Hello folks,
I wanted to share a great experience with my trusty Asus Vivobook X202e.
This laptop I've had for a year now and used it for light work and play, but recently I wanted to start Starcraft 2 and found that it was unplayably slow, even though the Core i3 3217 and the Intel HD 4000 graphics should run it on low-visuals just fine.
However, I found the reason for the poor performance was THERMAL THROTTLING - the CPU was heating up to around 90 degrees centigrade under heavy load and then throttling back to 1 Ghz for a few seconds to cool down.
So I analyzsed this a little and found the CPU idle temperature was about 60°C, and it rose very fast to high 80's °C when pushed a little.
This does not damage the chip, but it makes it useless for games or other intensive work.
Therefore I decided to do a little thermal engineering and fitted extra heat sinks to the existing, rather weak heat transfer pad.
This is not that easy in a laptop, especially an ultrabook design where everything is squeezed in.
See the pictures and description; the result is that idle temp is now in the high 40's °C, the heavy-load temp is in the mid 70's °C, and there is NO thermal throttling when playing StarCraft 2. It runs just fine for hours with 30+ framerate.
1.
Prepare your gear; I bought a selection of tiny heat sinks from modDIY.com, but the only really useful stuff for this job was these:
Sticky thernal pads (0.5mm)
3M-467 Thermally Conductive Adhesive Transfer Tapes - modDIY.com
Ultra-thin heat sinks (pack of 6)
3M 8810 Thermally Conductive Adhesive 2mm Ultra-Thin Heatsink (6 Pack) - modDIY.com
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2.
Take the back panal off the laptop
![]()
3.
Identify inadequate standard heat-sink and fan, ready for pimping up
![]()
4.
Gently remove any dust on the fan housing with a light vacuum or brush
![]()
5.
Apply thermal stick pads to chip-square section. These guys squish quite a lot so you can go over the bumps a little
![]()
6.
Add two heat sinks in line (so the air can flow in one direction over them)
![]()
7.
Apply thermal sticky pads to the adjacent section. You will have to cut them to size and shape I expect.
![]()
8.
Apply three heat sinks in line
![]()
9.
Admire your work!
![]()
I wanted to share a great experience with my trusty Asus Vivobook X202e.
This laptop I've had for a year now and used it for light work and play, but recently I wanted to start Starcraft 2 and found that it was unplayably slow, even though the Core i3 3217 and the Intel HD 4000 graphics should run it on low-visuals just fine.
However, I found the reason for the poor performance was THERMAL THROTTLING - the CPU was heating up to around 90 degrees centigrade under heavy load and then throttling back to 1 Ghz for a few seconds to cool down.
So I analyzsed this a little and found the CPU idle temperature was about 60°C, and it rose very fast to high 80's °C when pushed a little.
This does not damage the chip, but it makes it useless for games or other intensive work.
Therefore I decided to do a little thermal engineering and fitted extra heat sinks to the existing, rather weak heat transfer pad.
This is not that easy in a laptop, especially an ultrabook design where everything is squeezed in.
See the pictures and description; the result is that idle temp is now in the high 40's °C, the heavy-load temp is in the mid 70's °C, and there is NO thermal throttling when playing StarCraft 2. It runs just fine for hours with 30+ framerate.
1.
Prepare your gear; I bought a selection of tiny heat sinks from modDIY.com, but the only really useful stuff for this job was these:
Sticky thernal pads (0.5mm)
3M-467 Thermally Conductive Adhesive Transfer Tapes - modDIY.com
Ultra-thin heat sinks (pack of 6)
3M 8810 Thermally Conductive Adhesive 2mm Ultra-Thin Heatsink (6 Pack) - modDIY.com
2.
Take the back panal off the laptop
3.
Identify inadequate standard heat-sink and fan, ready for pimping up
4.
Gently remove any dust on the fan housing with a light vacuum or brush
5.
Apply thermal stick pads to chip-square section. These guys squish quite a lot so you can go over the bumps a little
6.
Add two heat sinks in line (so the air can flow in one direction over them)
7.
Apply thermal sticky pads to the adjacent section. You will have to cut them to size and shape I expect.
8.
Apply three heat sinks in line
9.
Admire your work!
