Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste gave 10-20C drop in CPU temp

[Milos]

Hi all,

I posted questions earlier with concerns about high CPU temperature on an A31 (http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=18728, http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=473).

I since decided to get Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound (http://www.arcticsilver.com/) for the CPU to heatsink interface, and I thought I'd let you know of the results.

I opened the A31, cleaned it out with compressed air (boy, a lot of crap collects over 4 years), cleaned the CPU and heatsink surfaces with Arctic Clean (can also use isopropanol) and then carefully applied the new thermal compound.

Results:

Condition:..................Before............After cleaning+Arctic Silver 5
---------.................---------.........----------------------------
1.2GHz idle.................46-47C...........37-40C
1.8GHz full throttle.......85-90C..........~60C
(in fact, previously it ran full throttle at 85-90C, and kept throttling down automatically at that point to 1.2GHz presumably to avoid "meltdown").


The huge temp difference I see must be partially due to cleaning the heatsink grille of dust (can feel more air coming out the side of the A31 now), and partly the Arctic Silver 5 compound which people have previously praised in these forums for its thermal conductivity.

I think it's also possible that people that replaced my motherboard last year under warranty didn't properly do the thermal contact between the CPU and motherboard - a possible contributor to the difference.

Anyway, hope this helps someone that's seeing high temps.. My conclusion - if you're a careful person, do it yourself.

Milos

[dsigma6]

those are very encouraging numbers. i have yet to take either of my thinkpads apart, but temperatures up into the mid 70s on the t20 are making this look like an even better idea.

[Milos]

those are very encouraging numbers. i have yet to take either of my thinkpads apart, but temperatures up into the mid 70s on the t20 are making this look like an even better idea.

If it helps aquiesce anyone's anxiety level over doing this, thought I'd add that I'm a novice at this, and was previously nervous about opening up a valuable laptop, but the high temperatures (in my case) finally forced me to look into it. With the hardware manual (ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mo ... 2p1902.pdf) in hand it's pretty straightforward and not risky if you're careful. The machine really opens up with very few parts coming out -- not that many screws and parts to keep track of, and it looks very well and modularly built inside. I'm impressed.

Milos

[dsigma6]

I've had all of my Thinkpads in the apart, so I'm not nervous about it. It's just having something new (at least to me) that's in good condition, not wanting to break a small piece or something like that. The HMM's are quite a valuable tool.

The CPU is certainly one of the easiest things to get at, after removing only the keyboard and heatsink.

[dsigma6]

I just applied arctic 5 to a T20 and T21. Both previously idled at about 45C-ish. Now idle is at 39-41. However, running spybot still heats these things up to 80C before the fans kick in. Great engineering!