DIY Heatsink with copper tube for Laptop cooling?

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ImranKhan1992

ImranKhan1992

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I own Dell XPS 15 L502x. 3years old. My laptop started crashing on games. Nvidia 540m temps goes to 102°C(yeah, u r reading right) on couple of minutes of gaming. And the laptop crashes with whirring sound, frozen screen and unresponsive ctrl alt del. Even Furmark crashes in 10seconds. I pull out battery most of the time. I could play Tomb Raider for hours with 20fps with intel 3000 with Nvidia driver disabled. And AC-III is terrible with intel graphics.

So I decided to cool heatpipe through liquid cooling. I got 8foot 1/4inch copper tube and 1/4inch plastic push-inconnectors. I am gonna bent half foot copper tube and paste/clamp it over existing heatsink's heatpipes. Arrange rest of the tube to form radiator with a fan. And Use Automobile Antifreeze coolant. If I use push-in connectors, Liquid cooling unit could be made removable.(I guess). I need to buy a pump, reservoir(may be any plastic bottle), Couple of Fans to cool copper tubes.

Is there anything I need to take care of before proceeding? Will the green antifreeze get along with copper? Does Antifreeze Evaporate? Is it ok to use plastic push-in connectors with copper tube. Any suggestion on pump (links from amazon.in or ebay.in or snapdeal.com).?
 
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Ralston18
Understood: 75$ for a new heatsink in a 3 year old laptop is a solid hit on the wallet.

I would suggest a "do over".

Clean the heatsink throughly and try again. Check the fan's operation, check the airflows, power connections, everything.

Re-apply new thermal paste.

That can be a tricky process and you need good quality thermal paste. Maybe the paste you used via the new fan was not good or underspec's. Lots of corners are being cut by the manufacturers' of such things. Cheap/minimal quality cables, flimsy brackets, so on and so forth.....

There is a tutorial link in this forum regarding the application of thermal paste. And videos on the internet.

Plus, I am sure that there are others (i.e., some of the preceeding...
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The Grox Empire

The Grox Empire

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Okay, your base laptop heatsink are aluminium, you cant disperse heat optimally with copper, and you cant disperse any heat with plastics. You need great fan for the radiator, and if you use only DIY cooper base you need to make your own mounting, you need to cover both cpu and gpu. It isn't simple task and i doesnt reccomend you to do DIY on laptop cooling.
Antifreeze wont stop rust
 
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ImranKhan1992

ImranKhan1992

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So what can be done. Won't clamping copper tube with heatpipe with thermal paste do the task.
This project is my longtime plan. I will go on and do it anyway. I just want to make sure if I am doing anything wrong.
I read a lot about copper+Aluminium failures so gonna use copper only with plastic for joints.
Anything encouraging is appreciated.
Anyone with experience of custom cooling , can advise me or ideas to enhance my cooling setup.
 
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Ralston18

Ralston18

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All well and good maybe...

I think you have been given some very good technical advice via the previous postings.

However, I am wondering about why the laptop has started to overheat - what changed? Worked for three years - correct?

If there is a legitmate, physical reason for the overheating; e.g., just started overclocking then adding more cooling makes sense.

Otherwise you are not really addressing the problem.

A DIY custom cooling system could be an interesting experiment but be sure you understand the all around risks to the laptop and surroundings if things get really hot. Or your pipes leak - hot automobile antifreeze fumes are not good and the liquid is toxic. Keep kids, pets, actually everyone away.

A heatup as fast as what appears to be happening is likely to outpace any home DIY cooling solution. End results will not be good.

I would not recommend the "experiment".
 
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ImranKhan1992

ImranKhan1992

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Thank you Ralston. It makes sense. Actually I already underclocked GPU to 80% after heating issue using Afterburner. Which worked pretty much well for 4months. I changed the fan of the Laptop with brand new one and repasted heatsink . Still haven't got any progress. The new heatsink for my lap costs 75$. Since the new fan effect haven't provided any effect , I am little hesitant buying new Heatsink. I had copper tube and antifreeze in hand so actually at less expense i could make a cooler.
I have been thinking of liquid cooling for a while so posted in forum that experienced modders would guide me.
 
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Ralston18

Ralston18

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Oct 11, 2014
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Understood: 75$ for a new heatsink in a 3 year old laptop is a solid hit on the wallet.

I would suggest a "do over".

Clean the heatsink throughly and try again. Check the fan's operation, check the airflows, power connections, everything.

Re-apply new thermal paste.

That can be a tricky process and you need good quality thermal paste. Maybe the paste you used via the new fan was not good or underspec's. Lots of corners are being cut by the manufacturers' of such things. Cheap/minimal quality cables, flimsy brackets, so on and so forth.....

There is a tutorial link in this forum regarding the application of thermal paste. And videos on the internet.

Plus, I am sure that there are others (i.e., some of the preceeding posters) who can offer additional advice.



 
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