Thermal Pads on Chipset

[Igor Vasily]

Hello everyone!

 

I don't really know if I post this in the right section, so correct me if I do it wrong.

 

So, recently I was worrying about my PCH/Chipset temperature in my Legion Y720. Maximum it reached was 93C and the chipset itself when I opened the backplate of the laptop it seemed that it didn't have a heatsink attached to it. Basically it was left open to cool like an M.2 NVMe SSD without a heatsink attached to it.

 

What I decided was to buy a full sized motherboard chipset (38x38mm) and cut it using an electric pendular saw to fit on my chipset (30x30mm). Easily said, but the problem was the following: Upon cutting the heatsink (yes, I was aware to not leave any metal part hanging or touching any electrical parts) the thermal adhesive pad was damaged and no longer able to be used on the chipset. Fortunately, I thought about this before ordering the heatsink and I also bought some thermal pads (0.5mm it seemed to fit perfectly) along with a new thermal adhesive pad to put on the heatsink itself, so it will not move inside the case. I put two little regular thermal pads (these are not adhesive, so they will not hold the chipset in place) near the chipset die to cover a bigger area of cooling, attached the thermal adhesive pad on the heatsink, put the heatsink on the chipset and made sure it was making contact with the die and stuck on the motherboard without touching anything that might have electrical contact. The heatsink itself was a little bigger than the space in the case, so the backplate will also put a little pressure on it to not slip anywhere.

 

Put the screws back, fired up the system, and voila! The system was working as expected, temps dropped (idle temps was around 65-70C, now they are 50-55C, lowest was 47C), but now I have another problem that I hadn't found the answer to it: Those thermal pads (both adhesive and regular), what is their maximum operating temperature? I don't want to suddenly my laptop catch fire because I was stupid and didn't thought that a big temperature can set them on fire. I doubt they will, but now I'm a little paranoid. So I'm asking the community what do you think? Should I remove it and leave it as it is? Is there any chance for the thermal pads to catch fire? What should I do?

[Windows7ge]

Where did you buy the pads from? Do you have the listing? Well sourced TIM will usually have documentation that tells you the operating parameters.

 

IMO, based on what I understand, you have nothing to worry about but the datasheet would confirm that.

[Igor Vasily]

Got them from a local store, they import all their stuff. The thermal pads (regular ones) that I used come from the EK Heatsinks for NVMe M.2 SSD (they are 0.5mm thick, perfectly for my chipset) and the thermal adhesive pad is from AlphaCool, another known brand. These are their full names btw for more info: EK-M.2 NVMe Heatsink - Black (i don't think the color does matter) and Alphacool Thermal Adhesive Pad 30x30mm.