New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Airflow

post #1 of 12
1/7/10 at 4:06pm
Thread Starter 
do you guys agree with this guy on the airflow?


Quote:

Air gaps from Dell's stock setup of heatsinks

Now this was something I was not happy about. There is a large gap from the left fan (fan 1) to the CPU's heatsink from before. Then there was now a gap between the CPU and GPU's heatsinks. You can see in the picture above the screwdriver that is clearly visible (click the image for the full-res version).

In my history of custom cooling back in the 80s and 90s, there is one thing I learned that always remains constant: airflow is key. So my task would be to modify the airflow to force all air through the heatsinks by not allowing any to escape the airflow path through any gaps.


Aluminum Foil Shrouds
I accomplished this by using a few pieces of kitchen aluminum foil, scotch-tape, and additional AS5. There are multiple reasons for this. First for safety I evaluated the entire area and found no electrical components or circuit boards anywhere near this area. You do not want a piece coming loose and short-circuiting things!

Second is having aluminum foil allows the heat to transfer from one copper pipe to the other (just a tad though, too thin really to do a massive amount). That may not have been the best idea at first because CPUs usually run cooler than GPUs from my overclocking experience. But considering how freakin' high my CPU temps were before I even began, I could only see this as helping to offload some heat to the GPU's heatpipe - even if just a tad amount, anything had to help.

I also closed down the air escaping on the left side of fan's outlet to the CPU's heatsink, as well as the gaps between the two heatsinks. Now all air is forced by the fan trough the CPU heatsink, and then through the GPU's heatsink where it than only has room to exit the back vent.
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 12
1/7/10 at 5:09pm
His argument is sound. So yes! A tight (no leak) air flow is better in dissipating heat.

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 12
1/7/10 at 5:25pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
His argument is sound. So yes! A tight (no leak) air flow is better in dissipating heat.

cheers ...
even this?

Quote:
I also closed down the air escaping on the left side of fan's outlet to the CPU's heatsink, as well as the gaps between the two heatsinks. Now all air is forced by the fan trough the CPU heatsink, and then through the GPU's heatsink where it than only has room to exit the back vent.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 12
1/7/10 at 7:03pm
I see no problem with that either. He saw what was the best setup and follow through on that particular model.

I am not saying that what he does can be applied to others, but the argument and resolution can be used as template.

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 12
1/7/10 at 7:05pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you! 2x +rep
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 12
1/8/10 at 1:16pm
Its something that even Dell acknowledges, they're just too cheap to do anything significant about it. They, by default, put the wind tunnel strip on the GPU's heatsink fins. This is only on newer dualpipe heatsinks though I believe: 7950 GTX and FX3600M Personally though, I am more concerned with other types of airflow. I have a laptop cooler that props the bottom off the ground (it does this by prop'ing the back edge of the laptop up) and blows cool air in from the bottom and that's what allows my laptop to run some of the lowest idles I've seen on this site. Other laptop coolers try to draw heat away from the bottom either by sucking air from the bottom or prop'ing it up with an angled piece of metal which acts similar to a heatsink.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 12
1/8/10 at 2:32pm
Thread Starter 
Go 7950 GTX



I see what you mean... by wind tunnel strips on the GPU's heatsink fins
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 12
1/10/10 at 4:12pm
Scotch tape? Really scotch tape does not catch anyones eye? Is electrical tape that expensive. I don't see scotch tape holding up well in there. I see hard useless varnish on some components in short order. That's going to be fun to clean up.

I think this is a fine modification but I can see why MFG's do not do. And it is not cheapness it is more a matter of practicality. Some might argue that is cheapness I beg to differ. While both do come down to cost the main determining factor is different. This modification is not practical to do at the plant but yes very easy for the individual. Does not disassemble well, at least not in professional sense. A modular form and something similar to a gasket or rubber seal would be the way an ODM would likely do. Desktop guys have to do much to modify there set ups. That is what you do when you want to operate above specs. Either pushing the system beyond specs and maintaining adequate thermal conditions or running as cool as possible while not pushing other components.

The goal of the ODM is to make a system that meets certain criteria not to get the absolute max out of everything. I prefer not having ODM spend money on this I will do it myself. Adding $20/$30 per unit adds a lot when we are talking 100,000 units.

Welcome to the wonderful world of notebook modding. But why bash the MFG? Modding gives you something to do. People do it with cars and don't bash the MFG why do we computer guys insist on doing it. It's a great hobby enjoy it.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 12
1/10/10 at 5:56pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by powerpack View Post
Scotch tape? Really scotch tape does not catch anyones eye? Is electrical tape that expensive. I don't see scotch tape holding up well in there. I see hard useless varnish on some components in short order. That's going to be fun to clean up.

I think this is a fine modification but I can see why MFG's do not do. And it is not cheapness it is more a matter of practicality. Some might argue that is cheapness I beg to differ. While both do come down to cost the main determining factor is different. This modification is not practical to do at the plant but yes very easy for the individual. Does not disassemble well, at least not in professional sense. A modular form and something similar to a gasket or rubber seal would be the way an ODM would likely do. Desktop guys have to do much to modify there set ups. That is what you do when you want to operate above specs. Either pushing the system beyond specs and maintaining adequate thermal conditions or running as cool as possible while not pushing other components.

The goal of the ODM is to make a system that meets certain criteria not to get the absolute max out of everything. I prefer not having ODM spend money on this I will do it myself. Adding $20/$30 per unit adds a lot when we are talking 100,000 units.

Welcome to the wonderful world of notebook modding. But why bash the MFG? Modding gives you something to do. People do it with cars and don't bash the MFG why do we computer guys insist on doing it. It's a great hobby enjoy it.
good points... i was going to use scotch tape, but a friend raised the question of how good (bad) idea that would be considering the heat flow...
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 12
1/10/10 at 6:05pm
Best thing would be cloth electrical tape, I believe. It won't "run" (or sweat)

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 12
1/11/10 at 6:18pm
I don't see why you need tape at all if you're using aluminum foil. Foil is already "adhesive" by nature and it won't have the room to wiggle around in there once you put the palmrest back on.

Lastly, I just wanted to say that the system would be no harder to disassemble with wind tunnel strips put separately on the CPU and GPU heatsink fins. This is what I was envisioning. Its not as efficient as one single strip over both but its not very far from it. Like I said though, this isn't a big deal to me at all. I like a little air to escape to help lower the ambient of my laptop. This I imagine helps keep the idle temperature of my laptop down which is what I prefer. My max's are well under control already. Its really some people's idle's that are killing their components. Dell's BIOS is (or at least was) geared torwards keeping the computer quiet versus keeping the computer cool.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 12
1/12/10 at 2:14pm
you bet your butt that putting a fan shroud on a radiator is going to improve the cooling performance. My dad broke the fan shroud on his '78 F250 during the process of installing a new engine, and it CONSTANTLY overheated until he bought a replacement. You wouldn't think a piece of plastic would amount to a hill of beans in terms of performance, but it did.

However, rather than using the quoted guy's rather kludgey method of using kitchen foil and scotch tape, it'd be much better to go with some 3M foil tape. you can usually find it at Lowe's and Home Depot.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Dell Notebooks - General