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Cooling fan/heat sink compatibility

Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2014 11:19 am
by VolvoMatt
Trying yet again to to sort out an overheating issue on a T60 15" (1952-AP2), henceforth Thinkpad A

Todays task was simply to get some Arctic Silver in there, as per recommendation here.

After removing, decided to take a look at my parts computer (2637-D06) Henceforth Thinkpad B, and the cooling fan and heat sink seem more substantial in this one. Obviously, this other one has an additional ATI chip in there that my overheating unit lacks.

So... obviously the heatsink from Thinkpad A would not work in Thinkpad B, but, can it work the other way around? And might it be beneficial?

Looks like the screws are the same, both have working fans (A fan is rated at .24amp, B fan .25amp)

Pictured, both. Heatsink from A on the left, B on the right.

http://i.imgur.com/xCOtUQP.jpg

So, will it work, and might it help?

Thanks!

VolvoMatt

Re: Cooling fan/heat sink compatibility

Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2014 2:13 pm
by VolvoMatt
I ended up just doing it... figured what the heck.

Before, the CPU would quickly reach well into the 80C range, and would shut down at about 88C. Wasn't a problem unless it was plugged in.

I opted to go for the copper colored heatsink and fan. Got rid of the gray pads and went with the quick silver 5 in place of the pads.

Put together and fired it up... Plugged it in, started all the programs that have, in the past, caused it to overheat... specifically, do a complex edit on a big picture in GIMP, watch a 30 minute HD video, and the usual gmail.

Temp never got above 78. Better yet, came down on it's own to 72 after killing the video and GIMP. And by manually forcing the fan to full speed, down to 67.

I expect the thermal grease did more than the different fan/heat sink. Either way, so far, so good.