Hey guys, first post, but I thought I’d discuss my heatsink fan retrofit in my old M14x r1.

Most user are satisfied with their laptops, because the processor doesn't run full speed long enough to make a difference.īut I enjoy tweaking, and I do processor-intensive work, like batch editing 100s of large images, video rendering, security testing, password recovery, network testing that are all severely compromised by poor, stock laptop cooling solutions. But, on a desktop, there are more effective cooling solutions than moving air. Metal to metal provides 100s to 1,000s times the heat transfer of thermal paste. The ideal is to fill the microscopic gaps between the cpu die and the hsf, but where there is metal on metal, have it be. You're going to get thermal-interface compond completely covering the center of the processor. The final mirror polish is done with the compound granules on a clean, damp cloth.ĭesktop processors mostly have slightly raised corners, so smoothness is not as much of concern. Everything is done on 1/2' plate glass to maintain flatness. I abrade copper surfaces down to 1500 grit paper, and then polish with scapings from a bar of buffing compound. Granted, getting the cooling mod to all fit together correctly with smooth, flat surfaces requires hours of work and materials not normally found sitting around the house. at the same running temps.Ĭlearly, laptop manufacturers are robbing performance off the top, by inferior cooling hardware and materials. The unmodded machine with the same max-fan-speed software tweak and stock thermal-interface material, throttled to 1.7GHz. Ran mprime (prime95 for Linux) AND Unigine Heaven, alternating, to cure the AS5. Used 'thinkpad_acpi' Linux kernel module to set fan to max speed. Shims between hsf and inductors near CPU and gpu, and shim on the gpu. Copper shim between CPU and hsf, AS5 on both sides.

I have two Lenovo W541 laptop workstations with I7-4940MX processors and discrete nVidia graphics. I've developed tried and true mods for lappies and have demonstrated their effectiveness. I prefer the fan to run noisily, and the processor to run at full speed. Over the last 10 years I've found laptops throttle the processor speed in order to keep fan noise down.

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