Dell Precision m4500 temperatures

J

jbltecnicspro

[H]F Junkie
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So I decided to get an off-lease Dell Precision notebook. So far so good. I threw in an SSD and it seems to be running fine. Being the nerd that I am, I decided to remove the stock compound and switch it up for AS5. However...

I find that when I apply the thermal compound to the GPU like I'm supposed to (no dot, because it doesn't have an IHS, but spreading the thermal compound until it covers the surface), but I find that the compound makes NO contact with the GPU. So I added a little spot of AS5 and it's now making contact. But...

The GPU idles at 52 Celcius. Running Furmark makes it ramp up to 73 degrees Celcius, but the fan seems to be ramped up quite a bit. Is this normal? I should have taken a benchmark measurement on the GPU before I messed with the compound... Oh well.
 
was it compound before or a pad? sounds strange that there is no contact unless u put a "spot" of compound. as for temps, its tough to say, but the fact that it peaks at 73c running an extremely demanding program doesnt sound bad for a laptop, considering that heatsink is going to be shared with the cpu most likely.
 
Caked-on compound, so I'm wondering if I just need to put a "dot" on it and call it a day?
 
Alright well I think I got it. The CPU and GPU both idle a little warm, but then I realized that A) they share the same cooler and B) the fan wasn't even spinning. So yeah, it ran furmark for like 20 minutes at 75-76 degrees Celsius without throttling. Good enough for me I suppose. These particular Precision's weren't particularly known for their stellar thermal performance.

I ended up putting more thermal compound on it. Yeah, I know - but the GPU wasn't making ANY contact... It is now (verified by checking the heatsink), so I'll just keep using it until I eventually have issues. All machines eventually will.
 
mnewxcv said:
I think the fan is fine. He was concerned about high idle temps, but thats because the laptop doesnt spin up the fan until temps are higher (load).
Click to expand...

Correct. Now the real question is - is there a better thermal compound than AS5? And what should I get for it? Which compound is a really good compound for a laptop or mobile?
 
honestly, you arent OCing, why do you need a special thermal compound? those numbers dont sound that high. However, their are several compounds better than AS5 these days.
 
mnewxcv said:
honestly, you arent OCing, why do you need a special thermal compound? those numbers dont sound that high. However, their are several compounds better than AS5 these days.
Click to expand...

Just a nerd thing. But I'm all for leaving it alone if it's working just fine. Chalk it up to my wanting to make everything as optimal as possible. :eek:
 
Sorry for the month-old bump. I just bought a new heatsink and returned the unit to stock. Temperatures are much better and the fan doesn't need to ramp up anymore. An expensive lesson learned for sure. But a lesson nonetheless. C'est la vie!
 
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