Gadgetory

we all want lower temperatures right but I think it matters more in the case of laptops than it does for desktops because we can usually tune things that did better with desktops we can optimize air flow we have a ton of space to work with laptops on the other hand are meant to be small and compact well most of them so what will attempt to do in this video is replace the stock thermal compound atop the CPU in this particular laptop if you have a dedicated graphics chip you can also do this for that as well with some aftermarket third-party thermal compound that should lower our core temperatures by a substantial enough amount that we can notice we might not have any more thermal throttling if that already persists and we also might have a quieter system overall because the fan will have to spool up to get rid of those excessive temperatures coming from those cores so that further ado let's go ahead and tear this laptop down and see if we can well make that big of a difference now before we tear into our laptop we want to run a control test we want to know how our temperatures fare before we swap the thermal glue for some aftermarket glue and we expect that our temperatures should drop after the change so after running i-264 for around 20 minutes core temperatures leveled off at around at 95 degrees Celsius which yes is extremely hot but I mean what do you expect in a laptop this side so this entire form factor is one big compromise you're constricting airflow you can't put as many copper heat pipes to conduct the heat away from the CPU because space is so limited so we're going to see if just changing one variable the thermal paste applied on top of the CPU and make that big of a difference let's say enough of a difference to prevent thermal throttling that you're seeing below the throttling is anywhere from 5 to 15 percent which means that our CPU is being held back from running at its full speed from being able to execute tasks at its full potential because our laptop is not getting rid of that heat quick enough so it's compensating by lowering frequency the goal is to introduce only one variable the thermal compound apply to top the CPU and I GPU is that one small change significant enough to lower core temperatures by a fair amount let's also include another goal prevent thermal throttling can we prevent thermal throttling altogether by just changing the CPU compound let's start by tearing open the laptop so the only two tools I needed to tear down this XPS tene we're a t5 Torx screw head and a very small Phillips head screwdriver sorry by removing the Torx screws surrounding the underside of your laptop in my case I had eight of them I also had a very sneaky Phillips head screw underneath the little XPS panel you'll want to be very patient this next step prying off the back panel most of the time you will have to do that for a laptop of this caliber I use a very slim guitar pick you also use a very slim credit card something all those lines to pry off that back panel it will be latched in a few places well with the back panel off you'll likely find a very large battery to the south along with a motherboard CPU if you have a dedicated graphics chip that will be where that is as well and then either solder DRAM or dedicated memory modules depending on how yours is configured and constructed you might have to remove your battery and/or speakers maybe even your MDOT to slaughter your hard drive to get to where you need to remove the CPU heat spreader which is where we're going with this video I've included the process visually here but you might not need to do that in my case I didn't have to remove anything at all other than the back panel you can literally unscrew these four screws here and have access to your CPU directly I'm not going to lie I expected a bit better of Dell look how nasty and flaky this thermal compound is not good not the consistency we're looking for you can tell it's basically already past its prime remove this compound with a lint-free cloth and isopropyl alcohol preferably above 90% also remove the thermal compound that was stuck on to the copper base when everything is nice shiny and dry apply your third party compound of choice I've chosen not to it for while obvious reasons apply sufficient thermal compound not too much to where it's just oozing all over the place but not too little to where it's not properly spreading over the entire die that's the shiny mirror again on top of the CPU chip you want to make sure it's covered completely you also don't want to lift up once you press it down because you can capture air bubbles in that compound and that's not good for heat transfer so once you have an adequate amount I know people are going to say oh that's too much Gregor oh that's too little trust me I've been doing this a lot it's probably my sixtieth time applying thermal compound it's it's fine it's fine reinsert the copper pipe and secure appropriately I say that because in people on Twitter can attest to this this very laptop would not post unless I loosen the screws that we're holding bracket in place literally the only thing I changed was how tightly these screws were secured and then boom the laptop booted up without a problem and I was ever switching literally everything I took the m2 out I removed the battery I tried just posting straight from the AC power adapter I didn't know what the heck's going on so do as I say not as I do save yourself a few hours and do not overtighten that CPU block reinstall the components you removed beforehand make sure everything is plugged in properly and then give it a good old fresh boot if all is well your laptop should post you should either be thrown into your bios in which case it would just say you know your clock has been reset because your your seamless battery was dead for a short amount of time or whatever or it'll throw you straight into Windows or whatever operating system you have and then you should be able to run your test again and see if your thermal swap resulted in some significant core temperature drops I even decided to compare idle temperatures I'm glad I did because idle temperatures drop by about 3 or 4 degrees as well that's substantial that's enough to not burn my lap as much if I'm just I don't know watching Netflix or something and under low after about the same amount of time core temperatures were about anywhere between 5 and 10 degrees lower but at the same time if you check this out below 0% of thermal throttling throughout now I did throttle initially that was because the fan didn't actually kick in until after the CPU temps that already reached 95 degrees Celsius once the fan kicked on as it did in our first control test everything pretty much leveled off at around 85 degrees Celsius no significant temperature drop there for our CPU cores as well as a reduction in thermal throttling to literally zero that is excellent news so the moral of the story if you're willing to get a little down and dirty with your laptop disassemble a few things if you have the tools necessary to do so you can actually swap your thermal compound keep your laptop a bit quieter it was I wish I had run fan tests and like fan noise test before and after because this is actually a quiter system as well especially when it was running high to 64 so your fan will not kick on as much and when it does it won't be as loud because your CPU core temperatures are being mitigated better by the better thermal compound on top of that core temperatures in general will be lower and you won't have to worry about any thermal throttling if it existed beforehand so apart from my little regarding over-tightening the cpu block which was just news to me I never run into the issue before I do recommend this to anyone who regards him or herself as a very tech-savvy individual even if you're not very comfortable you can find forums or teardown guides the process should be fairly simple to follow with that if you like this video be sure to give it a thumbs up thumbs down for the opposite click subscribe button if you haven't already down below now we'll catch you in the next video this is science studio thanks for learning