Not sure where i would even go to talk about this so im posting it here to my tumblr.
I have this laptop, a lenovo thinkpad t420 ive been customizing mostly because of the funny weed number, but as it turns out this laptop has a few neat features and can often be bought used for under 50 usd. My first change was to, of course, upgrade the dual core sandybridge cpu to a quad core, so i ordered a 2760qm for under 20$ from ebay. The performance was good and it ran the thinkpad a little hot but it was acceptable, especially since the heatsink is only rated for 35w and the 2760qm is 45w.
My second change was to improve the cooling and I had a few original ideas. I opened up the laptop, swapped the stock heatsink for one with a gpu heatpipe that came with some t420's (but not this one obv). As part of my original idea I decided to do my own version of the "copper tape" mod where I used thermal tape instead of copper tape (this mod aims to use copper tape to join the gpu heatpipe to the main heatpipe or heatpipes). My thought process is that copper tape is probablly better than nothing but the adhesive adds an insulating layer decreasing its effectiveness and copper tape isnt mesnt to be used like this so why not just use a tape made to move heat instead? Thermal tape should in theory be much better than copper tape since its actually designed for this kind of work, with the downside being it will eventually dry out like thermal pads and paste. I didnt just experiment with this new mod though I also tried adding thermal pads to the underside of the gpu heatpipe where it would contact the gpu, the idea here being thick folded thermal pads would fill the gap well and drain heat from around the cpu through the board. I figured it would at least be better than covering the whole gpu pipe with tape. Finally i drilled some holes beneath the fan for added airflow using a design printed on paper and taped to the inside of the case as a stencil. While I had the laptop dissasembled I figured i might as well swap the cpu out one more time since i noticed an elitebook I got had a 2860qm, the fastest 45w sandybridge laptop cpu. I also applied some thermal grizzle duronaut thermal paste since its added thickness should fill the slightly larger space between the cpu die and heatsink better.
And finally the results were astounding, I can stream 1080p 60 fps video and the fans hardly make a sound, the laptop is unbeleivably cool and quiet for a 14 year old cpu. Even the passmark scores were incredible, its multicore score in windows was 5268 and 5168 in linux vs the average of 4559, over 10% increase with just a cooling mod! Its singlecore scores were even better though with a 1717 in windows and an 1826 in linux vs the average of 1562 almost a 20% boost in performance with just a cooling mod, no overclocking OR underclocking! This 2860qm is besting the 2960xm by a large amount and its in spitting distance of the next generatioms best chip the 3940xm!
Im not sure if i lucked out and found a golden superperformimg 2860qm or if i discovered a new goated cooling mod for the t420/t430, i corebooted the laptop the other day and i have a 3940xm on its way from china so im gonna figure it out. Dont worry if the 3940xm is somehow too hot for my mod i have a w520 to put it in and a 3632qm on its way too, although if it is just a golden 2860qm i might keep using it since its scores are also much higher than the average 3632qm!
Theres other mods you can do, and im doing most of them. I already installed a modded bios to remove the wifi whitelist and ordered a wifi 7 compatible adapter, the modded bios also allows faster ram so i ordered 2 8gb 1866mhz ddr3l sticks. I got an express card to dual usb 3.0 adapter, I also bought a w520 charger and cut out the wedges so it woukd fit the t420. I threw in a 2tb msata ssd, found an xl slice battery for cheap on ebay (2, 9 cell batterys installed, i get over 10 hours of hd youtube streaming!) And lastly i ordered a 1080p ips panel and an adapter board for it. This is a lovely laptop with one of the best keyboard ive used ever, and its performance is astoundingly good.
For someone not wanting to go as far as me you could get a used t420 or t430 for under 50$ a 256gb ssd for 10$ a cheap quad core for 20$ or less and a charger for around 14$. Thats a sturdy, fast, reliable, and genuinly cool laptop for under 100$. It is luck of the draw if you get a good batt or not though, of the three I got 1 9 cell was in perfect health another 9 cell was worn but usable and the 6 cell was mostly used up, add 20$ if you get unlucky with the battery and another 10$ for an 8gb ram stick if yours comes with 4gb or less.
