Thermal Pad - Help!

petertr2000 · 9 Feb 2011 at 11:14

Hi,

Sorry for making my first post on these boards a new thread. I did search through about 5 pages of results before doing so, but apologies if I have re-posted an old request.

I have an Acer Aspire 7520 Laptop. A few months ago, I had some heat issues, so I opened it up, cleaned the vents, fan and removed the stock paste from the CPU and replaced with AS-5.

The assembly is a copper bar that is fixed to the Northbridge (GPU) chipset AND (in serial) the CPU heatsink.

When I removed this, I found a blue heatpad between the heatsink and the GPU. Nothing I'd seen before - so I tried to replace with AS-5.

Unfortunately, the pad is there for a reason, because the copper pipe is shared, and the GPU is ~1mm more shallow than the CPU, there is a gap - hence filling it with a pad.

I tried to fill it with AS-5 at the time, but I couldn't get a contact, and temps were through the roof.

So I put the heatpad back in. After having handled it, which I guess isn't the best of ideas.

Everything had been great since - the CPU and system temps are about 5C down on what they were before the AS-5, so I'm happy.

I've just ordered a new CPU, as the system will take upto a AMD TL-66, and I only have a TK-57. So a big jump.
Again, I'll use the AS-5 on the CPU, but it gives me a chance to replace the "dirty and probably poor" Acer-supplied Thermal Pad.

So, long story short, I've had a TON of trouble finding thermal pads - google isn't helping.

Does anyone recommend a product for me?

Many TIA

petertr2000 · 9 Feb 2011 at 11:15

Edit: After much searching, I found the original Acer part: THERMAL PAD-MOSFET 47.AJ802.008

petertr2000 · 9 Feb 2011 at 21:26

Ok, no takers?

I've also been looking at replacing the pad with a Copper Shim, any advise on that?

JonJ678 · 10 Feb 2011 at 00:25

Copper shim would work. Stick tim on both sides of it, and be careful not to use one too thick or you'll crack the die.

Otherwise thermally conductive pads should be available readily enough, I'll have a look

edit: If you type thermal pad into google shopping, it finds loads.

petertr2000 · 10 Feb 2011 at 11:41

JonJ678 said:
Copper shim would work. Stick tim on both sides of it, and be careful not to use one too thick or you'll crack the die.

Otherwise thermally conductive pads should be available readily enough, I'll have a look

edit: If you type thermal pad into google shopping, it finds loads.

Thanks for the reply.

The problem I have with the thermal pad is that its commonly known what the better thermal pastes are - what am I looking for in a good thermal pad?

petertr2000 · 14 Feb 2011 at 16:28

Well, I've ordered a copper shim. Lets hope that works, as since I removed the assembly to replace the CPU, the current pad is wrecked, and the GPU temps have gone up 10C.

JonJ678 · 14 Feb 2011 at 17:51

None of the thermal pads are likely to be anything very special, as they're not usually used on particularly hot components. They tend to be quite thick, which doesn't help either.

Copper shim(s) is the approach I would take. How thick was the one you've gone for?

PhillyDee · 14 Feb 2011 at 22:52

What you want is "gap filler pad". These can be found in a range of thicknesses.

petertr2000 · 16 Feb 2011 at 22:52

Just installed a 0.9mm copper shim. GPU temp has dropped 10C straightaway.

I can get onto overclocking the new CPU now. I got the TK-55 from 1.8 to 2.25Ghz, lets hope I can do the same with this TL-64.

petertr2000 · 21 Feb 2011 at 10:51

Bit disappointed with the OC-ability of the TL-64.

With the TK-55, I simply used ntune to push the FSB from 200, to 250.

Can only get it stable at 215 with this TL-64 before I get errors in Prime. Means the CPU is only running 100Mhz faster than the original one