Little project - how to better cool a laptop

The_Conductor

Guys-

I've put together a nice enough system in a budget laptop case (from a Lenovo G570). It features an i7 2860QM with other reasonable components- its slightly dated- but very usable.

Boot to desktop 17 seconds (not a record by any means- but respectable enough).

Issue- is overheating. Its idling @ 86 degrees.......

Suggestions on how to better cool the system greatly appreciated- keeping the silly Lenovo case etc in mind....... I want the system to be as portable as possible- and have a reasonable amount of grunt- without looking like something anyone would have any great enthusiasm to rob etc.

Lu Tze

The_Conductor wrote: »

Guys-

I've put together a nice enough system in a budget laptop case (from a Lenovo G570). It features an i7 2860QM with other reasonable components- its slightly dated- but very usable.

Boot to desktop 17 seconds (not a record by any means- but respectable enough).

Issue- is overheating. Its idling @ 86 degrees.......

Suggestions on how to better cool the system greatly appreciated- keeping the silly Lenovo case etc in mind....... I want the system to be as portable as possible- and have a reasonable amount of grunt- without looking like something anyone would have any great enthusiasm to rob etc.

What was in the case previously? Im guessing it was a much lower wattage cpu, the case may not have been designed to get rid of the extra heat from the quad core you put in.

Is there any space to add an additional fan inside? Even a small slimline one?

TerrorFirmer

If its idling at 86 then something is wrong notwithstanding the case in use.

As stated, the cooling system was probably not designed for the thermal of that processor - but unless it was designed to be mediocre for even the lowest end possible 10w CPU, it should still perform OK.

It's likely as well that you reattached the cooling poorly/incorrectly, without proper use of thermal paste, or similar.

Alanstrainor

This could be worthwhile posting in:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=842

But I would agree with the above RE thermal paste.

The_Conductor

I used Arctic silver and put what I would consider to be sufficient rather than an excessive amount of paste on..... May reassess at the weekend.

As for the case- its designed for a dual core i3- not quite as hot running- but it should be sufficient nonetheless........

Will have another look at this on Sat.

Thanks guys!

TerrorFirmer

86c at idle is almost thermal shut down point - that only happens when cooling has either failed or isn't installed or locked down correctly. Probably an easy fix.

Very common in desktops as well when people don't have the cooler correctly installed (one clip not pushed in properly or similar).

Capt'n Midnight

Stupid question time. :pac:

Is it the OS ?
Boot from a live CD / Boot into BIOS / Boot in safe mode and see if the load is less.

Try on a hard flat surface so you know there is room for cooling air, if this helps stick on spacers to get a bit more clearance.

This says up to 45W , most CPU's for that socket would be 35W
http://www.cpu-world.com/Sockets/Socket%20G2%20%28rPGA988B%29.html


you could try one of those usb fans to push extra air in , who knows if they work ?

If money and portability aren't options get a peltier cooler for the incoming air, mod one of those cooling boxes

If it's a G70 then has the base been damaged yet ?
As that could alter the cooling air flow too.


BTW
Can the G570's recognise 16GB RAM ?

The_Conductor

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Stupid question time. :pac:

Is it the OS ?
Boot from a live CD / Boot into BIOS / Boot in safe mode and see if the load is less.

Load is a lot less- I tend to use video decoding as a test for a platform- I didn't do this when it was idling so hot in W10.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Try on a hard flat surface so you know there is room for cooling air, if this helps stick on spacers to get a bit more clearance.

I've reseated the copper plating on the processor and graphics chip- and replaced the fan with one with frictionless bearings (I just happened to have one handy!- you should see the shelves in our spare room.......) Seems to be shifting heat a lot better.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

This says up to 45W , most CPU's for that socket would be 35W
http://www.cpu-world.com/Sockets/Socket%20G2%20%28rPGA988B%29.html

Yes- its a concern- I figured the HM65 chipset would be fine- and it is- its just the extra load isn't quite what the case was designed for.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

you could try one of those usb fans to push extra air in , who knows if they work ?

I don't have one to test with at the moment- may have a little look at this approach later.......

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

If money and portability aren't options get a peltier cooler for the incoming air, mod one of those cooling boxes

If it's a G70 then has the base been damaged yet ?
As that could alter the cooling air flow too.

The Peltier cooler sounds like a proposition- I may have cracked the issue with the frictionless bearings- time will tell........

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

BTW
Can the G570's recognise 16GB RAM ?

I've only put 8Gb (4Gb * 2) in a G570 (its only recently that I could justify 8Gb chips- they're about 40 quid each for reasonable ones now). I'm not doing anything that needs 16Gb RAM- even when doing some graphics coding- whatever about a quadcore i7- I definitely don't need 16Gb RAM........ A reasonable SSD is worth a lot more to me- than 16Gb RAM.........

Capt'n Midnight

The_Conductor wrote: »

A reasonable SSD is worth a lot more to me- than 16Gb RAM.........

True and generate less heat than spinning rust.