Submitted by AMV007 on

GS66 cooling and quieting

  1. Repasting
    Before repasting I got CPU temps up to 95 degree.
    also CPU fan working very often and at the high speed.

    after repaste CPU temps not more 82 degree (if load CPU 100% + GPU 100% CPU temps - around 84 degree)
    But worse case for temperatures is not 100% CPU load with 16 threads, but 4 threads 100% load, in this case temps time to time jumping to 95, but main limitation is not themral, but power throttling.
    For repasting I used TFX thermalright thermal paste for CPU and TF8 for all other components instead pink stuff.
    Tried different variations and did about 10-20 times repaste. TF8 and TFX - practically no difference, but behaviuor slightly different, may be they are same, but from characteristics  TFX better, so let's think it's better ;)

    TFX - CPU 100 load with 16 threads 
    TFX: up to 79-81 @ 3-3.2 Ghz
    TF8: up to 79-82 @ 3-3.2 Ghz, after fresh repaste I even saw here 77-78 degree @ 3-3.2 Ghz and by feelings it better than TFX, but TFX better in low load CPU - it's a bit more cool, also I see, that TF8 loosing it's characteristics with time, and fresh result not repeating after 2 months for example. So now TFX and looking on it's behaviour ;)
    Grizzly Kryonaut : up to 82-83 @ 3-3.2 Ghz
    Grizzly Carbonaut: up to 84-85 @ 2.9 Ghz (weird unexpected result for it's characteristics)

    Repaste process:
    1. Before repaste -removed fans
      before repastebefore repaste
    2. Quality of MSI CPU heatsink is not very good for some reason and you can see very not flat CPU contact pad ?
      look also  at the not flat power regulator thermal contact
      CPU thermal PAD quality
    3. GPU is a bit better
      GPU thermal PAD quality
    4. Cleaned CPU and I see a bit damaged CPU surface - may be because not good thermal pad quality (I did later 3-4 times repaste and every time it got more and more scratches)
      damaged CPU
    5. Applied thermal paste TF8 to all components
      thermal paste at the components
    6. Next did some CPU intensive task (compile AOSP):
      CPU testing

      May be reults will be better if flattern CPU and GPU pads contacts - but it much more than common repasting ;-)
       
  2. Undervolting
    fisrt tried udervolt with XTU - 100 mV - all ok, next 125 mV - all ok. But at 125 mV - got game jamming rarely, so roll back to 100 mV.
    Update : after system freezes couple time changed undervolting at 90 later 80 mV, after it looking all stable.
    Because I'm using dual boot Windows-Linux only 1 choice to undervolt in BIOS:
    1. Enable extended menu in BIOS:
      1. Press delete at startup to enter Bios
      2.   at the BIOS screen Hold ALT + Right Control + Shift + F2 while holding those 3 buttons, advanced Menu will show up
    2. Overlocking performance menu -> overlocking feature-> enable
    3. Xtu interface -> enable
    4. Overlocking performance menu -> processor -> core voltage offset -> offset prefix -> '-'
    5. Overlocking performance menu -> processor -> core voltage offset 100
      This will undervolt to '-100 mV'
  3. Quieting
    even all this stuff is not enough for comfortable work with this PC, fans working very often.
    but you can reduce their usage if disabling turbo, actually full CPU power need rarely, generally during games and heavy computations (in my case AOSP building).
    1. Quieting in Windows
      • disable : 
        Powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFBOOSTMODE 0
        Powercfg -setactive scheme_current
      • enable:
        Powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFBOOSTMODE 1
        Powercfg -setactive scheme_current
      1. in Dragon Center - choose disable fans at low temperatures
    2. Quieting in Linux:
      • disable : 
        echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo >/dev/null
      • enable:
        echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo >/dev/null
      • also will be good to apply isw utility for disable fans at low temperatures: https://github.com/YoyPa/isw
        1. my choise - to enable fans only if 60 degree will be reached : 

          sudo ./isw -s 0x6a 60 &&  #first point at 60 degree
          sudo ./isw -s 0x6b 61 && # second point at 61 degree
          #for CPU
          sudo ./isw -s 0x72 00 && # disable fans before first point
          sudo ./isw -s 0x73 45 && #fans at 45% between first point and second point
          #for GPU 
          sudo ./isw -s 0x8b 00 && #disable fans at second point
          sudo ./isw -s 0x8c 45 #fans at 45% between second and third points

  4. I did polishing CPU contact at heasink and repasting in same manner
    after polishing result
     in result:
    stress -cpu 16
    + GPU miner at 100% load
    gull system load
  5. Bonus: thermal photo with 100% load - most heated element - south bridge ???
    also during work it temperature jumping up to 95 degree - even more hotter than cpu !
    thermal picture
    normal picture
  6. Conclusion: 
    CPU fans working very rarely and it will be possible to work without fans - CPU temperature will jump around 50-60 degree and laptop will be self cooling wihtout fans in this range.
    But at comparision with GS65 8RE - it much more louder, with GS65 was possible practically fan less mode without turbo, also fans at lower speed was much more silently.