X61 Penryn Tweaks - Heat, WWAN, Airflow questions

[xsixt]

I snagged a good T8300 Penryn X61, but I need to finalise a few mods.

The hot palm rest issue has of course reared its ugly head:

WLAN
I've ordered a half-size WLAN adapter for the Intel 6205 I plan to install.

WWAN
I removed the WWAN AUX antenna because this was blocking airflow around the problem area. As much as removing the WWAN altogether seems to be a heat fix, I would like to try replacing the stock card.

1. Has anyone had any luck with using another WWAN card to reduce heat? (Middleton Bios, of course) Any half size cards?
2. Does the removal of the external WWAN antenna affect performance? I would prefer to ditch the excess weight if this antenna doesn't contribute much.

Airflow / weight
I am planning to remove the dial-up modem card/slot, and anything else useless... one user reported that removing the PC card flap helped with temps...

[jaspen-meyer]

Cover the right palm rest with 4 layers of paper & a piece of raw hide leather, 2mm thick.
Lower tx-power of wifi card to 1mW.
Add a thermal pad to the south bridge and cut away the black plastic so the pad touches the base.

[Dekks]

Do away with the WWAN.

I put an Atheros AR9462 wifi/BT card in the vacant WWAN slot. That reduced the heat issue, i still notice it now & again but it's far more comfortable.

[shawross]

+1 for Remove WWAN card.

WIFI hotspot tethering is far faster and more efficient with today's hardware IMHO.

[xsixt]

Cover the right palm rest with 4 layers of paper & a piece of raw hide leather, 2mm thick.
Lower tx-power of wifi card to 1mW.
Add a thermal pad to the south bridge and cut away the black plastic so the pad touches the base.

The fan assembly already had a thermal pad (stock), but I had a spare 0.4mm copper shim, so I've ditched the thermal for the shim on the southbridge.

Temps are much better (HW Monitor):
CPU 33 C (Idle)
THM9 45 C
THM1 33 C

I'll get on to the WLAN/WWAN when I can find my drill bits (stripped screws).

[jaspen-meyer]

The fan assembly already had a thermal pad (stock), but I had a spare 0.4mm copper shim, so I've ditched the thermal for the shim on the southbridge.

The southbridge is nowhere near the fan assembly. Southbridge is on the underside of the machine, opposite the 'M' key (or thereabouts)