Laptop case mod - Asus N53SV - Cutting holes

[Lop3]

At high CPU loads (above 40%) after a minute or two my CPU heats up to 86C shuts down.
As you can see the laptop has ZERO air vents (very badly designed if you want to run high CPU load stuff)


This is what the cooler arrangement looks like (though the cooler faces down, not up)


With a core temp of 72C the highest temp I can see on the copper square or heatpipe using an IR thermometer is 42C.


So I want to remove the cooler and replace the thermal compound. Is it risky?
If I just remove the screws from the CPU and GPU will the cooler just pop off?
It looks like the heatpipes are soldered to the heatsinks. (the joints are yellow (flux?) and silver (solder)) Underneath that I expect to find normal thermal compound.

When running the laptop with the case open at 100% CPU load the CPU temp doesn't go above 72C.

So I'm gonna cut holes in the case. Do you think cutting these holes will compromise the structural rigidity of my laptop too much and cause the motherboard to flex too much during transport?

 

[RnRollie]

interesting, as it should take air in through bottom or keyboard and then exhaust it through the vents on the left side.
What seems to be missing is a low profile squirrel fan...

PS: taking the HS off and putting new TIM will helps, esspecially if its already a few years old.

 

[Lop3]

Hey dude, thanks for the reply. As you can see in the laptop chassis picture (1st picture, showing the bottom half of the chassis) there are no vents.

It may draw some air in from the keyboard. But wherever it gets it's air from, it's not enough and the laptop fails to stay cool.

The laptop is only about a year old strangely. But maybe it sat in stock for a while before I bought it.

I recall when I started giving it CPU intensive tasks it handled them well for a few days then it went down hill. Maybe the TIM was dry and cracked from the thermal expansion.

 

[RnRollie]

so the things on the left are just ribs, no vents... strange design

http://www.notebook.gen.tr/img/modeller/Asus-N53JF-N53JF-SX210V_4.jpg

must be a low power / low usage -passive cooling design then.

i would have guessed it would have at least *some* fan inthere... is there enough room to fit a little blower like this http://www.sunon.com/pro2_page.php?pkid=14

 

[Lop3]

Hi RnRollie,

Thanks for recommending that fan. It's insanely tiny!

The holes on the left are vents. I just meant there are no vents on the bottom.

I've completed the modification and it went well. I documented the whole thing on another forum that had higher traffic in the cooling section so I could get more responses and possibly a warning before I did anything stupid. I wouldn't want to upset overclockers.com so I won't link to the forum post. If you're really interested you should be able to find it with a few google searches. Hint: my alias and the subject are a bit different.

 

[RnRollie]

with no vents in the bottom it probably got its air through the keyboard

so, no eating of twinkies while typing