How to: Improve your XPS M1330 Cooling

[KenHT]

Erm I was looking at measuring the thickness of the sheet needed etc...
then I realize...

The heatsink at the end of the heat pipe was completely blocked with dust...

I blew it (like you do with a harmonica) from the exhaust end.... all the dust flew right out all over my desk... (yuck).

My GPU idle went down from 72 degrees to 65 degrees after that. And it has a tendency to cool down faster now.

Btw, the thickness I measured for the sheet (looking at the thermal pad compression thickness). A 1.8mm thickness is just right.

[KenHT]

You have to take the heatpipe out to do this btw

[KenHT]

Here are my readings after replacing with a copper sheet.

I used a 14mm X 14mm with 1.5mm thickness and regular OEM thermal paste (Actually what I did was scrape and reuse the unused paste from the side of the CPU heatsink...).

These are the results I got. The peak values are from running 3DMark06.

Standard
---------
CPU 43/45 Peak 74
GPU 65 Peak 91
Memory 47 Peak 56
Chipset 47 Peak 58

After Copper sheet (14mm X 14mm X 1.5mm)
------------------
CPU 43/45 Peak 80
GPU 56 Peak 71
Memory 47 Peak 56
Chipset 47 Peak 58

[KenHT]

Ambient temperature when both before and after was taken is 24C btw. Not sure if it's an influencing factor.

Btw, the copper sheet was ordered from the same place in the UK that someone else here mentioned. I measured the dimensions and ordered it over the phone with John. He was very prompt to deliver after taking my details (same day delivery by First Class post - amazing).

Contact details and materials can be found at http://metaloffcuts.co.uk

The sheet came bubble wraped nicely. The plate was covered with blue thin wrap to keep both sides of the surface pristine (it was polished to a mirror shine).

FYI 1.5mm is perfect thickness for the M1330.

FYI, the blue thermal pad had to be removed with care. Bits fall off if you're not careful.

[traveller]

Originally Posted by KenHT

...the blue thermal pad had to be removed with care. Bits fall off if you're not careful.

The devil is in the details... so thanks for taking the time to describe your experience - in detail

Rep the man

[traveller]

Originally Posted by KenHT

Standard
---------
CPU 43/45 Peak 74

After Copper sheet (14mm X 14mm X 1.5mm)
------------------
CPU 43/45 Peak 80

To be expected, now that the GPU is successfully transferring heat to the heatpipe and 80 is still fine and 3D apps don't load the CPU (and conversely, CPU apps don't tend to load the GPU...). 3DMark06 does both, but not simultaneously

[KenHT]

Originally Posted by traveller

To be expected, now that the GPU is successfully transferring heat to the heatpipe and 80 is still fine and 3D apps don't load the CPU (and conversely, CPU apps don't tend to load the GPU...). 3DMark06 does both, but not simultaneously

Oddly enough. It ought to be a simple revision to the heatpipe design for Dell. Could save them a lot of support and cost of defective motherboards. Well being an end-user I suppose there is a larger picture I'm not seeing as to the reason they haven't already done so.

[RedXPS]

Originally Posted by StashCompInc

Yeah Ive had it in my M1330 since Feb and it works great. Its the GPU thats the problem.

hi

How is your XPS laptop behaving with the X9000 processor untill now.

I also wanted to upgrade and some friends here they say its not recommended as i can get my system to shorten its life or even fry up.

I decided to go for a T9300.

[KenHT]

This is the idle temp. after 20 minutes of idling at 24C ambient temp. The processor is a T7500 with BIOS Revision A10 with motherboard Revision A02. This is with the nVidia 8400 GS options.

Copper sheet on GPU measuring 14mm X 14mm X 1.5mm with OEM thermal paste.

[Lao]

Who would be kind enough to send by airmail a pair of 14x14x1.5mm copper sheet to me in Romania (European Union)? I can pay via PayPal.