T500, W500, thermal pad on Intel controller chip/heatsink?

[precip9]

Since the T500 and the W500 have the same physical layout, this question applies to both:

I swapped a T9900 into a W500. The heat sink, as most of you know, interfaces to three devices: the CPU, the AMD GPU, and the Intel memory controller/integrated graphics chip. The Intel chip is reached by the very end of the heatpipe assembly, which seems to be held in contact at low pressure by the springy stainless steel sheet cage that covers it and the AMD GPU.

Without thinking, I scraped the gel pad from the heatpipe assembly that makes contact with the Intel controller. I failed to notice that, judging from the depth of the depression left by the chip, the gel seems to serve as a gap filler. So I replaced it with thick and ample coating of Tuniq TX-2 thermal grease on both the chip and the heat pipe.

The laptop is back together, but I am concerned about the long term durability of this arrangement. I do not think there is a gap between the chip and the heatpipe, but, since the heatpipe is not secured with screws in that area, I worry about the effects of flex and vibration on durability. But even if I take it apart again, I don't know where to get the original gel material.

Your opinions as to whether it should be left as is are appreciated.

[richk]

The contact pressure comes from the cage, which should be held down by a tab that goes under the magnesium frame

[precip9]

Yes, the cage applies pressure. But I was worried that the retention system required an elastomer to fill a gap. That does not appear to be true.

Using http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html , it was determined that the chip and the pipe are in thermal contact. The program reads out the CPU and two motherboard sensors. By toggling the switchable graphics, it was possible to identify the sensors:

THWM1 = ATI graphics chip
THWM2 = Intel memory controller/integrated graphics

The equilibrium temperature of THWM2 was initially ~ 104F. After about an hour, it dropped to 95F, as some of the grease was squeezed out.

HWMonitor is a great program to QA a reinstalled heatsink.