Here it is friends, the "Arctic Silver" guide for our precious Sagers. I've also included a guide to lapping your heatsink, although this is not required. The pictures are of this procedure being performed on a model 5680. Enjoy!!!
For those of you completely new to this, Arctic Silver is a thermally conductive compound (in the form of a paste) that replaces the stock thermal pad inside our Sager notebooks. The thermal pad leaves room for improvement in the effeciency of the heat transfer from the P4 cpu to the heatspreader, so that's where Arctic Silver comes in. Please read over this guide fully before you start this project.
DISCLAIMER: I claim no responsiblity if you or anyone else causes damage to your notebook or the components contained within it while partaking in this project.
With that said, I feel that this project is fairly easy to do and provides a great benefit, considering that a cooler cpu is a longer-lasting cpu!!
So, let's get started shall we?
MATERIALS NEEDED
1. Arctic Silver
I will be using Arctic Silver III for this project, simply because I have a tube of it readily available. The latest release is Arctic Silver 5 and if I didn't already have my tube of AS3, I'd definitely order AS5. AS5 can be purchased at lots of different online retailers, and probably a few retail stores as well.
2. Good supply of Q-tips (I forgot to put these into the materials picture, but they are definitely needed)
3. Rubbing Alcohol (the higher percentage of alcohol the better....my bottle is 91% from a department store)
4. 1 Lint Free Cloth (I picked mine up from a department store in the eyeglasses section. It's just a $1 lint free lens cleaning cloth)
5. 1 Ziplock bag
6. Small Phillips Head Screwdriver
7. Plastic card (old credit card, membership card, etc. This is used to help remove the thermal pad from the heatspreader as well as spread AS onto the cpu)
IF LAPPING YOUR HEATSPREADER, YOU WILL NEED THESE ALSO:
8. Tape (masking tape, scotch tape, it doesn't really matter what kind of tape you use...only one variety is needed)
9. Sandpaper
Now, a little bit needs to be said about what type of sandpaper. I took a trip to my local department store and got 3M 800 and 1000 grit sandpaper. I would've bought a third (higher number such as 1200) grit but they were out of everything else. Whatever you get, make sure it's wet or dry sandpaper because you'll be wet-sanding the heatspreader. What seems to work well is to start with 600 grit and then proceed to 800, then finally 1000 grit. 1000 probably isn't necessary but it does give the heatspreader a great-looking mirror finish. I have went all out before and lapped a heatsink with 600,800,1000, and then 1200 to produce an excellent mirror finish. While looking extremely shiny, the benefit of lapping over 1000 grit is minimal aside from the cosmetic aspect.
10. A flat piece of glass
You will be lapping the heatspreader on this glass to insure a perfectly flat surface. I took a trip down to my local glass shop and put in an order for a 10"x10"x3/8" piece of glass with seamed edges (make sure the edges are seamed so that you don't get glass splinters from handling it). The cost was $7.
11. Small amount of water (to put on the sandpaper....lapping is wet-sanding)
Here's a materials picture (without Q-tips):
1. GETTING TO THE HEATSPREADER
This is the panel that we will be removing in order to gain access to the heatspreader and cpu:
Just remove the 3 screws that hold this panel on and then remove it:
2. REMOVING THE HEATSPREADER
To remove the heatspreader 4 screws have to be removed. I have circled these 4 screws in the provided picture of the heatspreader:
Remove the screws completely and set them aside. Now carefully remove the heatspreader from the compartment. Now the cpu is visible. If you've had your computer for a while, a SMALL amount of twisting might be required in order to break bond of the thermal pad to the cpu. Here's a picture of what the cpu looks like after the heatspreader is removed:
3. REMOVING THE THERMAL PAD
Looking at the bottom of the heatspreader, we now have our first look at the thermal pad. To remove it, slide your plastic card under it to pry the pad off bit by bit until the pad is completely off. Here's a picture of the thermal pad partially removed and another of the completely removed thermal pad next to the heatspreader:
4. CLEANING THE HEATSPREADER AND PROCESSOR
Here's where the good supply of Q-tips come in. Take a Q-tip and start cleaning the thermal pad remnants off of the heatspreader. Here's a picture of how clean I got the heatspreader using dry Q-tips alone:
When dry Q-tips won't clean the heatspreader anymore, pour a little of your rubbing alcohol into a small cup. Dip the Q-tips into the alchohol and start cleaning the heatspreader with these until the heatspreader is clean. Don't dip the Q-tips into the actual alcohol bottle because the next time someone gets a scrape you don't want to be cleansing it with alcohol mixed with part of a dissolved thermal pad (if you re-dip the Q-tips). Take your time with the cleaning. I probably used 25-40 Q-tips doing this, and I had to press down firmly a couple of times to get the thermal pad off as best as possible. Here's a picture of the heatspreader after being cleaned with alcohol + Q-tips:
To clean the cpu, repeat the exact same process. Clean with dry Q-tips until you have to start using rubbing alcohol to get the rest off. Here's a picture of the cpu after cleaning:
Nice and clean, isn't it? (NOTE: You can decide whether you want to remove the cpu for cleaning or not. I just left the cpu in the socket and was very careful not to let anything fall onto the motherboard. The thermal pad remnants stick to the Q-tips fairly well.)
If you are lapping your heatspreader, continue to the "LAPPING THE HEATSPREADER" step. If you are not lapping your heatspreader, continue to the "APPLYING ARCTIC SILVER" step now. I chose to lap the heatspreader because there are microscopic particles of the thermal pad still in the heatspreader that Q-tips and alcohol cannot remove. So, the logical thing to do is to remove an ultra-thin layer of metal off of the contact surface of the heatspreader, effectively removing the microscopic thermal pad particles with it. I also had another reason to lap the heatspreader: I wanted to see if the heatspreader was totally flat or not.
5. LAPPING THE HEATSPREADER
Take a strip of the lowest grit sandpaper you have purchased (800 for me), and use your tape to tape the sandpaper down onto the glass as shown. Take a bit of water and put it onto the sandpaper and spread it around with your finger. Take the heatspreader and start lapping the silver area of the heatspreader (the area that makes contact with the cpu), taking care not to lap the copper part of the heatspreader. Here's a picture of how the lapping activity should look:
Lap in a sideways figure 8 motion, slowly moving from one end of the sandpaper to the other end. When you feel that the grit has been removed from the sandpaper, replace the sheet of used sandpaper with a new sheet or go onto the next grit. Once you are done lapping, take a paper towel or napkin and dry the heatspreader. DON'T touch the lapped surface with your finger!!! I only used 1 sheet of 800 grit and then went onto 1 sheet of 1000 grit.
I concluded that my heatspreader was flat and that I had removed enough of the top layer and the thermal pad particles in it. If I had've used 2 sheets of 800 then moved onto 2 sheets of 1000, it probably would've been more efficient. Here's a picture that shows the reflection of a flashlight in the heatspreader after lapping:
We are now ready to apply the Arctic Silver.
6. APPLYING ARCTIC SILVER
Apply some Arctic Silver to the heatspreader as shown in the picture.
The amount of Arctic Silver in this picture is a bit smaller than a pea-sized amount:
Now take a plastic card and scoop up a small bit of the Arctic Silver (~10-15%) from the heatspreader and apply it to the cpu die. Use the plastic card to spread the Arctic Silver in a VERY VERY THIN layer on the cpu die. Less is more in this case!! Here's a picture of the cpu die with Arctic Silver spread on it:
Now the ziplock bag comes into play. Put the bag over your finger as shown in the picture:
Rub the Arctic Silver around on the heatspreader as shown:
The reason for using the ziplock bag is because you have to use your finger to spread the arctic silver around so that it gets into all the tiny microscopic spaces of the heatspreader, but at the same time using your finger would contaminate the surface with oils from your skin. These oils will hinder the heat transfer between the cpu and the heatspreader, so the bag protects the heatspreader surface from oils.
After the Arctic Silver has been rubbed in, take your lint free cloth and wipe the heatspreader as clean as you can using only the dry cloth. The product is a perfectly prepped heatspreader with Arctic Silver only where it needs to be: In the microscopic valleys of the heatspreader. Here's a picture of the heatspreader after it had been wiped clean with a dry lint free cloth:
We're now ready to re-assemble that which we've disassembled.
7. PUTTING IT ALL BACK TOGETHER
Re-assembly is the opposite of what we did to get to the cpu and heatspreader. Slide the heatspreader back into it's space as it was before you removed it, then screw in the 4 spring-loaded screws which clamp the heatspreader to the cpu. Once completed, screw the chassis panel back on with the 3 screws you set aside earlier, and you're all set!
If you've followed the instructions in this guide correctly, your cpu temperature will be lower under load due to the better thermal conductivity of Arctic Silver compared to the stock thermal pad, effectively extending the life of your processor! I hope everyone enjoys this guide. Feel free to comment or ask questions. A special thanks goes out to Henrik who graciously hosted all the pictures for me.
For those of you completely new to this, Arctic Silver is a thermally conductive compound (in the form of a paste) that replaces the stock thermal pad inside our Sager notebooks. The thermal pad leaves room for improvement in the effeciency of the heat transfer from the P4 cpu to the heatspreader, so that's where Arctic Silver comes in. Please read over this guide fully before you start this project.
DISCLAIMER: I claim no responsiblity if you or anyone else causes damage to your notebook or the components contained within it while partaking in this project.
With that said, I feel that this project is fairly easy to do and provides a great benefit, considering that a cooler cpu is a longer-lasting cpu!!
So, let's get started shall we?
MATERIALS NEEDED
1. Arctic Silver
I will be using Arctic Silver III for this project, simply because I have a tube of it readily available. The latest release is Arctic Silver 5 and if I didn't already have my tube of AS3, I'd definitely order AS5. AS5 can be purchased at lots of different online retailers, and probably a few retail stores as well.
2. Good supply of Q-tips (I forgot to put these into the materials picture, but they are definitely needed)
3. Rubbing Alcohol (the higher percentage of alcohol the better....my bottle is 91% from a department store)
4. 1 Lint Free Cloth (I picked mine up from a department store in the eyeglasses section. It's just a $1 lint free lens cleaning cloth)
5. 1 Ziplock bag
6. Small Phillips Head Screwdriver
7. Plastic card (old credit card, membership card, etc. This is used to help remove the thermal pad from the heatspreader as well as spread AS onto the cpu)
IF LAPPING YOUR HEATSPREADER, YOU WILL NEED THESE ALSO:
8. Tape (masking tape, scotch tape, it doesn't really matter what kind of tape you use...only one variety is needed)
9. Sandpaper
Now, a little bit needs to be said about what type of sandpaper. I took a trip to my local department store and got 3M 800 and 1000 grit sandpaper. I would've bought a third (higher number such as 1200) grit but they were out of everything else. Whatever you get, make sure it's wet or dry sandpaper because you'll be wet-sanding the heatspreader. What seems to work well is to start with 600 grit and then proceed to 800, then finally 1000 grit. 1000 probably isn't necessary but it does give the heatspreader a great-looking mirror finish. I have went all out before and lapped a heatsink with 600,800,1000, and then 1200 to produce an excellent mirror finish. While looking extremely shiny, the benefit of lapping over 1000 grit is minimal aside from the cosmetic aspect.
10. A flat piece of glass
You will be lapping the heatspreader on this glass to insure a perfectly flat surface. I took a trip down to my local glass shop and put in an order for a 10"x10"x3/8" piece of glass with seamed edges (make sure the edges are seamed so that you don't get glass splinters from handling it). The cost was $7.
11. Small amount of water (to put on the sandpaper....lapping is wet-sanding)
Here's a materials picture (without Q-tips):
1. GETTING TO THE HEATSPREADER
This is the panel that we will be removing in order to gain access to the heatspreader and cpu:
Just remove the 3 screws that hold this panel on and then remove it:
2. REMOVING THE HEATSPREADER
To remove the heatspreader 4 screws have to be removed. I have circled these 4 screws in the provided picture of the heatspreader:
Remove the screws completely and set them aside. Now carefully remove the heatspreader from the compartment. Now the cpu is visible. If you've had your computer for a while, a SMALL amount of twisting might be required in order to break bond of the thermal pad to the cpu. Here's a picture of what the cpu looks like after the heatspreader is removed:
3. REMOVING THE THERMAL PAD
Looking at the bottom of the heatspreader, we now have our first look at the thermal pad. To remove it, slide your plastic card under it to pry the pad off bit by bit until the pad is completely off. Here's a picture of the thermal pad partially removed and another of the completely removed thermal pad next to the heatspreader:
4. CLEANING THE HEATSPREADER AND PROCESSOR
Here's where the good supply of Q-tips come in. Take a Q-tip and start cleaning the thermal pad remnants off of the heatspreader. Here's a picture of how clean I got the heatspreader using dry Q-tips alone:
When dry Q-tips won't clean the heatspreader anymore, pour a little of your rubbing alcohol into a small cup. Dip the Q-tips into the alchohol and start cleaning the heatspreader with these until the heatspreader is clean. Don't dip the Q-tips into the actual alcohol bottle because the next time someone gets a scrape you don't want to be cleansing it with alcohol mixed with part of a dissolved thermal pad (if you re-dip the Q-tips). Take your time with the cleaning. I probably used 25-40 Q-tips doing this, and I had to press down firmly a couple of times to get the thermal pad off as best as possible. Here's a picture of the heatspreader after being cleaned with alcohol + Q-tips:
To clean the cpu, repeat the exact same process. Clean with dry Q-tips until you have to start using rubbing alcohol to get the rest off. Here's a picture of the cpu after cleaning:
Nice and clean, isn't it? (NOTE: You can decide whether you want to remove the cpu for cleaning or not. I just left the cpu in the socket and was very careful not to let anything fall onto the motherboard. The thermal pad remnants stick to the Q-tips fairly well.)
If you are lapping your heatspreader, continue to the "LAPPING THE HEATSPREADER" step. If you are not lapping your heatspreader, continue to the "APPLYING ARCTIC SILVER" step now. I chose to lap the heatspreader because there are microscopic particles of the thermal pad still in the heatspreader that Q-tips and alcohol cannot remove. So, the logical thing to do is to remove an ultra-thin layer of metal off of the contact surface of the heatspreader, effectively removing the microscopic thermal pad particles with it. I also had another reason to lap the heatspreader: I wanted to see if the heatspreader was totally flat or not.
5. LAPPING THE HEATSPREADER
Take a strip of the lowest grit sandpaper you have purchased (800 for me), and use your tape to tape the sandpaper down onto the glass as shown. Take a bit of water and put it onto the sandpaper and spread it around with your finger. Take the heatspreader and start lapping the silver area of the heatspreader (the area that makes contact with the cpu), taking care not to lap the copper part of the heatspreader. Here's a picture of how the lapping activity should look:
Lap in a sideways figure 8 motion, slowly moving from one end of the sandpaper to the other end. When you feel that the grit has been removed from the sandpaper, replace the sheet of used sandpaper with a new sheet or go onto the next grit. Once you are done lapping, take a paper towel or napkin and dry the heatspreader. DON'T touch the lapped surface with your finger!!! I only used 1 sheet of 800 grit and then went onto 1 sheet of 1000 grit.
I concluded that my heatspreader was flat and that I had removed enough of the top layer and the thermal pad particles in it. If I had've used 2 sheets of 800 then moved onto 2 sheets of 1000, it probably would've been more efficient. Here's a picture that shows the reflection of a flashlight in the heatspreader after lapping:
We are now ready to apply the Arctic Silver.
6. APPLYING ARCTIC SILVER
Apply some Arctic Silver to the heatspreader as shown in the picture.
The amount of Arctic Silver in this picture is a bit smaller than a pea-sized amount:
Now take a plastic card and scoop up a small bit of the Arctic Silver (~10-15%) from the heatspreader and apply it to the cpu die. Use the plastic card to spread the Arctic Silver in a VERY VERY THIN layer on the cpu die. Less is more in this case!! Here's a picture of the cpu die with Arctic Silver spread on it:
Now the ziplock bag comes into play. Put the bag over your finger as shown in the picture:
Rub the Arctic Silver around on the heatspreader as shown:
The reason for using the ziplock bag is because you have to use your finger to spread the arctic silver around so that it gets into all the tiny microscopic spaces of the heatspreader, but at the same time using your finger would contaminate the surface with oils from your skin. These oils will hinder the heat transfer between the cpu and the heatspreader, so the bag protects the heatspreader surface from oils.
After the Arctic Silver has been rubbed in, take your lint free cloth and wipe the heatspreader as clean as you can using only the dry cloth. The product is a perfectly prepped heatspreader with Arctic Silver only where it needs to be: In the microscopic valleys of the heatspreader. Here's a picture of the heatspreader after it had been wiped clean with a dry lint free cloth:
We're now ready to re-assemble that which we've disassembled.
7. PUTTING IT ALL BACK TOGETHER
Re-assembly is the opposite of what we did to get to the cpu and heatspreader. Slide the heatspreader back into it's space as it was before you removed it, then screw in the 4 spring-loaded screws which clamp the heatspreader to the cpu. Once completed, screw the chassis panel back on with the 3 screws you set aside earlier, and you're all set!
If you've followed the instructions in this guide correctly, your cpu temperature will be lower under load due to the better thermal conductivity of Arctic Silver compared to the stock thermal pad, effectively extending the life of your processor! I hope everyone enjoys this guide. Feel free to comment or ask questions. A special thanks goes out to Henrik who graciously hosted all the pictures for me.
