Studio 1557 copper shim dimensions/thickness

[ghabz18]

hello guys, im new here and also modded my 1557 as per instructions by techifan1. My question is this, after modding i started to notice an abrupt drop of temperature which is ok but as i play nba2k12 or sc2 for about 10-15 mins my GPU temp reached almost 100C.. But since it reached 100 the game should be throttle but in my case its still smooth and playable (reaches 70fps max) where in fact if i stop the game it cools down way way fast. Is it normal?

[ghabz18]

by the way my room temp was 27C-30C since im here in philippines. The game used to reach 70fps at 90+ degrees was nba2k12 and 40fps of medium settings for SC2

[Nyden]

Just completed the mod. Temps in SC2 have gone from 80-85 to 70ish.

Thanks techifan1!

[gr3g0ree]

Thx techifan and all for the info here. Did the upgrade with AS5 and the 2 shims dimensions as techifan posted some time ago, and it all went rather well

Took the studio 1555 apart. Cleaned all the processors surfaces (with the articlean supplied), also cleaned the heat sink surfaces. Applied some AS5 on the cpu's 1st, then put the copper shims into place, and then some more compound on top of the shims. Removed the plastic spacer from screws Nr. 5 and 6 only, and I screwed it up

Right.
So I took it apart again, just to see how is the compound doing Applied a little more and then screwed it up for good

I also left the "palmrest" out, exposing the speakers and the back of the cooling assembly, and it looks that there is more space for the hot air to escape. But on the other hand, the air heats up the bottom left side of the screen pretty much. It still cooled down my temps by cca 2-3C before the mod.

After the mod I dont think it makes such a difference. Will have to experiment a bit

My idle tems went down only by 2-3C (CPU-~36, GPU-~50, Mobo-~45). But my load tems are down a lot!!! CPU~70, GPU- did not got higher than 82C!!! MoBo~82. A decrease by 6-10C.
The fan is kicking in a bit later and also the air coming out at the back is not that hot. Overall it is so worth it, and cost under £20

[Jk_Alentejano]

Hi all, first i want to congratulate you guys about the thread, now i have one question, why use the termal pad that is known to suck instead of termal paste on the VRAM? techifan said it was because of the height diferences, then why not put a thicker shim like on gpu? The termal pad is enough? But for sure it would be better without it, and you have the same effort for putting there a thicker shim plus termal paste, so why not?
A similar question applies for the cpu, why not put a shim there if improves temps?

[techifan1]

Hi all, first i want to congratulate you guys about the thread, now i have one question, why use the termal pad that is known to suck instead of termal paste on the VRAM? techifan said it was because of the height diferences, then why not put a thicker shim like on gpu? The termal pad is enough? But for sure it would be better without it, and you have the same effort for putting there a thicker shim plus termal paste, so why not?
A similar question applies for the cpu, why not put a shim there if improves temps?

HI, Jk_Alentejano

Good question, I will try to explain.

One of the problems with putting a thicker solid copper shim between the VRAM and the VRAM heatsink is that unless the thickness is spot on there may be a risk of slightly lifting the GPU heatsink away from the GPU die. At the very least there is a risk of reducing the downward pressure being applied to the GPU die.

Think of it like this, the VRAM and GPU heatsink is effectively one piece of solid metal and will move as one. Therefore if you slightly raise the height of the VRAM heatsink by using a solid copper shim you will also raise the height of the GPU heatsink and this could cause problems. In effect you could reduce the GPU/heatsink thermal conductivity characteristics which rely on pressure.

The important thing is that you apply sufficient downward pressure onto the GPU die and let the soft thermal pad squash down between the surface of the VRAM and the VRAM heatsink.

As regards shimming the CPU, there is no thermal pad used on the CPU. Therefore a shim is not required.

See previous post 28 for more detailed explanation.

[Jk_Alentejano]

Thank you for your answer, so the potencial problem is not having enough pressure on the gpu, i guess that's a reasonable assumption, but my pc is an lg S510 and the layout is of course diferent, so i have to put shims on the vram beacuse they are lower than the gpu and the "heat sink metal thing" barelly covers some of the vram chips.
The reason i found to not apply a shim on the cpu was because my heat pipe sits directly on it, the same doesn't happen in the other chips.
And from other places i read the shim doesn't is better just to replace the thermal pad but improve overall heat transfer because of having a larger area than the chip so extra beneficts may came from there.


I liked this theme so i read the intire thread today

[techifan1]

Thank you for your answer, so the potencial problem is not having enough pressure on the gpu, i guess that's a reasonable assumption, but my pc is an lg S510 and the layout is of course diferent, so i have to put shims on the vram beacuse they are lower than the gpu and the "heat sink metal thing" barelly covers some of the vram chips.
The reason i found to not apply a shim on the cpu was because my heat pipe sits directly on it, the same doesn't happen in the other chips.
And from other places i read the shim doesn't is better just to replace the thermal pad but improve overall heat transfer because of having a larger area than the chip so extra beneficts may came from there.


I liked this theme so i read the intire thread today

Quote: I liked this theme so i read the intire thread today

Well done, you deserve a prize for endurance.

[albertas]

Hi!

Just wanted to share my Dell Studio 1557 i7 temps after modifications (all the instructions written by techifan1):

Laptop is on power supply, highest performance settings. FULL HD video is playing full screen for 15 minutes. Temps are GPU 63C, and CPU 57C.

IC7 paste made a huge difference. Before I made the mods with different paste, a standard one. The CPU temps were similar, but GPU was reaching 100C!!! Amazing.

Second test I made with PRIME95 - started the stress Blend test for few minutes. CPU is around 80C.


Are those temps ok? If anyone would share the same setup temps I would be greatful

[Nerervarine]

Well,

Having lingered on this thread for some while I am preparing to do the Copper Shim Mod on my 1557. I am always nervous of doing this because of the ridiculous complexity of taking these things apart.

Having bought my laptop 2 yrs ago, it started to heat up just after the one-year warranty ran out and I am still angry at Dell for selling this item without a warning label (my laptop has scalded my lap). I will never purchase a Dell item again and I will always recommend my family, friends and colleagues to do the same.

I am confused in regard to the thermal pads - should new ones be purchased or is ok to stick the old ones back on

??Anyway, before I go ahead with the Mod I want to thank techifan1 for this thread and the advice provided.

Thanks