I repasted my Dell XPS 9500, I can't believe it helped this much
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to share my recent experience with gaming on my laptop. While playing CS:GO was manageable, CS2 was a different story. My laptop kept hitting thermal limits, causing frustrating performance drops. So, I decided to do it myself and repaste it.
I wrote a simple script to monitor my temperatures and frequencies: thermalog script.
I‘ve recently repasted a 10+ yr old laptop which had crusted thermal pads on it. The laptop fans ran on full blast just being on. After the repaste they actually toned down to a level where the device was usable for an extended period. Pads would have been good though.
I bought pads as well but the original ones didn't break. I wanted to replace them with my new one, however i found the new one is more stiff while the original is soft that components can sink into it. I didn't know that it's a thing. So i kept the original. (If anybody is interested there were 0.5mm and 1mm pads on the cooler.)
I put ptm in my steam deck and the numbers are better and the heat coming out of the vent now is kinda scary but that means it's not on the apu I guess. Next is the extra heat pipes mod and also ptm pad for my ancient laptop. It already had a repaste and the exhaust increase is also pretty impressive with just that.
Do not use "paste" that already has a low viscosity at room temp, it will get more liquid as it heats up. Good thermal paste doesn't even cost much, and a syringe last for years of regular service on multiple devices. Repasting is not difficult.
I've always used paste- never heard of these. I'll totally check them out! I assume they are fine for any CPU/GPU applications as long as they fit? I always lose my paste tubes so having a sheet of these might be easier to keep track of
Lifehack: Grab any 1970s 1 cent pure copper penny if you are worried about leakage and have the clearance and use that instead. It's nonsense but hilarious. Memory is hazy but I've seen significant gains from this in the past.
Also it's 10,000 - 100,000 times cheaper as a bonus.