How to make the Z61m cooler?

[z/svc]

Hi all,

I am digging about the subject of cooling down the Z61m system.

I am aware of the following software:

ThinkPad Fan Controller 0.18b
NHC 2.0 Pre-Release 06
ATITool 0.26
SysTool build 730

My goal is to make my system noisless. FIrst of all by disabling the system fan. I am still not convinient about disabling it at all as I am affraid I will toast my laptop.

BUT: I thought about forcing the lowest available CPU speed, CPU voltage, slowing down the GPU, monitor temperatures and decide if the system can run without fan.

The problems are:

1. ThinkPad Fan Controller gives me an option to disable the fan at all or run it at minium 2200 rpm. I want to run the fan at 1000-1500 rpm.

2. Other software allowes me to overclock the CPU and increase the voltage but does not allow me to UNDERclock the CPU and DECREASE the voltage.

3. Within the ATI drivers I already set up the max battery settings, but I thought I can lower the GPU and memory clocks, but it looks like ATITool is not accpeting ANY changes (over- and underclock).

4. I don't know what are the highest safe temperatures for Z61m. By knowing it I could try to tune TP Fan Controller...

The whole point is: I need to have the power scheme which will be almost noisless. I need to leave my laptop working during the nights and I don't want to hear it.

If any one of you have any suggestions on that matter - that will be appreciated.

Regards,

[jkahng]

1. I want to run the fan at 1000-1500 rpm.

the fancontrol util allows us to switch between fan modes and does not allow individual tweaking of fan speed within the mode. you're stuck with 2200 rpm (just as the rest of us). i have noticed that at this speed, the fan is almost silent(my harddrive whine is louder than my fan)

2. undervolting
- undervolting is lowering the voltage at a given speed setting. lower voltage will give you less power and result in less heat. nhc does this beautifully.

3. ATI drivers
- use the graphics tab under nhc, it can control power play

4. safe temps
- i would say upto 50-60 is normal at minimal use, 80-90 under gaming. the thermal spec for core duo / core 2 duo cpus are 100 and will shut off automatically. so there should be no problem. you can also set an alarm under nhc to trigger if temps go beyond a user preset temp.

it is important to note that NHC and fancontrol will NOT work together.

i've also noticed that ambient temp does affect cpu temps a lot.

also, for some reason, once the temps rise(benchmarking and gaming), they don't go down until the system is shut down and cooled off for a while.

I use nhc.
hope this helps

[z/svc]

1. TP FanControl

But 'almost silent' is not 'silent' And even on 2200 RPM I can hear the fan, especially at night. Regarding the disk drive: I replaced Hitachi HDD with Seagate Momentus and it is a little bit only quieter, however I am thinking about replacing it with Samsung drive, as Samsung makes the quietest disks I am aware of. But that will be later, now - the fan.

And comming back to the TP FanControl: I left my laptop working whole night tonight and it crashed (FanControl). It was strange: in the middle of the night I was woken up by tripple beep from the internal speaker. This is strange because I disabled the speaker within the BIOS and FanControl config file. So I put FanControl into the BIOS mode but did not close, I wanted to review its logs in the morning. In the morning I saw that FanControl was crashed. This is strange because it was not controlling the fan, was in the BIOS mode. Anyway: if FanControl crashed once, I don't think I can rely on it anymore.

2. Undervolting.

Looks like I don't understand something. I have T2300E Core Duo 2x 1.66 GHz CPU. From the NHC I see that default voltage for 6x multipler is 0.9500 V. So I wanted to change it to lower, but NHC does not allow me to do it - the minimum volate is 0.9500V. If I want to undervoltage higher multiplers, then I can do it, as the minimum voltage is still 0.9500V. But I want to undervoltage 6x multipler as well.

3. ATI drivers

Power Play is already set up and set to max. battery.

4. safe temps

So 80-90 is fine for the CPU. And what about the GPU? I am using X1400 ATI card.


I think I will try NHC after failure with FanControl.

jkahng, thank you for your help, you are helping me again. I appreciate it.

[jkahng]

1. TP FanControl

Samsung makes the quietest disks I am aware of.
snip
TP FanControl I don't think I can rely on it anymore.

2. Undervolting.

I have T2300E Core Duo 2x 1.66 GHz CPU. From the NHC I see that default voltage for 6x multipler is 0.9500 V.
snip

3. ATI drivers

Power Play is already set up and set to max. battery.

4. safe temps
So 80-90 is fine for the CPU. And what about the GPU? I am using X1400 ATI card.
snip

1. tp fancontrol
- i had a simular experience. it's just not stable enough. i use it sometimes to look at my gpu temp (ati x1400, same as your's)
my fujitsu is quiet. samsung is also a very good choice. don't forget you can adjust the acoustic management of the Harddrive via NHC

2. undervolting
- are you sure that there is only one multiplier?
6X 166 => 996mhz. this is the lowest state a core duo can have. and the voltage is set at 0.950 as you state. it's the same as mine.
what you need to do is undervolt the other multipliers. you should have multipliers of 6~10.
basically, undervolting only affects situations when the cpu is under load and kicks in higher multipliers.
** make sure that you go easy on the undervolting as too much will make the system unstable. it's a trial and error thing...

3. ati drivers
- i'm just stating that nhc can control it without going through ati software

4. safe temps
- although intel quotes 100 degrees celsius as the critical temperature, they only warranty the retail chips for 3 years. and your TP has a 1 year(worst case). the cpu chips can last a whole lot longer with lower operating temps. these things don't go bad. but operating temps do affect the life of the cpu. (same goes for gpu)

i would say that 50 degrees is the highest you want at idle or light use and 80-90 only under heavy load / gaming

pls note that my gpu is always 5-10 degrees higher than the cpu.


hope this helps...

[z/svc]

1. TP FanControl - Disk Drive.

I can imagine, that the Fujitsu disk is quieter then Seagate, but the quitest is Samsung. About Accoustic Management: my Seagate Momentus 5400.3 100 GB 5400 RPM does NOT support Accoustic Management. Sad, but true.

See this link:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage25 ... &chart=144

I have Seagate, I'd like to have selected Samsung. Looks very nice. Fast, low power consumption, quiet.


2. Undervolting.

Thanks for clarification, now I understand it well.


4. Safe temps.

Thanks again. And also - I have the same with CPU and GPU temps as you.


Best regards,

[agarza]

My thoughts:

NHC & TPFanControl V0.18svc (Service) does WORK together. I've never had a single problem using TPFanControl, as a matter of fact I rely 100% on the program to control the fan speed on my T42p.

NHC should allow you to undervolt your CPU up to 0.700V (@ 6X Multiplier my Dothan voltage is set to 0.716V)

ATITool 0.26 does not recognize the GFX cards on our laptops, you should use version 0.24.

Recommended CPU temps at load are 70-85C.
GPU can get more hot than the CPU (up to 100C), Arctic Silver 5 drastically reduces GPU temp (FireGL T2 up to 81C)

You should set your fan to activate at the 52C mark and shutdown again in the 48-49C

[z/svc]

Hello xtr,

Keep in mind that TPFanControl was designed especially for the T series. It works on the Z series but it looks like there are some differences that on two confirmed Z laptops it is not stable.

NHC does not allow me to undervolt CPU on the 6x multipler. My CPU is T2300E, 2x1.66 GHz.

I'll try ATITool 0.24 and update if it works.

Thanks for the temps recommendations. Arctic Silver 5, as I understand, is 3rd party cooler I can install inside the machine, am I right?

Thanks for your post.

[jkahng]

Hello xtr,

snip
Arctic Silver 5, as I understand, is 3rd party cooler I can install inside the machine, am I right?

Artic Silver 5 is a thermal grease that needs to be applied on the cpu and gpu. it has high concentrations of silver which is the best heat conductor.
you should apply this the next time you clean your cpu fan...

[z/svc]

I'll try ATITool 0.24 and update if it works.

Well, I tried ATITool 0.24 but it does not allow me for any changes at all and detects core and memory speed as 0 (zero). So I tried PowerStrip and looks like it works. But the point is that ATITool is free, where PowerStrip is not. So I am still looking for other solution.