Heatsink mod! Must read it if you use Fan control!

Great ideas, but right now I'm thinking about changing cooling fan so I'm interesting is it possible and if it is which size do I need? Maybe something like this?

 

I was a bit annoyed at the fan running all the time when I got my Acer, so I did the usual search for a fancontrol utility. When I did I found the 3305 version bios which is supposed to help with temp control and battery life. For a week or so I used the aa1fancontrol.exe, but got tired of my event log filling up with exception errors whenever the tvicport software was invoked - this is not a fault in the aa1fancontrol software, but is an XP problem from what I've read. With 3305 bios and aa1fancontrol my fan rarely turns on and the computer does not get hot. I use it about 8-12 hrs a day without problems. I just installed another program called a1ctl that patches the tvicport software so windows does not fill the error log with false reports. This utility also will control head parking/spin down on the hard drive to extend battery life and hard drive life and it has screen resolution utility - I have not tried the screen utility portion of the program yet.

So far I like the a1ctl program better, but I've only used it for a few hours so far. In any case I would try the 3305 bios and either of the software fan controls before I did the heatsink mod. I know the ultimate answer is probably all 3 items, the bios, the software and the hardware, and a copper heatsink would be best as it will move the most heat. My understanding is the Atom cpu is designed to be fanless, so as the bios is tweaked and other changes are made, perhaps the fan issue will be resolved.

links to softwares - A1ctl
http://nodadev.wordpress.com/pc-projects/a1ctl/

and the aa1fancontrol program is here:
http://www.computentsystems.de/aceraspireonefancontrol/

the 3305 bios is available from Acer
http://twcsddl.acer.com.tw//acerdl/uplo ... 3305FD.zip

macles has much info on how to flash if you never done it;
http://macles.blogspot.com/

Good luck and keep hacking!!

 

Here's a copper heat sink I found. Does anyone know if I would need to cut off the mounting ears to make it fit?
http://www.xoxide.com/enzotech-cnb-s1l.html
price seems fair - though I havent shopped around yet.
http://www.xoxide.com/enzotech-copper-n ... ofile.html
16.99 usd

is 12mm low enough to fit or will the dremel be needed?

 

Does anyone have the info about the temp that turned on the fan and the temp that set the fan off, with out AA1 Fan Control.

Or it just always on?

I'm looking to do this mod, I will do it anyway actually. But just wanna know how to set temp in AA1 Fan Control after the mod is done.

Thanks,

 

whats the maximum size of the Heat Sink?
does anybody have a caliper and can give the maximum size?

 

For speedy reply, as far as I know, 5mm tall is perfect. Mr.Matrix321 done this mod with 30*30*5 mm and it look perfect for me.

Anyway, you have to wait for actual maximum size from someone with the caliper.

 

oh_johny... I know you said this before, but I just want to make sure because I am thinking of flashing my BIOS. After flashing your BIOS with the update, you have yet to experience heat problems?

Interesting thing: tweakable Atom processor. Would it be possible to run without a fan?

 

7mm is too high?

 

This obviously will improve the temperature, but anyone actually run some before and after readings to see if its really worthwhile?

 

• Temperature rise is slower when the fan is turned off. Probably caused by the greater mass of the heatsink.[/*:m:1gc4nnzt]
• The final temperature is about the same[/*:m:1gc4nnzt]
• Cooling down when the fan is on takes slightly longer, but the final temperature is a bit lower.[/*:m:1gc4nnzt]

My Conclusion: It is hard to say if it's worth the effort. I wanted to upgrade the RAM, so the box was already open. Disassembling was quite easy, but you should be careful not to damage the small plastic noses of the case at the top of the keyboard. They can easily be pushed back too far.

The real problem is the northbridge. As far as I know these are still 130nm parts. The left side (at the fan grill where the northbridge sits) gets really hot if the fan is turned off. The processor is a bit on the left side of the "raised circle" under the One. I still think (contrary to other's beliefs) that the shown system temperature is the cpu core temperature +15°C. I have measured a >99% correlation between the two temperatures. And the "felt" temperature under the One where the northbridge sits rises from warm to very hot while the measurement only climbs about 5 degrees.

If you do the mod, then place the heatsink directly over the northbridge die, which is not under the middle of the silver area, but approx. 10mm to the left. The best is, you take the heatsink off, then you will see where to put it on. Btw. the dark parts of the heatsink are metallic, too.

Somebody with an infrared thermometer should measure the temperature of the heatsink directly over the northbridge after warm up. As far as I know the northbridge is specified up to 100°C (case temp?). If it is far below 100°C then it might be no problem at all to leave the fan off.

 

Hi to all !

The maximum height of the heatsink is 5mm. (there is about 0.5 mm max !!! left for attaching the thermal pad)
The cooler I used is 5mm thin and the thermal pad which was already on the heatsink is 0.5 mm)

Another positive effect is that the noisy high piping sounds are gone ! You must take your ear to the cooling holes at the left side to hear the fan... but take care not to burn your eardrum :lol:

 

The heatsink already had a adhesive thermal pad mounted its about 0.5mm thin

 

Because you use fan control? Or just from applying the heat sink?

 

what hapens, if he cooler is larger than 5mm?

Ist the stock cooler attached to the case?

 

Because of the heatsink the air and the sound have to pass the aluminum beaks so the higher frequencies are blocked.

 

the coverage around the fan is 5-6 mm thick ,there is a foam to proof the coverage with the bottom of the case.
The hight of the coverage limits the hight of the heat sink. the coolerunit is attached to the mainboard, with the "open side" to the bottom case.

 

I did this mod a few weeks ago with a heatsink that was slightly larger than the area available. With a Dremel I cut it to fit. Height of the heatsink was 6mm which fits perfectly. It does stick out, but there is space left until you actually touch the plastic housing.




The foam on top is something I had and is used to push down the heatsink. The foam touches the plastic housing, and add some extra pressure to the heatsink.

Unfortunatly I couldn't unscrew 1 screw, because then I could have replaced the cooler pads with something better underneath the original heatsink. Now I have used Arctic Silver 5 between my heatsink and the original one. But I will try later again when I do a BT mod. Because the temps will get much lower if I replace the original cooling pads with AS5 as well. Experience with the heatsink is that the temperature rise much slower, but at the end it's almost the same under load without the fan spinning. But with fan the temperature stays a few degrees lower than before.

 

Nice work ! arctic silver would be a good idea instead of my sticky 0.5mm thermalpad....
and the usage of the whole area... could somebody post a picture of where the northbridge has its die ?
I didn´t remove the fan from the mb when i did the mod.... so my heatsink is not at the best place +- 10mm"

Greetz

 

I did the modification wit a revoltec Heat Sink today.
The sink is 6 mm tall, but fits perfectly.
Temperature decrease 5 degrees in idle.

Unfortunately, I hat 3 glued screws.
With a little heat, I was able to remove them. :x

 

Mod v2.

I got these Xilence VGA RAM heatsinks (black) (6€) there are 8 heatsinks in the set but only 4 of them fits perfectly without any mod. (yes, 6mm is the correct height).
I left the old fonera heatsink on the northbridge as a dedicated heatsink.