Dell THICC Laptop Modding

[Schnoz]

My Dell Latitude E6540 has been overheating a lot recently because the heatsink is tiny. Specs:

 

(47-watt TDP) Core i7 4800MQ

(35-watt TDP) AMD HD 8790M

(5-watt TDP?) 4X 512 MB (2048 MB total) GDDR5

8 GB LPDDR3

1920*1080

 

That's almost 90 watts of power flowing out of a tiny heatsink and ONE FAN.

There is also no vent directly above the fan.

The bottom cover is made of either aluminum or magnesium, or both.

 

Here are my mods and the color key:

Red: Thermal pads salvaged from a Google Wifi that touch the metal bottom cover, allowing it to act as a heatsink.

Green: Thermal paste re-application to the CPU and GPU with Cooler Master MasterGel left over from my suspended Ryzen Up 2 PC project.

Blue: Heatsinks from a Raspberry Pi Model 3.

 

 

Other minor things to note:

- This is not an image of my particular laptop, it's just a picture of the same model.

- The Intel Centrino Ultimate-N network card is in the center mSATA slot, while one from a CR-48 Chromebook occupies the leftmost slot.

- There is a second SODIMM.

- The die of the northbridge is far smaller than you think it is.

- There is a copper plate over the fan for added heat dissapation.

- The DVD eject latch button is broken and I have instead made a replacement cover with hot glue.

- I have a 6.25-inch long heatpipe and some thermal clay (it's literally like clay with an airy texture).

 

Results:

2 more points in Cinebench than my previous record and 52 more than what I usually experience!

 

The GPU does not throttle at ALL even after five near-consecutive Cinebench OpenGL tests.

 

The fan is still pretty loud but runs a lot quieter.

The bottom is extremely hot to the touch.

There is someone who is now really happy.

 

[ExplodingTNT]

Nice! If you want to take a risk, liquid metal TIM can work wonders in some situations.

[Schnoz]

10 minutes ago, ExplodingTNT said:

Nice! If you want to take a risk, liquid metal TIM can work wonders in some situations.

I wish I could buy it, but I'm not that old enough and my dad is like "no way".

[kelvinhall05]

Nice! I did something kinda similar yesterday. I cut a hole in the bottom of my Elitebook 9470M and put some screen door material over it. It dropped temps by nearly 10 degrees and now the fan can turn off on idle, even if I'm using the default fan curve!

[Schnoz]

4 hours ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Nice! I did something kinda similar yesterday. I cut a hole in the bottom of my Elitebook 9470M and put some screen door material over it. It dropped temps by nearly 10 degrees and now the fan can turn off on idle, even if I'm using the default fan curve!

Was the default intake not directly over my fan like my system?

[kelvinhall05]

3 hours ago, LOOK OVER HERE said:

Was the default intake not directly over my fan like my system?

Yeah. The vents were over the RAM modules, the fan was completely blocked off. There are nearly 2 inches between the outside of the fan and the stock vent.

[Schnoz]

Mine is even worse. Unfortunately, I don't have the tools and my dad is tired of me opening my laptop. I'm guessing that Dell wanted the incoming air to flow over the heatpipes of my system (the vent is located in the center, over the GPU mount) so I put the tiny heatsinks so the airflow would go through it.