Surface Pro 3 external heat sink w/ 4790K Intel heatsink?

[RyGuy99]

Does anyone know if it would be possible to have a ghetto set up using an extra Intel heatsink attached to my Surface Pro 3? I have observed increased performance pointing a fan at the right upper corner (cpu area). I was just wondering how reasonable this would be to do. I have the extra heatsink sitting around so I thought "why not?". I'm not sure how mounting it would work nor how I would power it. 

[79wjd]

A large fan would work much better than a heatsink considering the conductivity of aluminum and the fact that you'd be trying to pull heat away from the CPU through multiple layers of metal and air. 

[MoonlightSylv]

1 minute ago, RyGuy99 said:

Does anyone know if it would be possible to have a ghetto set up using an extra Intel heatsink attached to my Surface Pro 3? I have observed increased performance pointing a fan at the right upper corner (cpu area). I was just wondering how reasonable this would be to do. I have the extra heatsink sitting around so I thought "why not?". I'm not sure how mounting it would work nor how I would power it. 

If you take off the fan and thermal paste it'll still cool it.

[RyGuy99]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

A large fan would work better than a heatsink considering the conductivity of aluminium and the fact that you'd be trying to pull heat away from the CPU through multiple layers of metal and air. 

The surface of it gets pretty hot under load so I thought taking that heat away with direct contact would work better. I could be wrong though. 

[79wjd]

1 minute ago, RyGuy99 said:

The surface of it gets pretty hot under load so I thought taking that heat away with direct contact would work better. I could be wrong though. 

It gets hot, but usually not instantly. I would assume you would never be able to get a good/effective enough heat transfer to outperform a large volume of cool fresh air being forced into the internal heatsink that's making direct contact with the die. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

A large fan would work much better than a heatsink considering the conductivity of aluminum and the fact that you'd be trying to pull heat away from the CPU through multiple layers of metal and air. 

A heat sink increases the surface area of the thing being cooled. I would think the heat sink alone would work better than pointing a fan at a flat surface (I'm assuming OP is wanting attach it to the chassis)

[79wjd]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

A heat sink increases the surface area of the thing being cooled. I would think the heat sink alone would work better than pointing a fan at a flat surface (I'm assuming OP is wanting attach it to the chassis)

Yes, except keep in mind that the CPU doesn't make direct contact with the housing. So he'd be cooling the chassis directly underneath the heatsink -- that won't pull heat off the CPU very effectively.

 

Vs. using a fan which is going to force large volumes of cold air into the internal cooling fans/heatsinks. 

[RyGuy99]

4 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Yes, except keep in mind that the CPU doesn't make direct contact with the housing. So he'd be cooling the chassis directly underneath the heatsink -- that won't pull heat off the CPU very effectively.

 

Vs. using a fan which is going to force large volumes of cold air into the internal cooling fans/heatsinks. 

The Surface body was designed to dissapate heat away from the hottest areas of the computer. 

[79wjd]

Just now, RyGuy99 said:

The Surface body was designed to dissapate heat away from the hottest areas of the computer. 

Go ahead and try it, but my guess is that the fan will work better. Put some thermal paste on the heatsink, and tape it down to the surface (I would tape it around the surface -- obviously it wouldn't be a long term solution, but it would work for benchmarking purposes) and power it off of a desktop fan header. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Yes, except keep in mind that the CPU doesn't make direct contact with the housing. So he'd be cooling the chassis directly underneath the heatsink -- that won't pull heat off the CPU very effectively.

 

Vs. using a fan which is going to force large volumes of cold air into the internal cooling fans/heatsinks. 

The fan would have to be inside of the chassis for that to work. Or the airflow would have to be constrained to flow into the chassis holes. Simply blowing a fan on it won't do you any good because the internal fan is more than likely going to have a better influence on airflow internally.

 

Also looking at this: https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/4PLJL4POmNMAsuTf.huge

 

it looks like the heat sink assembly appears to be close to the chassis and OP can install thermal pads to make the chassis a giant heat sink if it doesn't do that already. A heat sink can be placed over that area to concentrate the heat on it.

[RyGuy99]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

Go ahead and try it, but my guess is that the fan will work better. Put some thermal paste on the heatsink, and tape it down to the surface (I would tape it around the surface -- obviously it wouldn't be a long term solution, but it would work for benchmarking purposes) and power it off of a desktop fan header. 

Yeah I'll run some benchmarks comparing the two solutions. Thanks! 

[themctipers]

Use fan!

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, RyGuy99 said:

Yeah I'll run some benchmarks comparing the two solutions. Thanks! 

Mention me once you've run some comparison tests.

[Mug]

Why not put some of those mini heatsink things designed for VRMs on it with a fan blowing?

Let me know how it works out, I have one. I'm obvioulsy not going to do it because I use mine when carrying it around but I'd still be interested to see how it goes.

[RyGuy99]

I just found this post with someone using an old GeForce 8800 GTS cooler. 

https://m.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/2w8r1n/surface_pro_3_dock_cooling_concept_using_heatsink/

 

Also someone using a dark rock cooler. 

http://www.winbeta.org/news/guy-installed-ginormous-cpu-cooler-his-surface-pro-3

[RyGuy99]

Hello everyone again! I haven't had time to test out the heatsink idea but here is another post I found on cooling the Surface Pro 3

https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/51d1o2/surface_pro_4_external_cooling_rough_prototype/

 

P.S. Can I go without using thermal paste. I do carry around my Surface Pro 3 with me so it would be great if I could keep it free of that gunk. Would thermal pads work?? 

[WoodenMarker]

21 minutes ago, RyGuy99 said:

Hello everyone again! I haven't had time to test out the heatsink idea but here is another post I found on cooling the Surface Pro 3

https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/51d1o2/surface_pro_4_external_cooling_rough_prototype/

P.S. Can I go without using thermal paste. I do carry around my Surface Pro 3 with me so it would be great if I could keep it free of that gunk. Would thermal pads work?? 

Thermal pads would work. 

[RyGuy99]

4 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

Thermal pads would work. 

Awesome thank you for the fast response. Any suggestions or recommendations on brands/types? 

[WoodenMarker]

Just now, RyGuy99 said:

Awesome thank you for the fast response. Any suggestions or recommendations on brands/types? 

Not really since there isn't that much of a difference. The important part is that it replaces air which is pretty bad at conducting heat. 

[RyGuy99]

Hello I'm back everyone. I'm finally free enough to go ahead and do this. I had one last question before I order thermal pads. Is bigger better? Do I want the thermal pads to have more surface area on the Surface Pro or is smaller ok since the heatsink only comes in contact with a small part of the thermal pad?

[WoodenMarker]

1 minute ago, RyGuy99 said:

Hello I'm back everyone. I'm finally free enough to go ahead and do this. I had one last question before I order thermal pads. Is bigger better? Do I want the thermal pads to have more surface area on the Surface Pro or is smaller ok since the heatsink only comes in contact with a small part of the thermal pad?

The pad will only make a difference where the cooler contacts the tablet.

[RyGuy99]

2 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

The pad will only make a difference where the cooler contacts the tablet.

Ok I wasn't sure if the more surface area the thermal pads had the more they could pull from the tablet. I'm guessing the area where the heatsink is coming into contact reaches a heat transfer bottleneck of some kind though. So go for thermal pads 50x50x1mm?

[WoodenMarker]

1 minute ago, RyGuy99 said:

Ok I wasn't sure if the more surface area the thermal pads had the more they could pull from the tablet. I'm guessing the area where the heatsink is coming into contact reaches a heat transfer bottleneck of some kind though. So go for thermal pads 50x50x1mm?

That sounds about right. 

[RyGuy99]

2 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

That sounds about right. 

Thickness matters in this case or not? I can get the 0.5 or 1 mm ones. 

[WoodenMarker]

1 minute ago, RyGuy99 said:

Thickness matters in this case or not? I can get the 0.5 or 1 mm ones. 

Thinner would be better.