So this might be out there. I was thinking of machining my own all copper heatsink for my BMP. I did replace the thermal paste on it, the idle temp is at 33, but on load it still goes to 90 (with ambient temps of ~22-25). The latter part is what drives me crazy, 90C I think is high, the whole thing gets so hot, it's crazy. The heatsink I saw in the BMP when I was changing the TP, is mediocre at best - it's aluminum with heatpipes, and god knows what's in those heatpipes, if experience has taught me anything with how they apply the thermal paste, those heatpipes might be useless. So, do we have any engineers who can give their professional opinion in regards of doing an all copper heatsink as opposed to the one in there already?
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BMP Heatsink
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It will not be worth the time, trouble, or cost. Your MBP does not have a heat problem, as those temperatures are completely normal.
Well, obviously, but the aim is to dissipate that heat faster, thus keeping the laptop cooler. I mean, under load, the top left corner of the MBP gets crazy hot.
So, how long does it stay hot after the load is removed? Obviously it'll stay hot as long as it's under load. My computer cools down to normal within a minute. Does yours take longer?
Well it's not about it cooling down after a load. If I'm edtiting, I wanna be able to put my wrists on it without my palms sweating.
I had a Sony Vaio for 4 years. after the first 6 months, it would get so hot that i had to literally put a huge fan under it. sometimes it would get so hot that it would restart on it's own(no b.s.). I just got my MBP last week and I've used it, at one point, for 6 or 7 hrs straight without turning it off, restarting, putting it to sleep and was shocked by the temp of it. it was basically luke warm after 7 hrs of use. nothing compared to my Vaio which damn near burned everything after an hr of use. There is no problems with this machine in my opinion
A copper heatpipe and heatsink won't do anything for ya. Plain common sense: high power packed in a tight space with barely any air in it to dissipate the heat.
Things are going to get just as toasty. Get over it or switch to a plastic cased PC laptop which doesn't transmit heat as well as aluminum and you'll feel the heat less even though it's there.
This. 100% this. A copper heatsink won't make the computer run any cooler. If anything it'll only cause your computer to cool off more quickly after the load is removed. Your heatsink temps are going to be related directly to the CPU temp. these CPUs put out a lot of heat, and this will make the heatsink hot.
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Why would this be the case? I would think a copper heatsink would transfer heat more effectively, thus raising the temperature of the radiator fins (with heat that was previously at the CPU). Since the radiator end now would have a higher temperature differential then before, it would cool even faster.
Yes, the CPU will get hot, but a more efficient cooling solution would surely cool the chip better (of course, the exhausting air would be hotter though).
The biggest drawback with this copper solution is that you would probably have warranty problems unless you swapped the old heatsink back every time you brought it in.
Yeah, I know it's all relative but 90C is too hot. I'm idling at 42c right now and only see my temp spike with heavy flash usage. And that's still in the 80's until the fans bring things down.
MBP13
Thank you! You killed two birds with one stone, I'm talking about what bozz2006 said. He seems to think that regardless of the cooling solution the CPU will be just as hot. Then what's the point of heatsinks? If the heatsinik is taking away heat faster that means that the overall temperature of the CPU doesn't go up to 90, but say as an example 80. The reason it goes to 90 is because the heat accumulates and is not dissipated fast enough under full load on prolong periods of time.
On a desktop, if a CPU runs with the stock cooler at, say 80*C at full load, doing nothing but changing the heatsink will lower the max temp to, say 70*C. These max temps are a plateau that the chip reaches even after extended use, so even at full load the max reachable temp will be lower.
I know this works on a desktop, so I don't see why it wouldn't on a laptop.
The limiting factor on the laptop is the space. The heat is carried away quicker in the desktop, but has lots of space and exhaust fans to carry it outside the case and bring more flow into the case. The small space of the laptop doesn't allow for the heatsink to cool as efficiently as it doesn't allow for the heatsink to cool down as quickly as a desktop. The heat will be removed quicker intially, but then it will be held in place by the heatsink as long as the heat on the chip remains constant.
I know it wouldn't be as efficient as a desktop, but remember these are heat pipes, not a heat sink (the difference being that the heat is released in a remote location away from the source). A more efficient heat pipe will transfer heat to the end location (the radiator by the exhaust fan) faster, and would expel the heat better because of the increased temperature gradient between the now-hotter radiator and the outside air. If it was a heat sink, I would completely agree with you b/c like you said...the heat is still right there.
At least, it makes sense in my head that way. I have no way of testing.
A pipe is nothing more than a channeled heat sink. The same theory applies. Once the pipe heats up the heat has to be dispersed. The heat will be carried quicker to the dispersion point, but the cooling opening is still the same and only allows for a maximum rate of dispersion (which you have probably saturated at that point). Think of it this way, will a better and larger radiator hose create more efficient cooling if the same small radiator is used in the system. Yes it will, but will it be huge imporvements? Probably not. Now open the engine compartment up better and put a larger Radiator in there and your cooling becomes better. Just because you can get a larger group to the door, if the door size is the same only the same amount as before can get out (you just have a larger bottle neck at the door).
