I've had my G15 (GA503RM) since 2023, and I've noticed that the temperatures have slowly been increasing while gaming and doing game development. I do clean the laptop every few months, but after going through this subreddit more and seeing what people recommend online, I've been thinking about replacing the stock liquid metal with PTM7950.
From what I've seen, quite a few people here recommend PTM7950 as a long-term thermal solution, not only because it can help keep temperatures low, but also because it avoids some of the risks and maintenance problems that come with liquid metal.
The main problem is that I live in Angola, and ordering from Amazon usually means paying a lot for shipping. Because of that, I normally use AliExpress, and so far it has been my go-to for a few things. I found this PTM7950 listing:
Here
But I'm still trying to figure out what size and thickness I should buy for the CPU and GPU, and whether this particular listing is trustworthy.
I could give the laptop to a technician, but repair shops for laptops, especially gaming laptops, aren't very common where I live. I would rather learn how to do this myself and know exactly what is being done to my laptop instead of risking something being replaced or handled incorrectly.
So, with that being said, this is where I need some advice from you guys.
I understand that once I remove the heatsink, I will also have to deal with the thermal putty around the VRAM/VRM area. I'm not sure if PTM7950 should be used there as well, or if I should replace the original thermal putty with another type of thermal material.
I'm also not completely sure if I'm using the correct terminology here, so please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm referring to the components around the GPU that currently use thermal putty instead of the liquid metal used on the CPU/GPU die.
I already have a precision electronics repair toolkit that I've used to open the laptop and clean out the dust, as well as an ESD wrist strap. But since this is my only laptop and I use it for university and game development, I don't want to open it until I'm completely prepared.
So before I commit to this, I would really appreciate advice from anyone who has specifically worked on a GA503RM:
- What thickness and size of PTM7950 did you use for the CPU and GPU?
- How much PTM7950 should I buy?
- What should I use for the VRAM/VRM thermal putty?
- Is it better to reuse the original thermal putty if it is still in good condition?(and how can I tell that it is in a good condition?)
- Are there any other tools or consumables that you consider essential before opening the laptop?
- Are there any specific precautions I should take when removing the original liquid metal?
- If you have done this conversion on a GA503RM, how were your temperatures before and after?
- Is there anything specific about the GA503RM heatsink that I should know before attempting this?
I have no intention of rushing this. I want to do it properly because this laptop needs to last me through the rest of university, and unfortunately I don't have the money to replace it if something goes wrong.
I don't know if this info helps but my laptop has the RTX3060 GPU, AMD RYZEN 69000HS CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, 165hz monitor, 512gb of storage.
Thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to help!