Hello distributed computing donors, gamers, overclockers,
modifiers, and people who love voiding warranties. My name is Rene Gonzalez and
This is a project to configure a 24/7 distributed computing laptop running at
100% cpu time, 100% onboard gpu time, and 100% dedicated gpu time while
consuming less than 90 watts.
After months of research I decided to purchase a refurbished
Lenovo Y40-80 laptop because it offered what I believe to be a very efficient
yet able set of components for distributed computing. It cost $550 on ebay
which is a great deal. After running Folding@home as well as BOINC projects
including Seti@home, Rosetta@home, The World Community Grid, Poem@home and Collatz Conjecture on my
desktops since April 1999 I realized that I want to configure something that
is: smaller, quieter, and less power hungry.
The last Desktop I configured had an Intel 3770K cpu that
was water cooled and overclocked to 3.9Ghz. It also had an AMD Radeon HD 7970
Dual Dissipation GPU. This setup was great for distributed computing but was so
loud, consumed about 600 watts, and would heat up a room quick. I decided to
sell the desktop and make the switch to a laptop. Something that I had been
putting off since my concern was always hard drive capacity which I resolved
using a 6tb ac wifi nas hard drive. So now I have no excuses.
WARNING This blog is very long and
has many photos and tech mumbo jumbo.
Let’s Start with
the Lenovo y40-80’s cpu. It is a 2 core 4 thread intel i7 5500u cpu. As you can
see the Power consumption including its built in gpu is 15 watts which is
incredibly efficient. This cpu is great because it can run 4 simultaneous tasks
including Seti@home cpu tasks, Rosetta@home cpu tasks, and The World Community
Grid cpu tasks.
This information can be found on this page
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-5500U-Notebook-Processor.127806.0.html
The Intel HD Graphics 5500 gpu is Open CL 2.0 capable which
is great for Seti@home gpu tasks .
This information can be found on this page
http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=2575&gid2=1794&compare=intel-hd-graphics-5500-mobile-vs-intel-hd-graphics-4400-mobile
The dedicated gpu on the Lenovo Y40-80 is the AMD Radeon r9
m275 which is openCL 1.2 capable and has 10 compute units while consuming 60
watts which is a great balance between computing power and power consumption in
my opinion. This gpu is great for BOINC Seti@home gpu tasks, Poem@home gpu
tasks, as well as Collatz Conjecture gpu tasks. Folding@home also runs great on
this gpu.
This information can be found here:
When I configured both BOINC and Folding@home distributed
computing to run at 100% cpu and 100% onboard gpu as well as 100% dedicated gpu
I noticed that the stock cooling system could not dissipate enough heat from
both the cpu/onboard cpu combination and the dedicated gpu.
I was getting temperatures as high as 71 degrees centigrade
(OUCH) and that was at an ambient temperature of 22 degrees centigrade. This
made me realize that the cooling system would have to be modified especially
since I plan on running distributed computing at 100% cpu and gpu 24/7 even in
the summer time. As you can see on this image I found online the intake ports
are covered with a sort of fabric mesh that restricts intake airflow.
The exhaust port is located at the screen hinge and is a
scant 1/8 of an inch wide when the laptop is closed which is what I plan on
doing while running distributed computing. I plan on removing all the plastic
and fabric mesh over the intake ports and I also plan on removing 3/8 of plastic
from the exhaust port located at the hinge. This will give the cooling system
an unrestricted flow. I don’t mind the dust bunnies since I typically clean my
computers once a week, usually on the weekends.
In
this image you can see the fabric mesh which I plan to remove.
For
a stock cooling performance test I used my old alarm clock which reads ambient
temperature. I know it is not the best or most accurate way to test the ambient
temperature but it gives me a rough idea. Iran this test at 2:18pm on January
30 which was in San Jose California with an ambient room temperature of 22
degrees centigrade.
The
first test was done with BOINC running Seti@home because it is one of the most
power intensive tasks on BOINC. Also because it has tasks that run on the cpu,
onboard gpu, and dedicated gpu. I used GPU-Z to read the AMD Radeon r9 m275 gpu
temperature. The highest temperature was at 63 degrees centigrade at 22 degrees
ambient at 80% gpu load. This is above the 60 degrees centigrade max that I
like for any of my computer components.
So far the stock cooling system is not
performing well. When summer comes along I expect gpu throttling and even tasks
sent out with errors with this stock cooling system.
I
used Gpu-Z to read the Intel 5500 onboard gpu temperature while running the
same BOINC Seti@home onboard gpu task at a gpu load of 93%. The maximum
temperature was 71 degrees centigrade (Holy Moley) with an ambient of 22
degrees centigrade. This is unacceptable.
I
used SpeedFan to read the temperatures of the 2 core 4 thread Intel i7 5500u
cpu. I used the same BOINC Seti@home cpu task configured at 100% cpu load. The
highest temperature of the first core was 50 degrees centigrade at an ambient
of 20 degrees centigrade. The highest temperature of the second core was 51
degrees centigrade at an ambient of 20 degrees centigrade.
This is below the
max of 60 degrees centigrade that I try not to allow any of my hardware to
reach but when summer comes by that will change for sure if I continue using
the stock cooling system.
This
image shows my BOINC settings which are 100% cpu time and constant cpu and gpu
usage even while in use with other programs. My desktop would run great with
the same settings but I have to realize that it had a corsair h100i water
cooler with dual 120mm fans and double dissipated Radeon HD 7970 GPU as well as
dual 4500 rpm case intake fans.
Since water cooling a laptop is out of the
question I will have to configure a custom cooling system that utilizes the
best solid forged copper heatsinks, Kryogenic performance thermal paste, silver
content epoxy, and a 140mm industrial server grade blower fan.
My
second test is done running Folding@home which is configured to run at 100% cpu
and gpu time. I used Gpu-Z to read the AMD Radeon m275 gpu temperature. The
maximum temperature was 63 degrees centigrade at an ambient of 22 degrees
centigrade. I used SpeedFan to read the 2 core 4 thread Intel 5500u cpu
temperature.
The maximum temperature of the first core was 61 degrees
centigrade at an ambient of 22 degrees centigrade. The maximum temperature of
the second core was 58 degrees centigrade at an ambient of 22 degrees
centigrade. Now it is time to void some warranties for the sake of science.
This
photo shows how I removed 3/8 of an inch of plastic on the exhaust port located
at the hinge. I also removed the fabric mesh and all of the grill type plastic
over the fans. Notice that I also cut semi-round openings that were covering
the top portion of the fans. The Intake and Exhaust ports are now unrestricted.
You would think that I am done with my cooling mod but this is only the start.
This
photo shows the newly unrestricted exhaust port at the hinge while the laptop is
closed. The Vertical grill style plastic has been completely removed.
This Photo shows the now unrestricted exhaust port at the
hinge when the laptop is open. You can now see the stock heatpipe and heatsink.
This
is what the bottom cover now looks like. A lot more material will be removed
later to make room for the forged copper heatsinks.
This is what the motherboard looks like on the Lenovo Y40-80
with the bottom cover removed. Notice the exposed copper and aluminum alloy. I
plan on removing the black paint on the heatpipes and aluminum alloy heatplates
to allow the best heat transfer to the forged copper heatsinks.
A closeup of the partially exposed copper and aluminum alloy. I plan on sanding, polishing, and bathing in 70% Isopropyl Alcohol in order to remove the black paint.
Here are 3 of the 4 Enzotech forged copper heatsinks that I
plan on cutting to size and attaching with silver content epoxy onto the copper
heatsinks and aluminum alloy heatplates. The 4th heatsink is in the mail since
I purchased 3 of these through Amazon and a fourth through ebay. The heatsinks
are made for a motherboard northbridge.
I decided to use these since they are made
of solid forged 1100 copper and because copper is one of the best thermal
conductors next to silver, which is out of the question since I am not a millionaire.
I also like the pin fin design since they allow airflow to pass by
unrestrictedly. The heatsinks are made by Enzotech and are model: CNB-S1. The
dimensions of the heatsinks are 36mm deep by 27.6mm tall. They weigh 88 grams
each.
An angled view of the 3 Enzotech heatsinks. Pin fin copper
goodness.
Enzotech did a great job of making a mirror like finish on
these heatsinks. The packaging states: “Base flatness:
Polished mirror surface, flatness for machined surfaces are
typically in the range of 0.0003” to 0.0004” per inch.”
NICE
I decided to use Thermal Grizzly Kryonaout thermal paste on
the Intel 2 core 4 tread i7 5500u cpu/gpu combo and the AMD Radeon R9 m275 gpu.
Back in the days I swore by Arctic Silver thermal paste for its silver content
but I later found out that Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme was an even better
thermal paste.
When I decided to configure this cooling system I wanted to go
with the best non liquid metal thermal paste so I decided to use the Thermal
Grizzly Kryonaut paste which is a Kryogenic performance thermal paste. Many
thanks go out to this page for taking the time and expense to test 47 thermal
paste solutions:
http://overclocking.guide/thermal-paste-roundup-2015-47-products-tested-with-air-cooling-and-liquid-nitrogen-ln2/6/
The Thermal Grizzly Paste has a consistency of toothpaste
and is very easy to spread. I like that it is non electrically conductive and
has amazing thermal conductivity. The following pages show the test results. It
must have taken a whole lot of patience to do this test on 47 individual
thermal pastes. My props to Overcklocking.guide for their fine work:
http://overclocking.guide/thermal-paste-roundup-2015-47-products-tested-with-air-cooling-and-liquid-nitrogen-ln2/6/
I decided to purchase the large tube of Thermal Grizzly
Kryonaut paste since I know that it is good to change the paste after a while
since thermal pastes tend to dry out over time and lose some of their thermal
conductivity. I like that the cap screws on to avoid accidental spills while in
storage. The 2 supplied rubber tip applicators have built in spatulas which are
great.
Since I plan on running distributed computing 24/7 I decided
to use a commercial grade fan. Noctua has been my choice of fans for years for
their low noise, high mtbf lifetime and high quality SSO bearings but
unfortunately they do not manufacture blower style fans. After a week of
searching I decided to use a Delta blower fan model: BFB1612H. Its dimensions
are 159mm x 165mm x 40mm thick. This is a server grade fan which is designed to
run 24/7. It runs at 12 volts 2.15 amps but at that voltage the rpm is at 2,200
and the cfm is at 61.80 with a noise of 56.5db , which is way more than I need.
I ran a test and confirmed that it can run via 5 volts from a USB port. So I
will solder the wire leads to a USB cable and be happy with its rough estimate
of 900 rpm, 28 cfm and rough estimate of 28db of noise. If push comes to shove
I can use a 5 volt USB port to 12 volt DC-DC Step-up adapter which I also
tested. The only drawback of purchasing this fan was that Amazon no longer
carries it an a few online retailers including Mouser.com and Octopart.com do
sell them but have a minimum order of around 10 FANS! Luckily I found one being
sold on ebay at a great price.
This fan has a very sturdy housing and has an exhaust port
that is 1 and 1/2 inches tall which is more than enough to supply airflow to the
Enzotech heatsinks.
The Delta blower fan has an exhaust port that is 2 and a half inches wide. I plan on making this port a total of 4 inches wide by removing some plastic material. I want all of the heatsinks to have airflow since I have read on other laptop cooling mod webpages that adding mass without adding airflow is a big mistake.
When I purchase fans, laptops, or desktops I always take into consideration if they are easy to clean since I have a habit of cleaning my computers once a week. I like the fact that this fan has a removable cover which has 2 clips and 2 screws. This will make cleaning easier and more thorough.
The delta blower fan has a large 4 inch diameter intake which will match the 4 inch wide exhaust port after I remove some of the plastic material. I do not plan on adding any sort of grille cover to allow an unrestricted flow of air to the copper heatsinks.
This is a view of the delta DBF1612H blower fan with the cover removed. I like that the inside is not textured which would make it a dust magnet. The high number of curved fins is very nice design.
I decided to use Arctic Silver 2 part Epoxy Thermal Adhesive, not to be confused with the ceramic version which is a tad bit less thermalyl conductive. This product is electrically conductive buti am not worried since no transistors are located on the heatpipes or heatplates. I purchased a total of 3 sets to be able to Adhere the 4 forged copper heatsinks onto the laptop’s stock copper heatpipes and aluminum alloy heatplates.
I decided to use aluminum binding post and slot head screw sets to attach the Delta blower fan to the bottom of the laptop. I like that the screws and binding posts are very thin and flat which will minimize the chance of becoming dust bunny magnets inside the fan.
These are some of the tools that I am using. A hacksaw, I know that there are better tools like for instance a belt saw or even a Dremel. I used the hacksaw to both cut plastic and cut the copper heatsinks to custom sizes. Cutting the heatsinks was very time consuming and even painful. A utility box knife which I used to slice plastic away after doing a rough cut with the hacksaw. This works incredibly well in my opinion. A bristle brush to remove debris after both plastic and copper are cut. I also used this brush to wash the copper heatsinks and stock heatpipes and heatplates with 70% isopropyl alcohol after they were sanded down to remove the black paint. A blade scrapper which I like to use to spread the thermal paste. A Picquick Teeny Turner 7 in 1 magnetized screwdriver to remove the bottom cover of the laptop (Very cute and handy.)
I used wire strippers to cut a USB cord. A wired solder tool and lead free solder to solder the Delta blower fan’s wire leads to the USB cable.
I used 70% isopropyl alcohol to bathe the Enzotech forged copper heatsinks and stock laptop heatpipes and heatplates after they were cut and sanded. This removes any material not removed by the sanding. This also works great to remove the stock thermal paste before applying the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut thermal paste. I know that 90% isopropyl alcohol is available. I used nitrile gloves when sanding and when mixing and applying the Arctic Silver 2 part thermally conductive adhesive.
I used 400 grit wet sand quality sandpaper to remove the paint on the laptop’s stock copper heatpipes and aluminum alloy heatplates. I know there is finer grit sandpapers but I am not looking to get a mirror like finish, I simply want to remove the paint to get a good adhesion onto the copper and aluminum alloy material underneath the paint. It is sort of a chain where the weakest link determines the strength of the entire chain. In this care the black paint is the weakest link. So by removing this paint I will increase the thermal conductivity of the entire cooling system.
This photo shows a rough initial idea of where I want to adhere the Enzotech CNB-S1 heatsinks onto the stock cooling system for improved cooling. I will have to remove the push pin holders and even cut the heatsinks to custom sizes to get a better setup.
In this photo you can see that the push pin holder is obstructing the ram which I plan on swapping for a dual channel Corsair ram. I will have to cut this push pin holder. Corsair is my go-to ram since back in the the ddr1 cas 2 days. I feel old now.
This
photo shows how I removed about 3/8 of an inch of plastic material to the
entire length of the exhaust port located at the hinge.
This
image shows the stock cooling system removed. Notice how much paste was applied
to the Intel dual core 4 thread 5500u cpu/gpu combo. No wonder the Intel 5500
onboard gpu was getting 71 degrees centigrade hot. When it comes to thermal
paste a thin even layer is best.
YUCK
This photo shows the stock cooling fans removed.
This is the stock cooling system copper heatsinks and
aluminum alloy heatplates. All the black paint will be removed later.
This
is the bottom of the stock copper heatsinks and aluminum alloy heatplates.
Notice the overzealous application of thermal paste on the cpu heatplate. The
sticker and foam will be removed since all they are doing is reducing the
thermal conductivity.
After
the stock thermal compound has been removed with 70% isopropyl alcohol.
Blinding.
These
areas will be filled in with Arctic Silver thermally conductive 2 part epoxy
adhesive to increase the thermal conductivity between the copper heatpipes and
the aluminum alloy heatplates.
These foam squares will be removed since they are also
lowering the thermal conductivity.
This is the stock copper heatsinks and aluminum alloy
heatplates after they have been sanded and bathed in 70% isopropyl alcohol.
This will allow the best adhesion of the copper heatsinks.
The push pin holder on the heatsink that I plan on attaching
to the AMD Radeon r9 m275 gpu heatplate is in the way of one of the 6 screws
that attaches the cooling system to the motherboard. It will have to be
removed. I plan on leaving these 6 screws unobstructed since I like to reapply
the thermal compound every once in a while because I know they tend to dry up
and lose thermal conductivity.
The push pin holder has been cut down a bit to clear the
screw.
After the stock thermal compound has been removed using 70%
isopropyl alcohol. SHINY.
Both of the push pin holders on the copper heatsink I plan
on attaching to the cpu will have to be cut down.
After the bottom push pin holder has been cut down and the
overall size of the heatsink has been sawed off I was able to clear the ram.
The top portion of this push pin holder had to be cut down
to allow a direct contact with the third heatsink that I plan to attach to the
stock copper heatpipes above the dedicated gpu heat plate.
Since I plan to have a 4 inch wide fan exhaust port I will
have to cut the extra material on the third heatsink.
I now have a 4 inch wide setup of copper heatsinks which
will match the 4 inch wide Delta BFB1612H blower fan exhaust port.
Since the fourth Enzotech CNB-S1 heatsink has not arrived
yet I will go ahead and attach the 3 that I have cut to size. I used a plastic
cap and a plastic spoon for mixing the Arctic Silver 2 part epoxy thermally
conductive adhesive. It is good to plan ahead and have all necessary tools at
hand since this adhesive has a 5 minute work time. I ordered a third set of 2
part adhesive together with the 4th heatsink. When working with this
adhesive do note that the second part might be clogged and will have to be
poked to start the flow.
The stock cooler with the 3 copper heatsinks epoxied on.
After about 2 hours I noticed that the Arctic Silver adhesive was fully cured.
Time to apply the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut thermal compound.
I know that I am not finished with my cooling mod but I cannot continue until
the 4th Enzotech copper heatsink and 3d set of thermal adhesive
arrives. Untill it arrives I will run distributed computing at 90% cpu and gpu
time. My goal is to be able to run at 100% even during summer weather. I did
not run any sort of test since I am not finished.
After the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut thermal compound has been
spread with a blade scrapper. This compound is a joy to work with. Some other
compounds have a consistency of Crayola clay. This compound has a nice
consistency of toothpaste.
I plan on attaching the piece of copper heatsink that was
removed from the 3d heatsink next to the dedicated gpu heatsink. I will have to
remove the push pin holder to allow direct contact with the 4th
heatsink.
Now that the push pin holder has been removed I will use my
laptop to run distributed computing at 90% cpu and gpu time without its bottom
cover and with the fan simply placed next to the heatsinks while the 4th
heatsink and third set of thermal adhesive to arrive.
The 4th Enzotech heatsink and 3d set of thermal
adhesive arrived so it is time to get back to work. The 4th heatsink
will be placed over the mosfet heatsink. I will have to cut it down to clear
the cpu screw underneath and to clear the Ethernet port on the top right.
After cutting the 4th heatsink down I am still
not clearing the cpu screw and Ethernet port, so I will have to cut more
material off.
After cutting the 4th heatsink down a second time
I now have clearance between the cpu scrw and Ethernet port.
I plan on attaching a leftover piece of the 4th
heatsink to the mosfet heatplate. It will have to be cut down to clear the cpu
heatplate.
I noticed that I have leftover pieces from the 4th
hetsink and want to attach one of them to the cpu heatplate.
The piece will have to be cut down to clear the cpu heat
plate screw and the now empty ram slot. I plan to fill this empty ram slot with
a dual channel corsair pair of ram.
I now have clearance to the cpu heat plate screw and the ram
slot below.
A final piece of heatsink will be attached to the top of the
gpu heatsink. It will have to be cut down to clear the JBL speaker at the
right. My hacksaw blade is really getting dull now.
After cutting this final piece down I am done with cutting
copper heatsinks by hand.
After I attached all the heatsink pieces onto the stock
heatpipes and heat plates I still had some leftover thermal adhesive so I
filled in any open areas underneath the heatplates to increase the thermal
conductivity between the heatpipes and the heatplates.
After adding the Enzotech copper heatsinks I now need to remove a lot of plastic material from the laptop’s bottom cover.
This photo shows how the bottom cove cannot be attached
until material is removed to allow space for the Enzotech copper heatsinks to
pass through.
After the bottom cover is attached. This cooling mod is
looking to be way overkill but why settle for above average when you can go all
out and do your best.
I now have about 2 7/8 inches of heatsinks to cool down. The Delta BFB1612H blower fan has an approximate air blowing distance of 6 feet at 61.8cfm when running at 12 volts. Since I will be running it at 5 volts the distance is lowered to 2 feet and 28 cfm which is more than enough to remove heat from 2 7/8 inches worth of heatsinks.
A view of the Delta blower fan next to the Enzotech pin fin
heatsinks that it will be providing airflow to.
This is a 5 Volt USB to 4 pin adapter. I am currently using
this to power the Delta blower fan which makes it output about 28 cfm which is
good for February weather.
This is a Noctua 12 Volt to 9 Volt Step-down adapter. When
the weather gets warmer I can attach this between the USB to 12 volt DC to DC
Step-up adapter to get a cfm rating between 28 and 61.8. When 100 degree plus
Fahrenheit weather comes by (Which is not uncommon in San Jose California) you
better believe I am going to run the Delta fan at 12 volts 61.8 cfm. Muahahaha.
