Hardware Cooling Memory Chips in Nintendo Switch?

[aranorde]

Hey All,

Switch - V2 - 2019.

I'm planning to remove the shim covering the SoC and put thermal pads in between (on top of the modules so they touch the shim), hoping to dissipate heat.

And then on top of the shim, between the shim and backplate so that the heat will be transferred to the backplate.

Pictures below, is this a good idea? if the shim gets a lot of heat due to SoC than the memory module, then more heat can be transferred to the modules so I'm holding off until I get some expert advice on this.

 

[Hassal]

The shim on SoC I would personally remove cause it just adds an unnecessary layer to hinder heat transfer (SoC -> paste -> shim -> paste -> heatsink) though you have to make up for the missing shim

You have to test your thermals yourself through trials nobody will tell if this is right or wrong.

 

[linuxares]

The shim is there to protect the SOC and it's small little components. So you could remove it but make sure you get proper cooling solution.

I don't think it will make a massive difference to be honest.

 

[aranorde]

The shim on SoC I would personally remove cause it just adds an unnecessary layer to hinder heat transfer (SoC -> paste -> shim -> paste -> heatsink) though you have to make up for the missing shim

You have to test your thermals yourself through trials nobody will tell if this is right or wrong.

The shim is there to protect the SOC and it's small little components. So you could remove it but make sure you get proper cooling solution.

I don't think it will make a massive difference to be honest.

thanks for the replies

My switch is not modded so I cant check the temps, just curious if heat is a problem on the memory modules at its current memory clocks.

I want to know if cooling the memory modules are necessary or not in-terms of helping the switch's thermals overall with my suggested method.

If memory modules dont get that much heat, then I'd just skip the thermal pads on them completely.

 

[linuxares]

The memories do get warm, but I don't dare to say if they need cooling added to them or not.

@izy don't you run shimless?

 

[Hassal]

thanks for the replies

My switch is not modded so I cant check the temps, just curious if heat is a problem on the memory modules at its current memory clocks.

I want to know if cooling the memory modules are necessary or not in-terms of helping the switch's thermals overall with my suggested method.

If memory modules dont get that much heat, then I'd just skip the thermal pads on them completely.

I don't think you should sacrifice other components just for the sake of it. RAM modules can take a bit of heat so does the eMMC which gets pretty hot.

 

[aranorde]

The memories do get warm, but I don't dare to say if they need cooling added to them or not.

@izy don't you run shimless?

SoC definitely runs hotter than the Memory Modules, so the shim will get a bit of heat from the SoC, if I apply a thermal transfer between the shim and memory modules (thermal pad) that heat might travel to the modules in a situation where the heat from memory module is lower than the heat transferred to the Shim.

Memory does get hot, whether cooling through this method is ideal or not is a bit confusing, I do believe that the shim is required to trap the heat to some degree - so not planning on removing that.

So if i'm not removing it, then what options do I have when it comes to cooling them?

 

[linuxares]

I mean, you could do a thicker thermal pad so it gets connected to the switch backplate, so it gets some passive cooling I guess? This is why I tagged Izy to see what he did. I think I remember somewhere in my backhead he runs shimless. (or shield less like I like to call it, most likely not called that x3)

 

[aranorde]

I don't think you should sacrifice other components just for the sake of it. RAM modules can take a bit of heat so does the eMMC which gets pretty hot.

if its the shim you are referring to, I never mentioned or suggested I'm removing the shim. So is my suggested method of adding thermal pads between and on top a viable cooling option? I just clarified my thought process in a previous comment.

SoC definitely runs hotter than the Memory Modules, so the shim will get heat from the SoC, if I apply a thermal transfer between the shim and memory modules (thermal pad) that heat might travel to the modules in a situation where the heat from memory module is lower than the heat transferred to the Shim.

Also, does eMMC require cooling, more so than the memory?

Post automatically merged: Aug 2, 2023

I mean, you could do a thicker thermal pad so it gets connected to the switch backplate, so it gets some passive cooling I guess? This is why I tagged Izy to see what he did. I think I remember somewhere in my backhead he runs shimless. (or shield less like I like to call it, most likely not called that x3)

Yea plan was to add a thicker pad on top of the shim to make contact with the backplate as mentioned in the post, but your suggestion will be better if shim is being removed (but not planning to remove it at the moment)

I hope @izy can clarify this

 

[Hassal]

I've been working on a cooling solution for the switch for quite sometime myself, I'm even thinking of improving the design by adding custom fan inside the chassie. I might share it or provide it as a kit sometime down the road.

 

[izy]

The memories do get warm, but I don't dare to say if they need cooling added to them or not.

@izy don't you run shimless?

i run shimless on the cpu and but not the coer itself just the sticker and also the metal backplate is gone as i originally had a clear backplate and wanted to maximise the looks because thermals are just better overall due to power efficiency of the mariko chips

 

[randy_w]

Ram cooling is the last thing you should worry about. I had several v1 unpatched switches with transparent shell, and I removed the metal backplate and cpu/ram shield on all of them, never had any problem with overheating.

Those lpddr4 ram chips are designed to solder right on top of the cpu/soc in mobile phones, and they can go up to 80C and run just fine.

 

[Hassal]

Removing the shim is alright but not the metal backplate, some components like BQ chip can get extremely hot killing it in the long run. Serving more than passive cooling it acts to direct airflow too.

 

[aranorde]

i run shimless on the cpu and but not the coer itself just the sticker and also the metal backplate is gone as i originally had a clear backplate and wanted to maximise the looks because thermals are just better overall due to power efficiency of the mariko chips

So you have removed the copper sticker in shim? How do you find the cooling results to be? Better than having it there or pretty much the same? Have you overclocked as well?

What do you think about my method of cooling memory modules as showin in the images? Not sure if its necessary or not.

Post automatically merged: Aug 3, 2023

Ram cooling is the last thing you should worry about. I had several v1 unpatched switches with transparent shell, and I removed the metal backplate and cpu/ram shield on all of them, never had any problem with overheating.

Those lpddr4 ram chips are designed to solder right on top of the cpu/soc in mobile phones, and they can go up to 80C and run just fine.

Thanks for the reply! So RAM cooling is not that important in Switch in its base clocks? But if I'm planning to overclock the device, will it be helpful?

Also, do yo think eMMC chip requires cooling more than RAM does?

 

[Hassal]

eMMC does not require cooling. It is though passively cooled from the backplate, on OLED its cooled from the front.

 

[randy_w]

Thanks for the reply! So RAM cooling is not that important in Switch in its base clocks? But if I'm planning to overclock the device, will it be helpful?

Also, do yo think eMMC chip requires cooling more than RAM does?

Nope, I've overclocked my v1s to maximum in docked mode before (without oc suite, so 1600 ram, 1700 something cpu and 900 something gpu). I modified the fan curve so fan will go up to 70-80% when playing a game but the temperature stays below 60C iirc. You can add a thermal pad if you want but it's totally unnecessary, just crank the fan speed up a bit and you are good to go.

emmc produces even less heat than ram, you don't need to worry about it either.