Reply To: Video of recommended thermal mod

[Wylver]

I’ve done my thermal mod and want to share my process, the materials used and my experiences with it overall.

First let me post a list and links to the materials and tools I used:

15 x 15 x 0,5 mm copper shim
20 x 20 x 1 mm copper shim
plastic prying tool for phones/tablets (blue)
100 x 100 x 0,15 mm adhvesive thermal tape
100 x 100 x 0,15 mm thermal pad
Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound
Rubbing alcohol: 99% isopropylic alcohol for cleaning all contact surfaces

 

I want to start by saying that it was a breeze to open the tablet using the prying tool. The lip to insert between the two pieces is very thin and because of the broad tool it is easy to apply the right amount of pressure, plus it is made of plastic to protect the contact materials.

I’ve used two different sized copper shims which I attached to the existing aluminum heatspreader using the thermal tape, for further refernece look at the provided pictures. The big one I taped to the indentation on the cpu side of the heatspreader where the original thermal pad has been. The smaller one was taped to the cover side of the heatspreader where the little recessed area is. 15×15 mm is a little to big for the recess so I had to file down one side of the copper shim by 1-2 mm.

I went for the Noctua thermal compound because I have had good experiences with it in the past and because of the very simple application. My application method of choice for this thermal mod was a rice sized drop on the processor without smearing it all over the place.

Afterwards the thermal pad was cut down to the size of the heatspreader and applied on top of the heatspreader (cover side) after that one was screwed back in place.

Using the mentioned materials the tablet went back together flush and I cant see any pressure spot on the casing or the display, that means you can safely use a 1 mm thick shim on top of the processor if your method of fixation isn’t too thick.

 

And now to the results: (pictures for reference)

I shaved of around 16°C from the Tj-max temperature of 100°C and went to 84°C.

The testing method was the intel XTU GPU stresstest for 10 minutes and 10-15 min of small FFT torture test in Prime95. No more thermal throttling and during the GPU stress test the gpu frequency was at a constant ~800MHz.

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