Heatsink modding

[portezbie]

You have to try. Copper is a better heat conductor.

For me I ordered some small copper platelets because I planned to change the small blue pads with them and I want to place some over the ram chips, too, because they have no contact with the heatsink arrangement.

Can you share with us the link for the copper platelets you ordered? I am curious about the dimensions to use.

Thank you!

[loko]

Or should I try replacing them with copper?

You have to try. Copper is a better heat conductor.

For me I ordered some small copper platelets because I planned to change the small blue pads with them and I want to place some over the ram chips, too, because they have no contact with the heatsink arrangement.

This is what I have thought weeks ago. To be able to use copper shims on every single chip, and attach them to a common heatsink, the chip surfaces must be absolutely aligned, and the common heatsink must be absolutely plain, or else you may have improper contact, resulting in poor thermal results, even worse that the stock option. You should probably use a copper shim only on the processor, because it is the main source of heat. On the rest of the chips you should probably use classic thermal pads, which are capable of adjusting to the available space. You will have to use regular thermal paste between the chips and the copper shims (Arctic Silver 5 or Arctic Cooling MX-4). You should also take care of securing any copper shims in place, because if they slip out of the intended position, they will make electrical contact and your components will be fried.

[Scooby-Doo]

Can you share with us the link for the copper platelets you ordered? I am curious about the dimensions to use.

Thank you!

I ordered them in China (via Amazon) 15x15x0,5 mm. Maybe 1mm thickness is better. It´s aquestion of trial and error, I will first try if it fits. When everything functions, I will post the results, pictures and a link, were to buy. The problem is, no one knows how long they (the chinese) need with the order, but its cheap.
Propably you use the pads that are plugged in later you can change them with a better solution.

[portezbie]

I ordered them in China (via Amazon) 15x15x0,5 mm. Maybe 1mm thickness is better. It´s aquestion of trial and error, I will first try if it fits. When everything functions, I will post the results, pictures and a link, were to buy. The problem is, no one knows how long they (the chinese) need with the order, but its cheap.
Propably you use the pads that are plugged in later you can change them with a better solution.

Thanks Scoob, this is really helpful. We all really appreciate you walking us through your tinkering.

[vbg69]

Had some time to work with my X7.
Wasnt happy about my temps with such a big heatsink.
Removed the metal shield and the thermalpads was very pourous with no density.
Put my heatsink on with paste on cpu and ram chips and a higher quality thermalpad on the gpu.

My new teps.
Cpu 0-3 min 45-46°C max 54-55°C
Gt min 44°C max 52°C

With HW monitor

Thats more like it, Pipos thermalpads must be very bad.

So my recommedation even if you dont want to mod is. Replace the thermalpads at least.

[loko]

Removed the metal shield and the thermalpads was very pourous with no density.
Put my heatsink on with paste on cpu and ram chips and a higher quality thermalpad on the gpu.

What is the thickness of the stock thermal pads?

Thermal paste is normally applied in very thin layers.

How is it possible to fill the gap by just using thermal paste?

Did you bend the heatsink, or did you apply a very thick layer of thermal paste?

In the latter case, mind that the thermal paste will probably slip out of place after some time.

[Scooby-Doo]

What is the thickness of the stock thermal pads?

Thermal paste is normally applied in very thin layers.

How is it possible to fill the gap by just using thermal paste?

Did you bend the heatsink, or did you apply a very thick layer of thermal paste?

In the latter case, mind that the thermal paste will probably slip out of place after some time.

I put this one today:

http://www.amazon.de/Phobya-XT-W%C3%A4rmeleitpad-120x20x1mm-wei%C3%9F/dp/B0051C287K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1423947281&sr=8-3&keywords=phobya+xt

Howto:

I took away the alu plate with the heatsinks, removed the little blue pads, cleaned the alu plate with alcohol. Then I cut three pads out of the new big pad: 1 for the cpu (as big as the cpu), one for the power unit (about 2x2 cm to reach the little chips around the PMIC), and one for the RAM chips. I fixed the pads with thermal adhesive on the chips and the hestsink alu plate with thermal adhesive on the pads.
Later I fixed four more of the little heatsinks (described in #11) with thermal adhesive on the alu plate.

Result maxTemp after ten minutes Prime95 is 46° C. Three minutes later under 40° C over all cores.

Now the box has reached its optimum.

The copper cooling plates, I discussed in #78 won´t be necessary any more.

Next week I will assemble my own tv box with Celeron J1900, 4 Gb Ram, 120 GB SSD, it will have usb 3, too, price 230 €. PIPO moves then to the bedroom.

[scropion86]

I put this one today:

http://www.amazon.de/Phobya-W%C3%A4rmeleitpad-120x20x0-5mm-wei%C3%9F/dp/B0051C2L1S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1423934591&sr=8-4&keywords=phobya+w%C3%A4rmeleitpad

Howto:

I took away the alu plate with the heatsinks, removed the little blue pads, cleaned the alu plate with alcohol. Then I cut three pads out of the new big pad: 1 for the cpu (as big as the cpu), one for the power unit (about 2x2 cm to reach the little chips around the PMIC), and one for the RAM chips. I fixed the pads with thermal adhesive on the chips and the hestsink alu plate with thermal adhesive on the pads.
Later I fixed four more of the little heatsinks (described in #11) with thermal adhesive on the alu plate.

Result maxTemp after ten minutes Prime95 is 46° C. Three minutes later under 40° C over all cores.

Now the box has reached its optimum.

The copper cooling plates, I discussed in #78 won´t be necessary any more.

Next week I will assemble my own tv box with Celeron J1900, 4 Gb Ram, 120 GB SSD, it will have usb 3, too, price 230 €. PIPO moves then to the bedroom.

that's really amazing , i hope you Provide some pictures so others can take the advantage of your Modding

[scropion86]

i found this on amazon but it has lower thermal conductivity
do you think it be good enough

http://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Pad-Ultra-1mm-120x20mm/dp/B004230RUO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1423938618&sr=8-3&keywords=thermal+pads

[Scooby-Doo]

i found this on amazon but it has lower thermal conductivity
do you think it be good enough

http://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Pad-Ul...s=thermal+pads

Your favorite pad seems to be 3-4x better than the original ones.
It is important to fix everything good. to be shure I fixed it with arctic silver thermal adhesive.

Sorry no pics If you see my post #4 I placed 4 more of the little heatsinks with the same thermal adhesive. If not necessary, I don´t want to open the box any more. The probleme is that the plastic holding for the cover is very fragile. I´m afraid that the screws won´t hold any more, if I open the box another time.

[portezbie]

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[Scooby-Doo]

I was looking up an american option as well. The one you found is 1mm thick and the one scooby used is .5mm. The same company has a .5mm option though and it is cheaper:

http://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Pad-Ul...mm+thermal+pad

My mistake I used this one:

http://www.amazon.de/Phobya-XT-W%C3%A4rmeleitpad-120x20x1mm-wei%C3%9F/dp/B0051C287K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1423947281&sr=8-3&keywords=phobya+xt

Sorry, I changed the link in the upper post, too.

[portezbie]

My mistake I used this one:

http://www.amazon.de/Phobya-XT-W%C3%A4rmeleitpad-120x20x1mm-wei%C3%9F/dp/B0051C287K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1423947281&sr=8-3&keywords=phobya+xt

Sorry, I changed the link in the upper post, too.

Oh thanks for catching that, good to know.

[loko]

What is the exact thickness of the two stock thermal pads? Do both pads have the same thickness or not?

Can someone post the dimensions of the original heatsink? You can just report the maximum length and width, since I can estimate the rest of the dimensions from the posted images. It would also be nice to know the total dimensions of the PCB, to estimate the rest of the dimensions from the posted images. Metric system preferred, although conversion is not a problem.

[vbg69]

Hello Scooby,

My max temp of 55° is after streaming 1080p for an hour, your 46° is amazing.