Thinkpads Forum

Evening all!
My T61 has a nVidia Chip and a T7300 CPU....since I am aware that heat causes the Bump-Material of the nVidia chip to deform, I am very concerned about this problem, although I have a August 2008 model.......I did some benchmarking and stuff - here are the temps:

CPU idl: 39*C (after leaving on table for 10 minutes)
CPU after heavy use: 75*C
GPU idl: 52*C (after leaving on table for 10 minutes)
GPU after heavy use: 71*C

Are those temps acceptable?
What temperature is required to damage the nVidia chips anyways?
I am going to apply some AS5 in the next week or so....

Your temps are ideal, exactly what you'd expect.

Hopefully your chip is immune to the common bump material failure, but that's not to say it will never fail in other areas... which all electronics will at some point.

If your new to this and are applying the Artic Silver #5, make sure to be properly grounded before you open the unit up, be careful not to "flex" the board/system more then necessary when removing the screws, and don't apply to much paste, if you use to much, you can cause overheating too. Some people advise not touching it, and "if" it was initially applied well, "and" the heatsink was never bumped or jolted in any way, then it may not be necessary, but when the paste gets dried out after a few years of heat, and even a small amount of movement, you could lose some heat transfer, so reseating the heatsink can help. I've also found by my own testing, as well as reports from members, that the units I build run a few degrees cooler then lenovo factory units, even ones with new system boards installed, which I believe is due to the A.S.5.

I can report that T61P I got from Tuus does in fact run cooler than my other unit <g>

Ska

What are your temps in extream load? (games / 1080p / converting / ......that kind of stuff.....)

my acceptable limit is 80 deg C on any component, with 85 top for short period of time if needed.

I haven't seen my GPU temps reach 80, they normally are in the 50-60s even under heavy use, but I'd say 80ish isn't a problem as long as your cooling system is maintaining the temp well. CPU I see going into the mid 80s often, which is about when the fan will kick into high speed with a very noticeable audible noise.

If my CPU hit 90, I think I would shut down and use some external means to cool it, then look into what caused it. I have had reports of GPU hitting 90, but usually when someone is explaining what happened before the system died, so you definitely don't want to run your gpu that hot.

OK!
I hate ordered following thermal compound:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/330551692958?ss ... 1439.l2649

Hope it does the job lol!

I wouldn't use that if I were you. Everyone in this forum has recommended Artic Silver #5, which I also recommend.

Look at the specs, it contains "metal", but doesn't say what kind... artic silver is 99.9% pure silver... this is probably aluminum? but who knows... cheap generic substitute.

If you don't want to pay a few $ more for the right stuff, then arctic silver makes an aluminum version too, I'd trust it more then that generic stuff, but on a T61, you really don't want to get cheap with your thermal paste.

I use that brand (only the silicone version) on my i5 rig.....works great!
Its not the money....i have AS5 right here but i want to compare the heat transfer, since the AS-Ceramique performed worse than the Startech silicone on my desktop.