Maximum PC

Hello gents, lately I've been wanting to mod my laptop's cooling potential. I have a HP dV7 with a T6400 and 9600GT M and as with most HP laptops, the cooling just absolutely sucks. The GPU, NB, and CPU all share one heatpipe/heatsink with a fan that has a deadspot. Thanks to the genius engineers at HP, 1/3 of the exhaust vent is blocked by the monitor. I plan on buying a low-profile CPU cooler or chipset coolers to cool the CPU/heatsink respectively and cutting holes at the bottom for the fan. I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations on any low-profile heatsinks (remember, it's still going on a desk) out there and to double check for a thumbs up. If the fan sticks out a bit, I won't care, I'll add some stands.

The T6400 uses PGA 478, does that mean that I can use a heatsink that fits on the socket 478 with my laptop as well, or is the heatsink mount different for a laptop? [EDIT: With some pictures, I quickly found out it doesn't.]

The laptop is out of warranty.

I haven't seen any aftermarket laptop heatsinks. Most I have seen are some custom made ones. Range from custom fabricated, additional heatsink to even a water-cooled setup.

I wouldn't go that far yet, so here are some ideas:
-undervolt the GPU/CPU, saves a few degrees and its free
-apply new thermal paste
-laptop cooler
-attach small copper heatsinks to the heatpipe.

Remember, these components are made to withstand the higher temps. As long as you aren't getting crashes all the time that is heat related you should be fine.

I'm unable to get RMclock to work on my laptop so I can't undervolt it.

I've already put on new thermal paste, cleaned out the heatsink, and made holes at the bottom. I'm not sure if there will be enough space inside the case to attach heatsinks onto the heatpipe.

I want to do this just because it's different and modding laptops isn't widespread. Plus it gives me experience. The factory heatsink/fan is also inefficient over time as well. Dust gathers extremely fast and I have to take apart the whole laptop in order to get to the heatsink.

RMClock is a nice utility depending on what your using. Most of what you want to do is custom or using modded parts. If you want to do this, you have to put some leg work into it. There are plenty of videos out there that can point you in the right direction. Unfortunately as cool as it is to have a water cooled lappy, I have no use for it so I can't be of more help. Happy New Year.

Heheh, yes baby steps first. RMclock would have been nice if it was working on my laptop. I'm thinking of just starting with simple air cooling. Just low-profile cooler. Then as time graduates I might move onto trying larger heatsinks and eventually watercooling. Honestly I think it'll be quite a cool project.

As for RMClock, did you select mobile cpu? RMClock only goes up to Core 2 IIRC so that can be a damper to some.

It wont even load. Something about some missing file.

If your on 64-bit you need a special .dll to run it. Download this. Its not my upload but it's where I got mine.

sounds good. Ill try it when i get my laptop back. Thanks

Yeah, with RMClock I found a good middle ground. I was able to undervolt it a step down saving around 10c and still being able to overclock it. Getting my CPU to 1v or lower is pretty magical @ stock so its even cooler.