Chrisoft::Blog

“Repasting” with PTM 7950

I’ve been reading testimonials from people replacing thermal paste in +their laptops with +PTM +7950, mostly praising the amazing effectiveness of the material, +with some reporting a drastic 20 degrees C reduction. I was skeptical of +such claims. Such temperature reduction just seemed impossible to me, +especially considering the conductivity of PTM 7950 is pretty much the +same as most non-terrible thermal pastes on paper.

Anyway I decided to give it a try myself when I saw this mystic +material on sale for barely above $10 the other day.

The repasting process went pretty smoothly. However I did notice that +the screw marked “3” on the heatsink seemed a lot looser than the other +two. Maybe that has something to do with the horrible thermal I had +before…

Time for the results. Spoiler alert: it’s impressive. I cannot do a +scientific before and after comparison, but I did ran a few of my +day-to-day tasks as tests. Idle temperatures are already much better: +50°C before vs 38°C after. Under a short code compilation load (around 5 +minutes), the initial temperatures are similar (~100°C before vs 96°C +after), but the CPU was able to boost much closer to its designated PL2 +power (58W vs 45W, advertised PL2 being 60W). After the processor +stabilizes at its PL1 power it goes down to below 80°C, while the under +the old paste it was a constant 90+°C. The task also finishes ~10% +faster than before.

While my results aren’t as insane as some others got, it was still +huge. The biggest improvement is that merely browsing the Internet +without setting CPU power policy to powersave is now bearable – I’ve +mentioned in my previous post that the fan noise of the Framework laptop +is a pretty big issue for me personally, as the noise it emits when the +processor is above 55°C is extremely distracting in a quiet room. I also +got ~10% more performance out of this CPU, which probably makes this the +best $10 I spent on tech-related products for the past few years.

So would I recommend the PTM 7950? Yes, but only when you +have to do a repaste. As I mention before, I was skeptical of +claims about the magical power of PTM 7950. To be clear I wasn’t +doubting the thermal conductivity of the material, but rather the cause +of the temperature reduction people have been reporting – maybe their +old paste had completely dried out, or the factory paste application is +utter garbage. For my specific case – I have my reasons to suspect the +same due to the aforementioned loose screw on the heatsink I had. While +I have never touched the heatsink assembly myself since day one until +today, and the thermal profile of the machine was fairly consistent for +the past 2 years, I couldn’t rule out everything. So I don’t really know +if it is a factory defect or something else. Also I’ve seen reports that +certain +newer laptops already use similar phase change material as its TIM. +So if you’re considering to repaste your brand new laptop (which isn’t +always a great idea in the first place) with PTM 7950, do remember to +check if that’s the case.

+ + + + + + +

Factory +thermal paste application +

Factory paste +removed +

PTM 7950 applied +

Semi-long term review

Disassembly reveals …

First disassembly +in 2 years. +

A few things jumped out when I opened up the laptop for repasting. +The first, very obvious and somewhat worrying one is the mildly swollen +battery (also known as SpicyPillows). I did not ran the laptop a lot +during the first year, but the second year saw more usage with it +unplugged (still not as frequent as my ThinkPad X1 yoga 1st gen). The +swelling isn’t anywhere near extreme, and there’s not a significant +reduction of battery life since I got the machine. For this reason I’m +not yet very compelled to replace it. But I will definitely be +monitoring it much more closely from this point on, as it’s very well +known that SpicyPillows are potentially dangerous.

The second, less obvious one is also about a battery, but this time +the CMOS battery. It was completely flat. I was aware of a +design +flaw in these 11th gen Intel machines that the CMOS battery only +gets charged when the laptop is on AC power. However I’m not sure this +is the cause in my case as my laptop spends most of its lifetime powered +on and connected to AC power. While I do appreciate the original, +extremely detailed makeshift solution (which is under the “Archived” +section of the post linked above), I’m not comfortable with the idea of +scratching a trace off an expensive motherboard. Anyway now that there’s +a solution that doesn’t involve scratching a trace off the motherboard, +I’m going to install the +RTC +battery substitute module and update this post when that’s done.

Other early adopter issues

The touchpad is flaky. Being a touchpad hater as I am (and a +trackpoint user for more than half my life), I had to deal with it when +I’m on the go. A few months ago I found that physical clicks on the +touchpad no longer works, and apparently I’m not the only one. +[1] There appears to be a +simple +fix which consists of a single step that sounds a little ridiculous +(“Try pressing the bottom middle of the Touchpad firmly a few times”), +but it worked for me.

I do venture out to become an early adopter of certain products +sometimes, My ThinkPad X1 yoga 1st gen being another example where +Lenovo experimented with the “yoga” form factor in their ThinkPad +line-up for the first time. Being an early(-ish) adopter of the +Framework laptop, I fully expected that there could be issues. So far +I’ve come across the CMOS battery design flaw, touchpad issue, BIOS +bugs, unreasonable level of CPU throttling and fingerprint reader driver +overheating the power button. None of these are severe enough to be a +deal breaker for me, and all of the listed issues have been more or less +fixed. I guess my overall experience of being an early adopter has been +overall positive.

How well did it hold up?

Performance wise, it’s still a beast in its class. These Willow Cove +cores still eats the Rust compilation workload that I now have to deal +with on a daily basis as breakfast. Gaming still is an option for me +considering the only game that I play nowadays is Minecraft, but is +likely a no-no for any heavier games. While it’s not the most power +efficient solution available today, it still meets the requirements of +my setup just fine.

Battery life isn’t too great in the first place. But the lifetime +seems to hold up decently despite having a slightly swollen battery +pack. Again, still fulfills my needs.

Internals… +doesn’t +look great (CW: filthy looking fan). The fan seems to attract dust +much faster than the one in my ThinkPad X1 yoga.

Random rants

I still find the default fan curve of the laptop downright stupid. +Ramping it up to 80% of full speed at 60°C doesn’t seem wise to me. Yes +there are third party tools that can force a fan speed, but I’d rather +program a more sane fan curve instead.

Intel’s Xe driver for Windows is still hot garbage for graphics +development.

I do not like the forum software Framework uses (Discourse). The idea +of infinite scrolling never clicked with me. You simultaneously get the +worst from pagination and single-paged designs. And their page search is +still crippled to this day. Okay I’ll stop here and keep my other 10 +objections to Discourse with myself.

Contemplating upgrades

Framework promised to provide an upgrade path to owners of their +laptops and they delivered. Now I have the choice of replacing the +motherboard in my Framework with a 12th/13th gen Intel board, or a Zen 4 +based AMD board. I’ve explained why I didn’t upgrade to the 12th gen +Intel board in my previous post, and I’ll state the most important part +here again: I don’t want to ditch my old board that’s perfectly +functional. I’ll also say the silent part that was omitted in the +previous post aloud: I don’t want to purchase the extra parts to build a +complete computer out of the old board either.

There are additional reasons that I didn’t upgrade to specific +available boards. 13th gen Intel boards are especially objectionable due +to the fact that they still use DDR4 memory. This is year 2023 and DDR5 +memory isn’t hard to find now. Yes I guess you get to keep your old +memory sticks, but I don’t want an upgrade that seems half-baked thank +you very much.

AMD boards seem way more compelling, especially considering the +performance boost they could bring at the price point they are sold at. +But I’ve heard that they produce pretty much the exact same noise as the +original boards once installed, runs as hot under heavy load, and would +result in increased pain just by the virtue of being AMD [2]. +And I would need to reconfigure the entire kernel [3]. For this reason +I’ve pretty much shelved the idea of upgrading the motherboard in the +very near future. The only reason for a motherboard upgrade for me now +would be the old one straight up failing or become unsuitable for my +tasks.

There is one upgrade I want to make though. I would absolutely love +to replace the glossy screen from factory with the new matte one. I was +never a fan of glossy screens on any laptop and will take a matte +replacement any day of the week. The price is a little steep though.

There’s another upgrade that I’d love to get. A trackpoint keyboard +with proper mouse buttons. I’m sure Lenovo would do anything to sabotage +it, but I can always dream.

Chrisoft

Blog

Framework Laptop: Repasting & Two Year Report