cooling done right for contact cooling (fanless)

[Chupa]

Let´s start with the magic copper shimmy
You put a small piece of copper between the metal surface of the CPU/GPU and the metal cooling plate what is screwed to provide good contact between the processor and cooling plate. So far so good.

Now to the problems, the cut out cooling plate is a cheap piece of metal, copper if you are lucky.
The real contact surface between the processor and the cooling plate is not 100% level and not 100% smooth.
So if you press the 2 pieces together you have very little real contact points. We are talking now in the thinner than a hair size.

This is where the paste or pad comes into play. Both are just used to fill the micro gaps and get the insulating air pockets squeezed out. So thick pads and a lot of paste is the wrong approach since they actually reduce the heat transfer.

If you use pads, try to get counter pressure direct from the backside where the pad is installed, because the few screws from the cooling plate will not put the main pressure on the pad.
If you use a copper shimmy be aware that you add a third metal piece between the metal surface of the processor and the metal of the cooling plate.
If you look closer at a shimmy you might notice imperfections where they are cut out. Take a close look at the pictures.
Since the shimmies are bigger than the processors I will just let the little grate hang over the side. It would not be a good idea to have it on top in contact with the cooling plate, that would leave quite a gap the paste had to fill.

This concludes part 1 of the be cool lesion.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

Need Help?
1981 soldered my first Sinclair computer 1K, tapedeck * 1984 build and sold IBM clones 8Mhz, 512K, 20MB HDD * 2018 messing with ultrabooks

[mogola]

aliexpres link ?

[Chupa]

I am lazy, for the rest look at my post here

If you have an aluminum bottom you need to figure out how far the bottom lid is from the copper cooling plate (often painted black).
If it is less than 1 mm than you can use the blue 1mm silicone heat transfer pad. it should have the size of your cooling pad because it is not a very good heat transfer method.
The normal material used to make the metal laptops is not pure aluminum, that is too soft. So it will be an alloy what will not have the same heat transfer properties of pure aluminum.
To get the best heat transfer, you have to test yourself what works best with you computer.
Try to beat 15 Watt from a 6 Watt Apollo Lake

Need Help?
1981 soldered my first Sinclair computer 1K, tapedeck * 1984 build and sold IBM clones 8Mhz, 512K, 20MB HDD * 2018 messing with ultrabooks

[Author]

Posts