Note: there are actually two screws in the upper right circle, sorry.



4.) Lift the CPU/Northbridge heatpipe assembly (this is attached directly to the main fan) up and out of the case.



5.) Lift the GPU heatpipe assembly (this is attached directly to the large copper heatsink that is visible from the outside) up and out of the case. Notice the arrows, you have to pull the heatsink away from the edge in order to lift the assembly out



6.) This is the part I don't have great pictures before, because I'm going in after the fact to do this. On the reverse side of the heatpipe assemblies you just lifted out, you will find thermal pads, and probably some gross pink goo where the CPU surface mates. On the CPU/NB assembly, remove all of it, and clean the surfaces with rubbing alcohol. Then apply a thin coating of artic silver 5 to the areas you removed the thermal pads from and cleaned. Experiment with ways to get a reasonably smooth, thin layer. I am very bad at this as you will see, and artic silver is incredibly messy, so try not to get it on anything you care about.



7.) Do the same for the GPU assembly. Remove the pads, except for the ones you see left on here. They are for cooling some small components (probably the voltage regulator, but i don't know) and i wouldn't mess with them. But remove the main pads for the gpu and the 4 memory modules, and clean the areas with rubbing alcohol. Then put a thin layer of as5 in the places you removed the pads from.



8.) Now go back and apply a thin layer to cpu and northbridge chip areas ONLY. These should be reasonably clean, so i wouldn't risk cleaning them. Artic silver can be slightly electrically conductive, which means very bad news if you get it anywhere it shouldn't be. Just a thin layer over the die of the chip and the die of the northbridge.



9.) For the gpu/ram, you may have to remove a layer of thermal junk over the die of your gpu. The square in the center of the black plastic material should be such that you can read what it is, be it Nvidia or ATI. Then apply a thin layer of as5 to it, and to each of the 4 ram chips. Same idea as the cpu/northbridge.



10. Reassembly everything, in the reverse order you took it out. That means, GPU heatpipe assembly back in (remember to tighten the screws in the order marked on the plate), then cpu heatpipe assembly and main fan, remembering the order of screw tightening with these as well. Then put the 3 screws that hold the fan back in (the one by the wireless card, and the 2 by the corner of the case). Then put the backplate back on and tighten all the screws.

Congratulations! You are done and should have lowered your temps significantly. I also got an additional 20Mhz out of my GPU core after doing this.

Ok here are some answers
1.) I like Newegg, they have always treated me very well and IMO are an excellent company. Here is a direct link to AS5 there. Shipping is somewhat of a ripoff on this particular item though...which is unusual. You may have better luck elsewhere. Try pricegrabber if you want.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100007


2.) Without going into college level physics/chemistry, the important thing is thermal resistance. Basically this is how much the material resists transfering heat. In the grand scheme of things, the thermal pads used in most computers are very easy to apply, but pretty bad at transferring heat. Artic silver compounds are extremely good at transferring heat. Therefore the heat the chip produces gets to the heatsink assembly faster, which means the chip itself stays cooler.

3.) Artic silver is incredibly hard to apply. It is a very thick paste. Applying with q-tips will make a cottony mess, as I have discovered several times. A finger works fairly well, but its not very precise and it makes a big mess of your fingers. Some people recommend flat toothpicks, and that is probably what i'd use if i was doing it again.

Yep, as i said, not such a good deal here. Look around, its pretty universally available at computer enthusiast places.

Another thing to try if you are having temperature trouble is to make sure your power profile isn't set to "max performance". This causes the processor to run full speed (and full heat) all the time, whether the system needs it or not. Go to control panel, then power options, and on the Power Schemes tab, choose portable/laptop, and you can customize the settings below to your preference. This power scheme will allow the machine to clock down the processor when you aren't doing anything intensive. This should cut 5-10° off your temps.