Finally got a Dell Precision workstation laptop with Quadro - thermal paste recommendations, please?

[Deleted member 245375]

Ok, so I finally got one of these after lusting for one for many years, a Dell Precision M6700 (16GB RAM, Intel Core i7-3740QM quad, Nvidia Quadro K4000M based on the GTX 670m iirc coupled with the Premier Color IPS panel display too) and I'm looking to cool this puppy down. Now, having said that and stating that I've had it for about 10 hours now doing all sorts of testing and benchmarks and generally goofing around it's time to get serious. Even in spite of it being in immaculate condition - whoever the previous owner was (got this at a pawn shop for about $350) that person took care of it and babied it 'cause there ain't a mark on it anywhere and after removing the bottom panel to look around I can't find a speck of dust anywhere or lint either.

So, what I plan to do is a full disassembly and then put it all back together again and I'd like to repaste the heat sinks and fans (there's two of 'em in this monster beast machine laptop).

I'm looking for recommendations to provide good/great cooling from the thermal paste perspective - I don't need the absolute best most bad-ass compound ever created in the history of such things, but I would like to get something that's a) going to actually make a difference at this point and b) ain't going to cost me an arm, a leg, half a kneecap, and perhaps a thumb if you get my meaning.

I just spent the past hour looking over other sites like overclocking.com and techreview and whatnot and none of them give me the same kind of info and opinions that the [H] folk do so I'm asking the question:

If you were rebuilding a laptop and wanted to ensure you did the best you could in terms of keeping it cool from the thermal paste perspective, what would you end up choosing either for the CPU and the GPU discretely (different compound or paste for each) or would you just do a "What the fuck..." thing and use the same compound/paste for both aspects.

Just looking for advice and suggestions if anyone is willing to offer some.

Thanks in advance...

 

[N4CR]

Main thing for laptops is using a paste that will not move when it's hot, e.g. you have laptop on a weird angle on your knees or whatever...

Other than that with the thermal system you have, just get something decent, i'd recommend a ceramic based paste, that sets a little firmer (not dry obviously) but just stay away from the typical old grey/silver cancer cancer shit, which does get liquidy sometimes and move (we used to be able to tell if people left their system on in the carry case..)

Arctic, Noctua, etc all have some decent stuff.

If you want to go crazy, diamond is the best thermal conductor known by nearly an order of magnitude...

 

[Deleted member 245375]

Diamond what, however, 'cause if you mean actual diamonds then I can't see that happening (on top of the other body parts I'd probably have to fork over my somewhat useless soul too).

For me the best thermal conductor I've ever witnessed is still the super-secret ceramic composite materials they created for the Space Shuttle heat tiles. I've seen - personally witnessed - a demo of a cube of that stuff about 1" square being placed into a furnace at several thousand Kelvin and when it was removed it was glowing white like a florescent bulb might, I mean a pure white brightness and the guy holding the tongs had some super thick heat-proof gloves on. He placed the cube on a surface made from the same composite material and then removed his gloves, smiled, and reached out with his right hand and picked up that glowing white cube with a thumb and forefinger not 30 seconds after it came outta that oven and it was still bright white.

The dissipation potential of that material has always amazed me to this day and I still wonder why that type of composite hasn't been manufactured in most anything where high heat buildup needs to be wicked away as efficiently as possible. Imagine CPU cores constructed from such material, or heatsinks - you'd be able to cool the hottest processors known today with a sliver of that stuff about the thickness of a playing card, seriously.

Anyway, thanks for the info and hoping other people chime in. I realize I didn't post any actual temps yet, going to do some [H] style testing here in a bit with some stress testing and see just how hot this beast gets. I know the quad CPU has a Tjmax of 105C and I hit 98C earlier doing a 1 gig wPrime run (that was just one of the cores, mind you, the others were 87/92/89 so not too hot at all considering).

Fun times ahead...

 

[Tsumi]

It's always about the cost. That's why we never get the really nice stuff.

As for the diamond stuff he referenced, it is IC Diamond. It is literally made up of microscopic diamond particles, which when applied between two surfaces, will literally cut into both surfaces, which maximizes your heat transfer area. As for everything else, they're all basically within 3-4 C of each other.

 

[N4CR]

Whoaly crap! You are a lucky guy to see that... was it very light? That does sound like an absolutely fascinating material. I'm going to look for a video, would be awesome to see! That shows extreme insulation properties (ceramic) and extreme conduction (likely diamond). Best of both worlds.

I would hazard a bet they made some diamond-ceramic based material, as really nothing else comes close. I've been doing lots of R&D into this, as I have something to cool which is roughly ~2x5mm and dissipating ~200-300W or more. You think a heavily OC'd CPU/GPU is difficult to cool..? Try that for size!

You might be surprised (I wouldn't recommend for your application however) that diamond heatspreaders are >200 bucks for 10x10mm.. they have around 1200-1500W/mK. Not as good as pure high grade industrial diamond (~2000-2200W/mk at room temp - and ~5000W/mK at far below sub zero temperatures). But you can get the full on stuff it just costs a little more. Industrial diamond is surprisingly cheap. Real diamonds are an over-inflated commodity that appears as little stones and grains of sand in streams and on beaches in certain parts of Africa.

PM me if you are interested in obtaining some industrial diamond, I'll point you in the right direction.

Current temps are nothing to worry about but getting them lower with some new paste would be an excellent idea. That said, if it's so tidy and clean, likely the paste is in good condition and you'll have very little gains replacing it, but only one way to find out.

 

[Deleted member 245375]

Well hot diggity, we have a reseller here just down the road in Henderson, OutletPC, with IC Diamond 7 carat for $7.65, coolness (no pun intended). Might have to drop in later today and grab a tube. Since the current setup appears to be the original and untouched, and the laptop was manufactured in March 2013 that's 3 years so, it's time for a new thermal paste job as part of the teardown/rebuild.

Thanks for the info.

And as for a video of the Space Shuttle composite material, here ya go: