Advice on AMlogic "TV stick/dongle" hardware

Hi guys!

I'm going to upgrade my passive cooling solution for my Mecool S905X and I've bought several parts. However, I'm not sure if I should apply a thermal heatsink copper pad shim size 20x20x1.2mm between the CPU and my 40x40x18mm aluminium heatsink. My thermal compound paste is Arctic MX-4 with a thermal conductivity of 8.5 W/(mK). So which of the two ways do you think will be the best?

1. CPU -> Thermal compound paste -> Aluminium heatsink

2. CPU -> Thermal compound paste -> 20x20x1.2mm copper pad -> Thermal compound paste -> Aluminium heatsink

Thanks in advance!

No. 1.

Instead of thermal compound you can use 0.5mm thick Thermal Pad, which sticks heatsink better to processor than compound.

Quote from Sholander

No. 1.

Instead of thermal compound you can use 0.5mm thick Thermal Pad, which sticks heatsink better to processor than compound.

Thanks!

I see that the thermal pad has a lower thermal conductivity with 6,0 W/(mK) vs 8.5 W/(mK). Yet I can see why you recommended me thermal pad as the compound is wet and therefor difficult to make sure the heatsink is in place as there is no pressure on it...

Quote from wrxtasy

The best thing you can do for these cheap S905X or S912 boxes and dongles is run them for a while and then open them up and twist or remove the heatsink off the SoC. Then clean up the SoC and heatsink with something that does not leave a greasy residue, like electrical Contact Cleaner.

Most heatsinks look like they are just fixed on with some sort of Silicon which makes for pretty bad heat transfer.

Then simply get some 30% Silver (or better) thermal paste, you only need tiny amounts and use this Sandwich Wrap method for applying the paste:

How to Apply Thermal Paste - iFixit

Just did this yesterday to a MECOOL S905X that would get pretty hot, especially when using Android and it now runs 10 - 20 Degrees C cooler as a result AND I can increase the GPU Mhz for a snappier, smoother LE Kodi user interface !

Some LE Temp monitoring tips:

SSH Login and....

Code

echo "cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp" > temp 
chmod +x temp 
watch ./temp

and I use this for the GPU:

Code

echo "echo 2 > /sys/class/mpgpu/scale_mode" >> /storage/.config/autostart.sh

W.

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Useful video on how to apply the paste:-