Database Users

Thermal pad > arctic silver

So, after taking this apart and removing the thermal pad on the t20... applying arctic silver gel/paste, i think temps are averaging higher.. so yeah, hold off on doing that one..
Edit - it couldve been the loops of 1.646ghz tests i was doing

So... you dismantled your TF and applied a CPU thermal paste in there? Wow, you must be really gunning for higher clocks.

maybe the gap between the two surfaces aren't tight enough for thermal paste to be effective

nickSolo said:
maybe the gap between the two surfaces aren't tight enough for thermal paste to be effective
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And not enough heatsink area to dissipate the heat.

nickSolo said:
maybe the gap between the two surfaces aren't tight enough for thermal paste to be effective
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm thinking this.. I'll probably wedge in an aluminum shim.. cut from 'sheet metal'.. I think thats .020"..
Heat is being dissipated more so from the screen (thats bad, as the front of the screen is the underside of the chip).. It means that the 'heatsink', which is a large metal piece, is not getting most of the heat. I'm not worried about the heat tho.. as I have provisions to downclock at ~43-44.. which is ultra conservative.. If only the back of this thing weren't plastic... it'd be a killer overclocker..
I'll post pics..
http://home.comcast.net/~ibladesi/IMG_0023.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~ibladesi/IMG_0025.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~ibladesi/IMG_0027.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~ibladesi/IMG_0028.JPG
btw.. this thing came pre-fingerprinted. heh

that looks like a lot of thermal paste for such a tiny chip

Freelancerx said:
that looks like a lot of thermal paste for such a tiny chip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you. Thats very nice of you to say to me.

Freelancerx said:
that looks like a lot of thermal paste for such a tiny chip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is too much. The paste is intended to only fill in the what does not contact the sink not to insulate the sink from the chip. The more surface area of the chip that contacts the sink, the better.

levenite said:
It is too much. The paste is intended to only fill in the what does not contact the sink not to insulate the sink from the chip. The more surface area of the chip that contacts the sink, the better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pardon?
Right now there probably isn't that much contact between the two.. as the hamburger patty of a thermal pad is gone.. so that needs to be shimmed. I swear the 'heatsink' is steel.. it just doesn't have that aluminum frailty to it.. I have some 2000 grit sandpaper if things go far enough to warrant a blingy looking 'lapping' of the heatsink. heh..

That seems like overkill, but good luck anyway, I am interested to see how it turns out!

californiarailroader said:
That seems like overkill, but good luck anyway, I am interested to see how it turns out!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My main reason for opening it up was to clear the crapload of dust bunnies hanging out in my camera lens. Then I went poking around, seeng what I could screw up.

Blades said:
Pardon?
Right now there probably isn't that much contact between the two.. as the hamburger patty of a thermal pad is gone.. so that needs to be shimmed. I swear the 'heatsink' is steel.. it just doesn't have that aluminum frailty to it.. I have some 2000 grit sandpaper if things go far enough to warrant a blingy looking 'lapping' of the heatsink. heh..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think about the two surfaces at the microscopic level. The surfaces are rough. What we want is the maximum contact area between the two surfaces. The paste is used to fill in what does not contact. So it is better to have surface to surface contact than a thin layer of paste between the surfaces. That is one reason why there is usually a good deal of pressure applied between the surfaces.
BTW, be careful some heatsink paste is conductive!

Freelancerx said:
that looks like a lot of thermal paste for such a tiny chip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's way too much.

Um yeah, that is WAY too much paste. It should be common knowledge that too much paste will actually INCREASE the temperature. Quite possibly your problem right there.

A 120mm fan will cool that down.
I'm no expert on heat sink shims, but wouldn't a iron or steel shim be better as they dissipate heat better?

Of course that much thermal paste wont lower temps? Do you even know what you're doing?

The best way to apply thermal paste is to place a rice-sized dot into the surface, and let the pressure between the heatsink and the CPU naturally spread out the paste. Putting too much will make the temps go higher, not lower.

jjsoviet said:
The best way to apply thermal paste is to place a rice-sized dot into the surface, and let the pressure between the heatsink and the CPU naturally spread out the paste. Putting too much will make the temps go higher, not lower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this
a pea sized/rice sized is enough even for a modern CPU let alone a tiny SoC which is about the size of a modern NB/SB of a computer

Mind sharing how you opened this up? There's some shiz on my camera lens too, and would like to clean it.
I kinda dropped mine (no scratches, cracks, damage, etc.) and the back panel popped up a little all around it, i managed to just push it down on all sides though.

jjsoviet said:
The best way to apply thermal paste is to place a rice-sized dot into the surface, and let the pressure between the heatsink and the CPU naturally spread out the paste. Putting too much will make the temps go higher, not lower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SwiftLegend said:
Mind sharing how you opened this up? There's some shiz on my camera lens too, and would like to clean it.
I kinda dropped mine (no scratches, cracks, damage, etc.) and the back panel popped up a little all around it, i managed to just push it down on all sides though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
theres a sticky with a link to a teardown from an XDA remember IIRC

Feasibility of a DIY heatsink

I've seen a couple of threads in the past where people have asked about creating heatsinks for improving the cooling efficiency of their devices. Under normal circumstances a heatsink wouldn't be necessary, but recently with Clemsyn and other kernel devs starting to push the physical limits of the Tegra 3, heat dissipation becomes a major concern at 1.8Ghz and higher. I'm starting to wonder if there might be a way to get creative with some copper foil and a few old laptop heatsinks I've got lying around, just to give the chips a bit of relief from all of the mean and terrible things I do to them. But having never taken my Nexus apart, I have no idea what kind of room is available for heat pipes or foil.
Anybody ever tried making a heatsink for a tablet or phone? This isn't meant to be wholly a serious discussion, and I fully expect to get a lot of flack about battery usage and melting plastic. I just think it would be cool to mod the device into being able to maintain these ridiculous clock speeds and not have it burn my hands.

using the clemsyn 2ghz kernel in front of the a/c works out well

There's very little empty space inside the Nexus 7, so there's no chance of adding additional cooling without more major modding.

I've been looking in to exactly this. I find my Tegra 3 gets to 60 C even before overclocking. If you study the teardown photos you can get an idea of how it might work. I turns out the main SoC chip's headspreader is nicely accessible.
The back pops off the Nexus 7 so easily we can easily take a peak.
My first idea would be to put a little thermal paste in each layer on the SoC's heat spreader, this is covered by a copper RF shield/heat spreader on the chip, and another copper layer on the back cover. Just a tiny dab would do, and it will be smooshed out over an area when the cover goes on. Could get a bit messy though.
There's exactly zero room to work with, it's all very tightly packed and a nicely engineered tablet.
But the back cover is so replaceable you could cut in to it.
If I was going to do it myself I would cut through all layers and have a heatsink directly on the tegra's heatspreader with an adhesive thermal pad. Any more than about something like 1-2mm and it would not be flush with the rear cover.
Alternately some perforation in the plastic on the rear around the area may help.
If i can scrounge some replacement parts I might have a crack at doing stuff.

Whoa whoa whoa, 2GHZ?
BRB !!

Mungulz said:
Whoa whoa whoa, 2GHZ?
BRB !!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, for those people who want to fry their Nexus 7s.
I've only OC'd to 1.4 GHz..not so sure I'll go much farther than that.

Another cooling idea. Would like input.

I have been reading a few other threads and have a different idea. I have some small sheets of copper, and would like to incorporate them as a heatsink. This is really a two part mod. First, the N7. Second, the case. Lets start with the N7.
My idea is pretty simple and cheap. I will lay out the process as i visualize it, then ask for advice on the specifics. First, i need to cut the sheet of copper to fit over the cpu and gpu. Now, here is where the questions start.
1. Would it be best to remove the original foil that is covering it now, or use the new sheet in addition?
2. Best way to adhere it? If original foil removed, could we simply use normal heatsink paste? If not, then how?
The second part on the device itself is the back cover. I think it would be ideal to drill small holes directly over where the cpu gpu sits. I would recommend getting an extra back.
The holes lead to the case. When seated in the case, i want to modify with a hole directly behind the cpu location and our new holes on the n7 backing. Over this large hole would sit a fan. A small one with a usb power source would be perfect. That would require an otg, but needed to get away from external power source.
1. Would it be best to suck hot air away from the unit, or cooler air at it. Most likely the first, but im not sure.
Ill post pics of the areas i am talking about later. Xda app is being cranky right now.
Skyrocket on AOKP by R4ins

Easy Fix for Throttling

Edit: This is just a fun project. Every octa core phone throttles. That includes my S6. Its AnTuTu score from 5 back to back runs with similar 32C start ranges from 65K to 52K. That means a similar drop in performance. Also overheating & throttling are two very different things. Z3+ & S6 both throttle so that they don't get too hot (or 'overheat'). Glass backs on both don't help either, but I like them anyway. I was just trying to speed up the cooling process- not to cool down anything as the phone doesn't 'overheat' in the first place. You won't notice this throttling with regular usage & all these temperature numbers are for internal temp, not surface temp. I hope this clears up my intent. *End of Edit* 07/21/2015
This is probably the easiest way to decrease throttling during heavy CPU workload. All I had to do is insert few foil layers between the phone & TPU case. Attached picture shows plots from three scenarios - no case, just case, foil & case respectively. Oh, NFC will get blocked out by the foil. But I don't use it much anyway. Cheers.

#Reserved#

Very interesting thread, mate! It made my lazy as* to sign up just to post my results. Oh, I used this copper foil with a case. You won't need that much, btw lol
amazon dot com/Louis-Crafts-Copper-Foil-Inches/dp/B0042SWM98
My scores (normalized like yours) from 5 consecutive AnTuTu runs (& my initial temp was also a bit higher than yours)
Initial Temp (C) Score
0 34 100%
1 48.1 91.10%
2 49.1 86.86%
3 49.8 84.80%
4 50.1 83.00%
4K Test:
Outdoor-> 4 minutes in 96F / 35.5 degree Celsius weather (starting CPU temp was 37C as I was using few apps before the recording started )
Walked back home two minutes later and then
Indoor -> 9.5 minutes (CPU was still warm at 41C)
It really is the easiest fix ever for extreme users who use case anyway. Thanks!

nfs2010 said:
Oh, I used this copper foil with a case. You won't need that much, btw lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's freakin' awesome, dude :good: I never knew copper foil existed. Since I can't afford diamond foil, I'll go with copper I'll take the whole roll though as people are (primarily) using it for shielding their guitar pickups. Thanks a lot for your tip.

Have you guys considered the fact that the phone might, and let me say it again, MIGHT get hotter because we're in summer and it's seriously hot outside? I just checked the forecast for Austin TX, OP's town according to his info, and he has 37C over there. I think that MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT have something to do with the phone getting hotter than usual.
Just saying.

schecter7 said:
This is probably the easiest way to decrease throttling during heavy CPU workload. All I had to do is insert few foil layers between the phone & TPU case. Attached picture shows plots from three scenarios - no case, just case, foil & case respectively. Oh, NFC will get blocked out by the foil. But I don't use it much anyway. Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you think about putting foil around the actual battery? Some people have suggested putting paper around it. Does anyone think either of those things are safe?

MarkMRL said:
Have you guys considered the fact that the phone might, and let me say it again, MIGHT get hotter because we're in summer and it's seriously hot outside? I just checked the forecast for Austin TX, OP's town according to his info, and he has 37C over there. I think that MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT have something to do with the phone getting hotter than usual.
Just saying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it's quite hot over here in ATX. I added an extra comment to my first post. I hope that makes things clear now.
pacattack81 said:
What do you think about putting foil around the actual battery? Some people have suggested putting paper around it. Does anyone think either of those things are safe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The foil will short out the internal components and your phone may get toasted . Please DO NOT try it. But I really wanted to open the back and put some thermal compound like this one. I'll try it some day!

schecter7 said:
Yes, it's quite hot over here in ATX. I added an extra comment to my first post. I hope that makes things clear now.
The foil will short out the internal components and your phone may get toasted . Please DO NOT try it. But I really wanted to open the back and put some thermal compound like. I'll try it some day!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I was very close to trying it out. Funny you should mention the thermal compound...there's a guy on YouTube who opened up the nexus 5 and put some on the CPU and a little piece of metal
heat sink. I have the thermal compound but I don't have the piece of heatsink to test it out so I haven't tried it. One day I'm going to try it though as I have a nexus 5.

pacattack81 said:
Thanks I was very close to trying it out. Funny you should mention the thermal compound...there's a guy on YouTube who opened up the nexus 5 and put some on the CPU and a little piece of metal
heat sink. I have the thermal compound but I don't have the piece of heatsink to test it out so I haven't tried it. One day I'm going to try it though as I have a nexus 5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's great! You'll have better luck with the compound on the N5 as it has plastic back - I guess? On Z3+, I'll probably get bottle-necked by the glass back regardless of the internal enhancement. I could be wrong though if the heat sink goes all the way to metal side frame. It's certainly worth a shot.
As battery wrap, you'd probably want something that's thermally conductive AND electrically non-conductive.

schecter7 said:
That's great! You'll have better luck with the compound on the N5 as it has plastic back - I guess? On Z3+, I'll probably get bottle-necked by the glass back regardless of the internal enhancement. I could be wrong though if the heat sink goes all the way to metal side frame. It's certainly worth a shot.
As battery wrap, you'd probably want something that's thermally conductive AND electrically non-conductive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, there's got to be something you can wrap around a smartphone battery that could shield in the heat. I just bought an oppo find 7a and it has a removable back. Maybe some sort of insulation can be put on the inside back cover so your hands don't feel the heat when the phone heats up. Any ideas for either the battery and/or back cover? What's thermally conductive, but not electrically conductive?
---------- Post added at 09:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 PM ----------
pacattack81 said:
Yea, there's got to be something you can wrap around a smartphone battery that could shield in the heat. I just bought an oppo find 7a and it has a removable back. Maybe some sort of insulation can be put on the inside back cover so your hands don't feel the heat when the phone heats up. Any ideas for either the battery and/or back cover? What's thermally conductive, but not electrically conductive?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't post links yet, but what about putting some cotton insulation inside the back case? I would think that might shield us from holding a hot phone. Also, what about reflective insulation tape? I think that might actually work. Thoughts?

pacattack81 said:
Yea, there's got to be something you can wrap around a smartphone battery that could shield in the heat. I just bought an oppo find 7a and it has a removable back. Maybe some sort of insulation can be put on the inside back cover so your hands don't feel the heat when the phone heats up. Any ideas for either the battery and/or back cover? What's thermally conductive, but not electrically conductive?
---------- Post added at 09:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 PM ----------
I can't post links yet, but what about putting some cotton insulation inside the back case? I would think that might shield us from holding a hot phone. Also, what about reflective insulation tape? I think that might actually work. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, we're not on the same page. I was trying to avoid throttling (not shielding the heat). Z3+ back side heats up where the CPU seats (very small spot somewhere underneath the top row of icons). The idea was to take that heat and spread it laterally over a bigger surface area to speed up the cooling process. Without the foil, I still don't feel the heat as my fingers don't touch that hot spot. The foil also indirectly reduces the hot feel from that tiny spot as the heat gets spread more uniformly.
But your case sounds different. You want to avoid the heat from the battery (or the CPU) ? Battery already has a pretty big surface area. And you probably don't want to keep the heat inside by using thermal insulators as that can be very harmful for the battery. You probably want to establish an even faster heat transfer to the environment so that equilibrium point can be maintained at a lower surface temperature. Is that right? A metal back cover can help in that case.
Also here are some electrical insulators that are thermally conductive - but I'm not quite sure about the availability of those
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...ductive-thermally-conductive-material.125368/

schecter7 said:
Wait, we're not on the same page. I was trying to avoid throttling (not shielding the heat). Z3+ back side heats up where the CPU seats (very small spot somewhere underneath the top row of icons). The idea was to take that heat and spread it laterally over a bigger surface area to speed up the cooling process. Without the foil, I still don't feel the heat as my fingers don't touch that hot spot. The foil also indirectly reduces the hot feel from that tiny spot as the heat gets spread more uniformly.
But your case sounds different. You want to avoid the heat from the battery (or the CPU) ? Battery already has a pretty big surface area. And you probably don't want to keep the heat inside by using thermal insulators as that can be very harmful for the battery. You probably want to establish an even faster heat transfer to the environment so that equilibrium point can be maintained at a lower surface temperature. Is that right? A metal back cover can help in that case.
Also here are some electrical insulators that are thermally conductive - but I'm not quite sure about the availability of those :confused
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried TPU cases, but I still feel the heat. Maybe a metal case would be better. These look interesting.
amazon(dot)com/gp/aw/d/B00HNKD6A6/ref=pd_aw_sbs_107_1?refRID=1VRK3Q399HJZXA2GHWCJ
amazon(dot)com/gp/aw/d/B00L71LNS4/ref=pd_aw_sbs_107_1?refRID=1BQ362P6XMYRJET82TFG

pacattack81 said:
I've tried TPU cases, but I still feel the heat. Maybe a metal case would be better. These look interesting.
amazon(dot)com/gp/aw/d/B00HNKD6A6/ref=pd_aw_sbs_107_1?refRID=1VRK3Q399HJZXA2GHWCJ
amazon(dot)com/gp/aw/d/B00L71LNS4/ref=pd_aw_sbs_107_1?refRID=1BQ362P6XMYRJET82TFG
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting! So why does your battery heat up in the first place? Did you try to compare your battery temp (using CPU Z, etc) to others'? I thought battery only heats up during charging.

schecter7 said:
Edit: This is just a fun project. Every octa core phone throttles.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was genius--thank you.

I've attached a heatsink with thermal paste (cheap one) to my nexus 4 once it didn't make a difference
too bad i sold it i can't try it with my Peltier (TEC)
and my note 4 here is cooler without my tough armor (ofc it is, that case is a monster) i think i bent my phone while taking it out will try it with foil as soon as i get one, hope it doesn't damage it :S
a copper plate would be better! or simply a thin heatsink

I tried this maybe a year ago, phone was a lot cooler but I lost my reception. I noticed this after few days, everyone thought something had happend because they couldn't reach me. I was busy gaming ?

Because the phone is opened from the back (http://www.witrigs.com/blog/sony-xperia-z4-teardown/) we should crowdfund a metal replacement made of aluminium but in the same glossy style and color the frame is and with a copper base which directly connects to the thermonuclear fusion core (aka Qualcomm) so that the heat is as best as possible transported from these to the whole backplate. The only difficulty will be the holes for the camera and LED light to be waterproof. And while we are at it, we could make the backplate a little bit ticker than the glass currently is so that the tiny height difference between the glass and the frame is gone too.
Ok, we can argue about the color and thickness but you get the idea. Should we do that? Once we got them funded we can sell them and get rich

an3k said:
Because the phone is opened from the back (http://www.witrigs.com/blog/sony-xperia-z4-teardown/) we should crowdfund a metal replacement made of aluminium but in the same glossy style and color the frame is and with a copper base which directly connects to the thermonuclear fusion core (aka Qualcomm) so that the heat is as best as possible transported from these to the whole backplate. The only difficulty will be the holes for the camera and LED light to be waterproof. And while we are at it, we could make the backplate a little bit ticker than the glass currently is so that the tiny height difference between the glass and the frame is gone too.
Ok, we can argue about the color and thickness but you get the idea. Should we do that? Once we got them funded we can sell them and get rich
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That'd be excellent & throttling would probably be gone forever. I'm in But some dudes might mix up fast heat dissipation with 'overheating & throttling & battery drain' - all in one sentence The rear area that gets warm on Z3+ is actually very narrow & my fingers don't touch that part at all. But we've already seen a ridiculous amount of whining over that. Can you imagine the whining as we try to expand that dissipation area to get rid of throttling?
I think the thickness would be debatable as some may want to keep the slightly raised lips on the back to keep their phones from sliding around.

fredrik8 said:
I tried this maybe a year ago, phone was a lot cooler but I lost my reception. I noticed this after few days, everyone thought something had happend because they couldn't reach me. I was busy gaming
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol - good point. It depends on the antenna placement - I think. I didn't experience any difference in reception. I usually get 0-1 bar at home. So I really didn't have anything to lose in the first place lol

If you do this and have the phone on max brightness, does it auto-dim when loading xda's website?
Due to all the ads and issues with the website it always causes the screens brightness to throttle when loading, and then go back to full brightness afterwards.
(Try loading a couple of different topics when doing this)

Thermal Repaste

Hi how many of you have done it and is it really useful and worth the trouble? thx

nostupidthing said:
Hi how many of you have done it and is it really useful and worth the trouble? thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have on my H910 phone. I would say it should help prolong the life of the phone, heat is the number one enemy of cpu's. It does speed up the phone I think, if anything it wont hurt.
I used a 0.5mm copper shim and Arctic silver. I left the copper tape on the cpu because the cpu is not designed to have thermal paste applied directly to it. I applied the Arctic Silver to the cpu then applyed the copper shim to the cpu then put paste on the base of phone. That way you can make sure it's on the right spot on the board. My idle temps are around 30c.
Also I used very fine sandpaper on the copper shim before installing in my phone. There was a little lip on one side.
PS. I used just a little paste and did not spread it out. I put my finger on there and applied a little pressure to spread it out.
This is what I bought.
Honbay 25pcs 5 Sizes 15x15mm IC Chipset GPU CPU Thermal Heatsink Copper Pad