Simple Thermal Mod.

[David]

Check out my edited TechTablet’s image on how I sliced up the X98 Pro existing thermal pads. I use 99.9% isopropyl alcohol and a Q-Tip to clean the memory chips and the Atom CPU.

I place 2 squares thick of the original, now cut up, light blue thermal pads on each of the 4 memory chips.

That white thermal pad on the right, I sliced it up and made 3 layers for that small IC to contact the RF shield through the thermal pads.

I purchased .8mm 20mm x 20mm copper heat sinks from E-Bay. And trimmed 1mm x 1mm off one corner (upper left in picture of CPU) to miss the resister that is in the way with this larger shim when properly centered on the Atom CPU. A file or a bench sander will do a quick job. *NOTE I chose .8mm so that the copper heat sink and the doubled up thermal pads both contact the RF shield after being placed back on the circuit board. Apply a small dab of Arctic Silver paste directly to the glasslike silicone center of the CPU and spread it as thin as possible. Put 4 very small beads of a caulking material on the CPU in the places I marked up in the attached photo to help hold the copper shim in place (make certain to not have so much that it gets on the cooling face of the CPU where the Arctic Silver is). Finally, before replacing the RF Shield put a small dab of Arctic Silver on the top side of the copper heat sink and gently spread across the entire surface as thin as possible. With everything centered, carefully put the RF shield back in place and press into the holders that keep it positioned and secure. Never force anything back together. In this case, the Force will be your enemy ;). Take your time and do it right.

Why didn’t I use copper shims on the memory? Well, the memory doesn’t seem to over heat like the GPU. Including the eMMC which doesn’t seem to overheat at all.

My Atom CPU no longer hits those terrible 80′ C temps we were seeing in the TechTablet’s video. I pretty much got the same results as TechTablet’s video without copper heat sinks on the memory chips. I just felt this was simpler for me, even though I had the extra heat sinks available.

Good luck, and know that if you take your tablet apart, you have just voided the warranty. So make a conscience decision as to whether you really want to perform this modification.

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[Chris G]

Thanks, nice mod.

I placed it on the memory as I thought it might also get hot. (often they do) But it seems it’s not needed and stable without it.

Chris | Admin
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[David]

So it has been a couple of months now with my simple thermal mod applied. I haven’t had any crashes in Windows 10 Stress testing or normal use. Thermal throttling is minimal. By minimal, this is my result. With Furmark running with full AA enabled and full resolution my CPU still runs at 2.2Ghz all cores and the GPU at 600mhz and memory at 800Mhz with the Temperature moderate at a stable 60′ C.

Add 4 Threads of CPU stress testing and eventually the CPU temp rises to 73′ / 74’C.  At that time the CPU cores fluctuate down to 2.0Ghz then back to 2.2 Ghz and back to 2.0 Ghz with the GPU only slowing to 580Mhz sometimes to 560Mhz but no lower and the GPU memory remains at 800Mhz. This is minimal throttling for pushing the Tablet as far as it can go.

Remember I only used a 20mm x 20mm copper shim on the CPU with a corner notched out to avoid a resistor near the top left of the CPU, as seen in my image. I was able to reuse the existing thermal pads doubled up on the memory chips and the PLL chip three layers of it’s pad (trimmed) to give it contact also to the EMI shield. I used a thin layer of Arctic silver on both sides of the Copper Heat Spreader, as can be seen in my pictures, which makes a decent thermal connection of the CPU to the EMI shield as a heat spreader. With 4 small dabs of silicone caulk to hold the copper shim to the CPU. (Make certain the EMI shield snaps back into it’s very tiny locking tabs properly on all sides for a solid thermal transfer with minimal screen pressure. Misalignment of the tabs could add pressure to the screen and reduce heat transfer)

So, while playing games, I really don’t have any thermal throttling happen at all. Unless I try to install and play something that should be running on my tower with a dedicated $600.00 video card. Basic free gaming apps seem to run just fine on the tablet.

I’m not trying to deter you from the more involved official thermal modification sticky thread, I just wanted to let you know that I had decent luck with a minimal thermal modification. And that the memory doesn’t seem to need copper shims on them.

I don’t have any pressure issues with my screen and by using the 0.8 mm shim, only on the cpu, that leaves less material that could cause excessive pressure to the LCD glass and touch sensitivity depending on the thermal pads and shim thicknesses used in your cooling venture.

I wish you all good luck if you do choose to void your warranty and open your tablet.

 

[Davide Marzola]

Hi David, really a good work!

I’d like to the same on my teclast. I have done work on other tablets, but no one on this model.

<span id=”result_box” class=”” lang=”en”>I ask politely if I can ask you some questions to better understand some of the details. </span>

<span id=”result_box” class=”” lang=”en”>I thank you in advance. <span class=””>Cordial greetings.</span></span>

Davide.

[Author]

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