Studio 1557 copper shim dimensions/thickness

[techifan1]

Im all ears and yes im in the UK

OK, You can obtain the required shims from the company below; they are based in the UK but will ship to any location.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dell-M1330-Cop...item19b75e1b4d

I used the following for my mod.

1 off 10mm X 10mm X 0.9mm Copper Shim. This is used for GPU (HD4570)
For those that have the HD5470. I do not know the size of the GPU die but it is probably the same.

1 off 25mm X 10mm X 0.7mm Copper Shim. Used with the existing thermal pads to maintain Video Ram cooling (I will explain later)

You will have order the items via the telephone as they have to make the second item to order. (Unless they have recently added it to their stock items)

Telephone from the UK 0151 5264777 and ask for John.
You can also e-mail from the eBay link above or e-mail directly to john@Designs05.co.uk to ask any questions and confirm pricing and delivery times.

Regarding the thermal paste this is a personal choice but I used IC Diamond obtained from the following eBay trader.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IC-Diamond-7-C...item2c5209839e

I will get back with more pictures/information later.

[techifan1]

As promised, the reason I used the 25mm X 10mm X 0.7mm Copper Shim.

As you can see from the attached photos there are 3 thermal pads one for the GPU and two for the Video Ram. When the heat sink is screwed down it compresses the GPU thermal pad down to about 0.6mm thickness this then creates a gap between the Video Ram chips and the surface of heat sink of about 1mm and is just enough to compress the Video Ram thermal pads. However after fitting the 0.9mm thick GPU copper shim and taking into account the thickness of the thermal compound applied to both sides you get a total thickness of around 1.1mm. This increases the gap between the Video Ram chips and the surface of the heat sink by about 0.5mm to a total of approx 1.5mm. This gap is then too wide and does not touch the Video Ram thermal pads, making them operationally useless. This is where the copper shim serves its role in narrowing the gap back down so that the Video Ram thermal pads are now compressed between the Video Ram Chips and the surface of the heat sink.

There are users of IC Diamond paste that apparently have bridged relatively large gaps using the compound alone (it is very thick) but I chose not to do it that way. I also appreciated that I could have probably obtained a suitably thicker copper shim and carried out a full copper mod to the Video Ram, but this would in my opinion be way OTT. Also, I figured that to increase the normal/designed thermal conductivity between the Video Ram chips and the heat sink could be counter productive as heat generated by the GPU could find its way back more easily into the Video Ram chips thus causing their temperatures to rise higher than they normally would.
Hope the above makes sense.

I also recommend that you removed the thermal pad from the chipset heat sink and apply some thermal paste. I found that apart from reducing the temperature of the chip set it also helped in keeping the area around the touch pad cooler.

I will get back with pictures and further info.

[OneCool]

It sucks that the GPU ram is cooled(almost ) on the main side of the motherboard but there is 2 more chips on the opposite side with nothing at all.

I have been thinking about doing some kind of cooling mod for them..... just not sure what yet

[ClaudioA]

Wow!!!....great info techifan1, thanks!!
I also want to do this copper mod (my GPU temp is insanely hot!) but i didn't know where to start. I have some knowledge of desktop PCs hardware, but this is my first laptop, so i am worried that i could do something wrong... :P

I have two question though:

1. What about doing the same thing to the CPU?? Wouldn't this reduce the overall temp??

When the heat sink is screwed down it compresses the GPU thermal pad down to about 0.6mm thickness this then creates a gap between the Video Ram chips and the surface of heat sink of about 1mm and is just enough to compress the Video Ram thermal pads. However after fitting the 0.9mm thick GPU copper shim and taking into account the thickness of the thermal compound applied to both sides you get a total thickness of around 1.1mm. This increases the gap between the Video Ram chips and the surface of the heat sink by about 0.5mm to a total of approx 1.5mm.

2. Wouldn't be better then to use a 0.7mm thick shim for the gpu and a 0.9mm for the Video RAM?? or am i seeing this completly wrong?

I am following this thread with great interest!

[farenheit]

Cheers Techifan1!
Thats an awesome reply...!
One last question tho' did you not modify the North/South bridge chipsets with ICD7? and on a final note... will the warrantly be ok? (could always remove the shim if it has to go back )
Thanks

[techifan1]

It sucks that the GPU ram is cooled(almost ) on the main side of the motherboard but there is 2 more chips on the opposite side with nothing at all.

Yes I agree. It appears that dell are relying on the thermal conductivity of the mother board to transfer the heat up into the chips on the main side of the mother board and then out through the thermal pads/heat sink. That’s why I decided not to change the original way of cooling the video ram chips and reused the thermal pads.

I have been thinking about doing some kind of cooling mod for them..... just not sure what yet

Probably not worth the time and effort IMO. However, I think you will agree that the mods that we have carried out to improve CPU/GPU temperatures are worth while.

[OneCool]

Probably not worth the time and effort IMO. However, I think you will agree that the mods that we have carried out to improve CPU/GPU temperatures are worth while.

Yes it does.Makes a big difference in the cooling of the lapper in general.It still heats up to a high temp but it cools back down pretty damn fast.

I ordered some IC Diamond and I have some better shims.When I get a chance this weekend I going to test them and see how it does.Im thinking I can drop it another 2-3c on average.

[techifan1]

Wow!!!....great info techifan1, thanks!!
I also want to do this copper mod (my GPU temp is insanely hot!) but i didn't know where to start. I have some knowledge of desktop PCs hardware, but this is my first laptop, so i am worried that i could do something wrong... :P

I have two question though:

1. What about doing the same thing to the CPU?? Wouldn't this reduce the overall temp??

No, there is no need to carry out shimming of the CPU. Basically when you screw down the heat sink assy the copper surface of the heat sink will be in direct contact with the CPU die, indeed it will be under pressure which is desirable. (See my answer to your question 2 in regard to pressure) This is not the case with the GPU because when you remove the thermal pad a gap is left which must be filled with the copper shim. It is however a good idea to replace the Dell stock CPU thermal paste with something better, in my case IC Diamond, and yes this will help in reducing CPU temps.

2. Wouldn't be better then to use a 0.7mm thick shim for the gpu and a 0.9mm for the Video RAM?? or am i seeing this completly wrong?

Valid question but I will explain.

First off, the attached photos do not show this too clearly but the Heat Sink screws are sprung loaded. I have mentioned this because hopefully the following will make more sense.

When the heat sink is screwed fully down and the thermal pad removed a gap is left between the GPU die and the heat sink of about 0.6mm If you were to use say a 0.6mm shim this would fill the gap but there would be very little pressure between the surfaces and reduce the thermal conductivity. Now, if you go the other way and fit a very thick shim say 1.5 - 2mm when you screw the heat sink down you would have good GPU/heat sink pressure but run the risk of damaging the GPU die with too much pressure. (Springs fully compressed) Basically the shim does not want to be so thin as to be virtually ineffective but not too thick as to cause problems.

I am following this thread with great interest!

Thanks for the interest.

[techifan1]

Cheers Techifan1!
Thats an awesome reply...!
One last question tho' did you not modify the North/South bridge chipsets with ICD7? and on a final note... will the warrantly be ok? (could always remove the shim if it has to go back )
Thanks

Regarding chipset, see attached photo.

First off, there is no need for a copper shim.
After removing the very thin thermal pad I replaced the heat sink and measured the gap. There was no gap the short metal arms act like springs and press the heat sink down onto the chipset. Also if you remove the nylon spacer washers as in step 2 you increase the downward pressure.

1. Remove the two screws and remove heat sink
2. Remove the very thin thermal pad and clean the surface of the heat sink and chipset.
3. Remove the 2 nylon spacer washers ( This increases the down pressure of the heat sink)
4. Apply thermal paste (IC Diamond) screw down heat sink.
5. Job Done

Regarding the warrantee.

Yes, it is probably a good idea to remove the shims if you have to return it under warrantee.
Try and remove the GPU thermal pad without damaging it if you can. My GPU thermal pad was already split/damaged (see previous photo) but I have kept it just in case.

[techifan1]

Yes it does.Makes a big difference in the cooling of the lapper in general.It still heats up to a high temp but it cools back down pretty damn fast.

I ordered some IC Diamond and I have some better shims.When I get a chance this weekend I going to test them and see how it does.Im thinking I can drop it another 2-3c on average.

Great, let us know how it goes.

I also recommend you remove the thermal pad from the Chipset Heat sink and apply some IC Diamond paste.

OneCool, since you are going to take you laptop apart again could you please carry out some temperature checks after you remove the centre control cover (The black plastic bit surrounding the keyboard) See attached photo. See if they are lower when removed. The thing is if you look carefully at the rear of the laptop where the air vent is you will see that the top half of the finned radiator grill is partially blocked off by the centre control cover. Now my theory is that with the centre control cover removed there is less of an obstruction to the air flow. Obviously I am not suggesting that we use our laptops with this cover removed but if it can be proved that the airflow is reduced when the cover is on then dell may be able to supply modified covers with additional slots to allow more air flow.

Also, FYI try the following Everest Ultimate Edition 5.30.2054 (beta) dated 2010-03-11 it now shows me accurate cpu fan speeds.

http://www.lavalys.com/support.php?lang=en