y510p cooling mods i5 i7 fan switch undervolt overclock all my setups for those interested

[hayden55]

My laptop started life when I was a senior in high school and my parents graciously bought it for me on black friday since we figured it would be a solid laptop for engineering in college, and i think we may have been right! So I figured i'd give you the run through on all the setups ive tested to kind of fill you guys in and for the people new to things who want to see everything together (benched on Crysis 3 which is what I have played from the beginning).

 

Original setup:
y510p i5-4200m
6gb ram

GTX 750m SLI
Unmodified completely stock everything
 

Benched:
CPU: 76C (With oem throttling)
GPU1: 83F (standard 1089MHz speeds)
GPU2: 97F

Setup 2.0:

y510p i5-4200m
12gb ram

GTX 750m SLI
Unmodified completely stock everything

+Throttle Stop 6.0 running

Benched: 
CPU: 87C 
GPU1: 83C
GPU2: 97C

Setup 3.0:

y510p i5-4200m
12gb ram

GTX 750m SLI

+Throttle Stop 6.0 running
Fans unshrouded (Ultrabay and main fans)

Benched: 
CPU: 87C
GPU1: 78C
GPU2: 93C

Setup 4.0:

y510p i5-4200m
12gb ram

GTX 750m SLI (61MHz overclock)

+Throttle Stop 6.0 running
Fans unshrouded (Ultrabay and main fans)

Benched: 

CPU: 87C
GPU1: 82C
GPU2: 97C

Setup 4.0 (current):
y510p i5-4200m (85mv undervolt)
12gb ram
GTX 750m single (ultrabay sold)
     -144MHz overclock, 50mV undervolt
Rear dust meshs removed
Main Fan unshrouded
Switch to turn the fan on and off full blast.
SVL7 unlocked bios

Benched: 
CPU: 71C
GPU1: 76C

And to come:
EXP external graphics card setup through the onboard mini pcie slot where the wireless card mounts (yeah i know it will be slow 1.0 x4 but who cares...)
External GTX 970 mini with external power supply
i7-4900MQ

As far as GPU setups and overclocks it seems like the stock sli ran at 100%, overclocked 113%, and the single overclock runs at 66% of the stock sli.

Interested to see how heat will go as far as:
Internal GPU enabled with the 4900mq stock speeds
Internal GPU with the 4900mq overclocked 0.2GHz
Internal GPU disabled with the 4900mq stock speeds and the GTX 970 mini running
And of course my final setup
Internal GPU disabled wit the 4900mq overclocked and the GTX 970 mini running

Also have washers for the heat sink mod ready to go. CoolLaboratories Liquid Metal Ultra thermal compound ready to go, and ive bought an arrangment of 0.5mm and 1.0mm thermal pads to balance the heat sink and get everything level with good contact.

Overall seems like its been a fun run with this bargain laptop and upgrades have been cheap.
Installed a 256gb main drive and the ultrabay hdd drive with the oem 1tb sshd drive for 20+150.
Went from 6 gb of ram to 12gb for 35.
Sold the ultrabay for 150 and got the 970m for 230.
Exp adapter for 35.
And sold the i5 for 135 and got the i7 for 171.


I've gone from the stock i5 SLI battery life of 3 hr 15 min to 4 hr 45 min enabling and disabling things back and forth.
Lenovo sure made a solid project, it was just covered up the whole time with hit or miss implementation.

Looking forward to finishing everything up and seeing what you guys have done!
And im taking 3D modeling again next semester so we'll see how the i7 performs!

And sorry for the marginal grammar and formatting. Us BSME majors only take two non stem classes our whole lives. haha

Edited December 23, 2015 by hayden55

[angel_grin]

subbed. would like to see pics btw.

[ghoul]

I think selling ultrabay gpu was a mistake, but if you can build egpu, than probably ok.

Egpu over the wifi cards slot... well,if m2 slot unused, i would use that, or install wireless card there, without it, you will loose mobility.

 

Perfect solution would be using ultrabay pcie connector which is regular pcie3 X8(custom connector of course), there are schematics online, if you can build the adapter, then it should work, ultrabay gpu is using standalone bios.

 

About cooling, if you can reach something like this, then probably you maxed out cooling efficiency( without fan speed , see below)

This is with default fan curve,  no external cooling aid, 25+ ambient, no stands. Valley freezed at a frame where both gpu loaded near full, and 20 minutes heatup. Cpu is locked with Throttlestop, and overclocked, undervolted.

 

I was able to reach over 4K firestrike with this( check HOF for 4700MQ+750M ), but of course that is just bench speed, i use it like in the screenshot, mostly because i hate fan noise.

PCIE -ultrabay adapter would be fun, both ways, i could use my ultrabay gpu as physx card in my main computer

Edited January 6, 2016 by ghoul
.

[hayden55]

WOW. This last step has taken so much longer than I anticipated. I finally got the EXP BEAST from whatever Chinese website i ordered it from. Took 30 days after two weeks of not having a processor in my laptop from selling the i5 and getting my thermal pads, the 4900mq, assorted parts. That is a lot of time to have a $1000 laptop essentially in a million pieces in assorted bags on a shelf.
So current parts added:
Old dell 400w power supply for the card (free.. but i also have a 175w Xbox 360 power supply that will work PERFECTLY for free also)
Ultrabay sold ($150 after fees)
GTX 970 purchased ($230)
i5-4200m sold ($165 with ebay listing coupon for my first ad and after fees)
i7-4900mq purchased ($171.95)
TPLINK N wireless usb 2.0 adapter (8 doll hairs and measurably better than stock so i retain all mobility throughout the laptop)
Washers for washer mod ($1.80)
Thermal pads 7.0 W/mK transfer (1.0mm 0.5mm ) and artic silver thermal compound ($20ish)
Fan wire clipped for 100% speed
EXP GDC- ($32)
Overall being smart about purchasing back and forth and being super ungodly patient, i came out way ahead. Total spent ended up adding to $141.
CPU bench scores for comparison
i5-4200m - 4058
-7-4900mq - 9091
GTX 750m SLI OC - 2080 (my score since sli wasnt listed)
GTX 970 - 8667 (realistically my link speed is maybe 85% of a 4.0 x16 link so i will lose 15%)
So a 168% increase in performance (0% equaling baseline)
Just put the pc together yesterday and have yet to really break it in, but initially it boots faster, and doesn't slow down for anything and multitasking is HUGE.
The big difference is the performance boost for solidWorks and other programs, and i don't have to solely play just my video game and turn everything off to avoid overloading the cpu, and i can now run multi monitors off just the card (in theory at least for the multi monitors)
But... sadly im missing one 6 pin to 8 pin power adapter so i havent gotten to using the card yet.
Since I've basically completely maxed out the cooling besides only using medium high end thermal pads and thermal paste, i've greatly increased the contact between the original parts that connected to the lenovo heat sink. Also in observing the factory assembly of the laptop, the heat sink was 1.75mm unlevel with contact to the CPU and GPU. How appalling, which is why the factory thermal compound application is so poor. After doing the washer mod and different sized pads its 0mm offset, basically dead on contact. In theory this lets me use less thermal compound for a better heat transfer, so we will see the results.
I've played around with intel XTU a little bit and have my multiplier's set to 42 38 38 36 for all and is stable, but Lenovo's oem TDP cannot be changed from 35W regardless of what is specified. So its looking like max effort I'm getting 3.48Ghz out of what used to be a $600 3.6ghz chip. lol
So i am at a great single core overclock performance, but 0.12GHz behind the stock 4 core performance of the chip.
Trying to play around with completely disabling intel hd graphics, under volting cache, and possibly core under volt to achieve a maybe another .1Ghz. Just doing that for the first round took me from 3.19GHz 100% current limit throttling to 3.54GHz.
So far just playing Crysis 3 with my 144MHz overclock, 50mV under volt old single gpu from above its looking like a 83c GPU and 77c CPU temp. That couple c increase is expected and completely acceptable, but seems to be doing pretty damn good for those of us who remember the frustrations of what was the stock setup and cooling on these. ESPECIALLY the pos ultrabay card. Honestly better than expected so far in adjusting for no more than maybe an hour.
And cable routing. 
When doing these mods you have to completely disassemble the entire computer, then rebuild the pc around the cable. Current cable routing is i cut a hole beside the oem battery connector with a Dremel, and routed it out and up right in between the battery and bottom grille. This cable is honestly huge, and such a tight fit i couldn't really tuck it away when not in use, so it looks super tidy (for how ghetto of a mod this honestly is) but it'll still be there. If i didn't have the ultrabay hdd now i may have tried to route it out that way, but the spot was filled. But coming out of the back its in a symmetrical common sense spot like all of the other proprietary connector locations from Alienware and the assortment. When not in use I have it taped to the rear cover, but am contemplating a durable Velcro of some sort to hold it to the lid out of the way when not in use. So this could be portable but i really don't carry it around anymore honestly, i might take it to the couch occasionally to test battery life which has decreased from throwing a spinning disk back in the ultrabay hdd and running the fan at 100%.
I may eventually tear the computer apart again and re-paste with the planned CoolLab's liquid metal thermal compound and take pictures that i didn't take before and once my connector comes in ill finish up the actual testing!
So currently my ghetto workstation gaming laptop that is 2.5 years old is now faster than my friends brand new gaming laptops once again (y70 and Alienware m2 of 2015)
Alright i got that mess out of my head, if you are confused or have any questions, ask away, i will be around.
Thanks, Hayden.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1AKs_fpwd64S05tdEs1MGxKRGc/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1AKs_fpwd64ZHJVZVpkYzdtZDQ/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1AKs_fpwd64X0ctVWtxVF9TRDQ/view?usp=sharing

Edited February 2, 2016 by hayden55

[hayden55]

Once again testing using Crysis 3 as my benchmark level

Setup 5.0
i7 4900mq 4.0GHz 4 core speed
12gb ram
256gb ssd + 1TB SSHD
GTX 750m 144MHz OC 50V under volt

Rear dust meshes removed

Main fan unshrouded
fan wire clipped, 100% speed
SVL7 unlocked bios
Also my pc doesnt have the plug for the m2 slot and i looked at the adapter but couldnt find any definitive proof of actually being able to build the adapter. Would be interesting as the link speed would gain me a 9% boost in link speed just a couple percent off the big boy pci express boards.

Benched:
CPU:
     - range: 84-95c
     -avg: 88c
GPU: Stuck at 91c

I think i've hit the extreme case, the best your gonna get with this laptop and its cooling now.
Also note im running higher clock speeds with a 144MHz OC 750m and the cpu is hovering around xx TDP and 4.0GHz when gaming (which is why i included the range of C values for this one. So overall pretty impressive. Core and cache are under volted 82mV and hd graphics is 122mV undervolted just pulling the specs that worked from my i5. Also turned off PIVR Faults and PIVR Efficiency Mode per recommendation for stability. 
Also its looking to be that once i disable the 750m and only running the e970m for gaming and hd graphics for general use i should cut a LOT more heat from not running an internal graphics unit anymore, and i will eventually wire in a switch flush mounted in the battery tray to turn on and off the fan connection for 100% speed when needed, and eject the ultrabay HDD when not in use and just flip the hdd around in the tray and pop it back in to keep it from running since i only store video games on it. So it looks like battery life will not be effected. I might be able to crack 5 hours and have the funny cable hanging out of my laptop. All functionality retained and a little bit gained if you can deal with the quirks!
Really excited with how everything turned out.
Also will try and develop some sort of case for the xbox 360 power supply and the gtx970 mini and the exp board.
Maybe once i disable the 750m i will hit 4.2GHz, it will be interesting to see the thermal difference between this setup and the next setup.

Edited February 2, 2016 by hayden55

[Centurion]

I think im gonna try those setups on my y510p too.Thanks for post man

[hayden55]

Update: Still havent gotten the egpu setup. Havent had time. But currently on a single 750m and the cache overclocked to 4.0 and the cores overclocked to 4.2/4.2/4.2/4.2 for all single and multi core operations. Rocm solid stable and no throttling of any sort. Ill try and post up a benchmark for easy test comparison since crysis runs extremely hot compared to most benchmarks. I just run crysis since if it can survive crysis it can survive anything.

Solid alienware killer now. 

On cpubenchmark.com running their test the single core performance of the machine is 2400 vs the 1700 the i5 scored. 2nd highest speed on their chart too. Laptop boots in about 9 seconds now and everything is very instantaneous.

[EgT]

Hey, I can you please share a 3dmark fireStrike benchmark but using internal screen? Because I'm having trouble of fps not going beyond 48-49fps but I don't know if it's just my setup or not.

PD. Link to some others benchmarks and mine it's at the end.

https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/8059-14-lenovo-y410p-ideapad-gtx9704gbpsc-mpcie2-pe4c-21-win81/&page=2

[caitdeen]

On 2/11/2016 at 12:44 AM, hayden55 said:

Update: Still havent gotten the egpu setup. Havent had time. But currently on a single 750m and the cache overclocked to 4.0 and the cores overclocked to 4.2/4.2/4.2/4.2 for all single and multi core operations. Rocm solid stable and no throttling of any sort. Ill try and post up a benchmark for easy test comparison since crysis runs extremely hot compared to most benchmarks. I just run crysis since if it can survive crysis it can survive anything.

Solid alienware killer now. 

On cpubenchmark.com running their test the single core performance of the machine is 2400 vs the 1700 the i5 scored. 2nd highest speed on their chart too. Laptop boots in about 9 seconds now and everything is very instantaneous.

Quite a bit late here. But im wondering (if you still hv your lenovo) how do you apply the additional thermal paste (Modified/repasted heat sink )  to increase cooling? Maybe do you have some pictures?  And what do you mean with "Main fan un-shrouded" and "Main fan on/off switch (for 100% speed)" Ty!

[blackranger]

Hi i am planning to do the mods you have done

 

i want to know how the system works now?

[hayden55]

 

 

 

 

 

3

On 6/7/2018 at 1:35 PM, caitdeen said:

Quite a bit late here. But im wondering (if you still hv your lenovo) how do you apply the additional thermal paste (Modified/repasted heat sink )  to increase cooling? Maybe do you have some pictures?  And what do you mean with "Main fan un-shrouded" and "Main fan on/off switch (for 100% speed)" Ty!

If anybody is still reading this I clipped the fan speed control wire. The circuit read infinite resistance and the fan speed was stuck on max speed. 
Unshrouded meaning I cut the fan shroud into a circle to match the circular shape of the fan. 

Also, if you're still reading this you should probably clean your fan. They love to hold lent and dust up really bad making them run hot. 

I still have the laptop but I don't really do much with it now.