hey guys, I tried to follow the other writeup for fixing the x300's heatsink, but my D610 has a different setup. It seems the x300 card is integrated into the mobo, rather than implemented as a seperate unit. Here is a pic:
Notice the heatsink with the ATI logo. I am assuming that this is the GPU unit (and memory is completley shared?). There is also another chip that shares the same heatsink (just north of the ATI chip in the pic, right below the "ddr2 only" sticker). As far as I can figure this is my northbridge (correct me if im wrong) I'm assuming so because it has a heatsink, and an intel logo on it.
I originally just applied AS5 to the 2 chips and tried to put the heatsink back on, but I noticed that the metal surfaces were not making contact, as the blue thermal pad that formally connected the two was much thicker. I had to use a thick layer of AS5 to join the 2, and since AS5 is a poor conductor of heat compared to metal, this resulted in very high temps measured in my GPU. So I decided I would place a copper plate between the chips and the heatsink to fill some of the gap.
Here is a pic of the copper spacers installed:
Finally, heres a pic of the heatsink assembly, sans blue thermal pads, covered in a *thin* layer of AS5.
You MUST use a THIN layer of AS5 for a good thermal connection. As stated before, AS5 is actually a poor thermal conductor compared to metal, so you only want to use it to fill in the microscopic gaps between the 2 pieces of metal. The thinner the layer, the better.
By doing this mod, my temps lowered about 17deg C, from 50degC, to 33deg C. I don't know if it helped battery life any, but my laptop sure feels much cooler now when I have it on my lap, and after undervolting, the fan almost never comes on.
Notice the heatsink with the ATI logo. I am assuming that this is the GPU unit (and memory is completley shared?). There is also another chip that shares the same heatsink (just north of the ATI chip in the pic, right below the "ddr2 only" sticker). As far as I can figure this is my northbridge (correct me if im wrong) I'm assuming so because it has a heatsink, and an intel logo on it.
I originally just applied AS5 to the 2 chips and tried to put the heatsink back on, but I noticed that the metal surfaces were not making contact, as the blue thermal pad that formally connected the two was much thicker. I had to use a thick layer of AS5 to join the 2, and since AS5 is a poor conductor of heat compared to metal, this resulted in very high temps measured in my GPU. So I decided I would place a copper plate between the chips and the heatsink to fill some of the gap.
Here is a pic of the copper spacers installed:
Finally, heres a pic of the heatsink assembly, sans blue thermal pads, covered in a *thin* layer of AS5.
You MUST use a THIN layer of AS5 for a good thermal connection. As stated before, AS5 is actually a poor thermal conductor compared to metal, so you only want to use it to fill in the microscopic gaps between the 2 pieces of metal. The thinner the layer, the better.
By doing this mod, my temps lowered about 17deg C, from 50degC, to 33deg C. I don't know if it helped battery life any, but my laptop sure feels much cooler now when I have it on my lap, and after undervolting, the fan almost never comes on.
A sheet of 0.25" copper larger than you will ever need for a heatsink is only like $2.19
?!
Thx in advance
