Samsung R530 Bremen motherboard cooling

[Ace Perception]

Hi,
I'm wondering if anybody out there has much knowledge of Samsung Bremen motherboards.
I've got a Samsung R530 which is about 10 years old, over the last 12 months it developed a worsening problem where when asked to do much work it would shut itself down. I had a good idea this was due to overheating which was confirmed by a temperature monitor programme which showed little balls of fire next to the various internal temperature readings. I could also prevent it shutting down if I placed a huge fan running at full speed in front of its air intake!
So I went in pursuit of fluff and dust, as I could hear the fan was running ok but suspected its performance was being degraded, which unfortunately on the Samsung R530 means completely dismantling the laptop, which I have now done and was finally rewarded when I unscrewed the fan shroud and found a small collection of fluff inside the shroud and on its cooling fins.
Looking online, the R530 has a bit of a reputation for overheating, so even though the amount of fluff inside the fan shroud wasnt huge, I think it was more than enough to cause the overheating issue.
The fact that this laptop can be pushed into overheating quite easily by a bit of fluff and due to my having the laptop fully disasembled, I had the same thought go through my head that always does when I have reason to disassemble a computer, namely is there any way I can improve the performance of the machine before I put it back together, in this case both in terms of cooling and in outright machine performance.
Looking at the cooling side first, I have investigated the motherboard and its cooling solution a little. The motherboard in my R530 is a BREMEN-C Revision 1.0 BA92-06379 (there is also a revision 1.1 of this board which from a cooling point of view appears identical). The cooling for my motherboard is provided by the fan with a copper prong and attached copper heatsink which sits on top of the CPU socket (it has an i3 330M installed). A picture of this fan configuration can be seen here : https://obrazki.elektroda.pl/3702108700_1473011424.jpg.
What I noticed when disassembling the laptop was that whilst the CPU socket had a fan connected heatsink, what I think is the chipset had only a metal plate (with PCH embossed on it) on top of the chip with no connection to the fan. You can also see this in the picture referenced above, to the right of the CPU and directly below the fan.
Whilst looking into my motherboard I also noticed that there were several other variants of the Bremen motherboard, including ones with more fan attached heatsinks.
There is the BREMEN-UL, shown here : https://cache3.youla.io/files/images...6593452322.jpg.
This board appears to have relocated the cpu socket and chipset and extended the fan attached copper prong to cover both of these and so improve the cooling of the chipset.
There is the Bremen-M Revisions 1.0 - 1.3, an example shown here : https://skylots.org/images/images/n/...2abe49c632.jpg.
This board still appears to have the chipset cooled only by a metal plate but has a second set of cooling fins (located where there is a removable blanking plate on my laptop chassis) and a second metal prong and heatsink cooling an additional chip, which I presume is a discrete GPU?
There is the Bremen-D, shown here : https://media2.24aul.ru/imgs/59e7c19...2-10469720.jpg. There's also the BREMEN-DR motherboard which looks very much the same and can be seen here : https://26.img.avito.st/1280x960/8548848126.jpg.
This board has two copper prongs attached to its fan and has three heatsinks, presumably cooling the CPU, GPU and chipset?
There is the Bremen-VE, shown here : https://ireland.apollo.olxcdn.com/v1...age;s=1000x700.
This board has a fan with two copper prongs and attached heatsinks, one is cooling the CPU socket and the other seems to be cooling the chipset.
There is also a Bremen-L which I can't find a picture of the cooling solution for.
I've found the schematics for the above motherboards which provide some useful information.
So to summarise what I know about the Bremen range of motherboards :

MB-Name-----Fan-Cooling------------CPU---------Chipset-------------Platform
Bremen-C----CPU socket only--------Arrandale---Ibex Peak(HM55)-----Calpella
Bremen-UL---CPU socket & chipset---Penryn------Cantiga & ICH9M-----Montevina
Bremen-M----CPU and separate GPU?--Arrandale---Ibex Peak(HM55)-----Calpella
Bremen-D----CPU, chipset & GPU?----AMD Caspian-AMD RX881 + SB710---Tigris Platform Park XT M2
Bremen-VE---CPU socket & chipset---?-----------?-------------------?
Bremen-L----?----------------------Penryn------Cantiga & ICH9M-----Montevina
Bremen-2L---CPU and separate GPU?--Arrandale---Ibex Peak(HM55)-----Calpella

Checking these architectures I believe the Arrandale is the most advanced?
The I/O ports on these motherboards from an initial look all seem to be in identical locations which suggests it would fit in my R530 chassis (although I did see a board seller on ebay mentioning for one of the boards some sort of keyboard socket difference, I'd have to look into that further before making a decision).
I was considering moving to a separate CPU and GPU in the Bremen-M, as this would presumably reduce the heat on the CPU socket as the GPU component was separate, but I presume this board is meant for a Gaming chassis and the separate GPU would overheat in a business laptop chassis (presuming there were no issues fitting it in)?
However if I want to have both CPU socket and chipset cooling, the only option seems to be the Bremen-UL, which is a step back from the Arrandale to the Penryn architecture?
So wondering if anybody has a view on what I see as the potential options :
1. Stick with my Bremen-C motherboard with a renewed thermal paste (I see cryonaut grizzly is rated).
2. Move to separate CPU and GPU in Bremen-M or Bremen-2L?
3. Step back in architecture to Bremen-UL in order to have CPU socket and chipset cooling?
4. Any aftermarket fan or heatsink upgrades that are available, although I've looked and cant find anything.
I have experience of building desktop PC's, but little experience with laptops so may have taken an overly simplified view of the above, am happy to be put straight on anything I've said thats wrong.

[diif]

Re: Samsung R530 Bremen motherboard cooling

New thermal paste and see if that and no dust cures the issue. If it doesn't then think about spending some money.

[piernov]

Re: Samsung R530 Bremen motherboard cooling

I've got a Samsung R530 which is about 10 years old, over the last 12 months it developed a worsening problem where when asked to do much work it would shut itself down. I had a good idea this was due to overheating which was confirmed by a temperature monitor programme which showed little balls of fire next to the various internal temperature readings. I could also prevent it shutting down if I placed a huge fan running at full speed in front of its air intake!

Software showing a flame doesn't mean it's overheating. Exact figures will tell much more. This laptop has a NEC Tokin can which will most likely start to fail after all these years. Although if additional airflow helps it may indeed be overheating…

Looking online, the R530 has a bit of a reputation for overheating, so even though the amount of fluff inside the fan shroud wasnt huge, I think it was more than enough to cause the overheating issue.

You have to put good fresh thermal paste on the CPU as well. It's certainly completely dry after all these years and won't conduct heat properly. Use whatever decent brand paste like MX-2.

Looking at the cooling side first, I have investigated the motherboard and its cooling solution a little. The motherboard in my R530 is a BREMEN-C Revision 1.0 BA92-06379 (there is also a revision 1.1 of this board which from a cooling point of view appears identical). The cooling for my motherboard is provided by the fan with a copper prong and attached copper heatsink which sits on top of the CPU socket (it has an i3 330M installed). A picture of this fan configuration can be seen here : https://obrazki.elektroda.pl/3702108700_1473011424.jpg.
What I noticed when disassembling the laptop was that whilst the CPU socket had a fan connected heatsink, what I think is the chipset had only a metal plate (with PCH embossed on it) on top of the chip with no connection to the fan.

Yes, the PCH does not need active cooling, it's perfectly fine as it is and it's not what would overheat and cause shutdown (it would rather be the CPU). On newer platforms with 4th series chipset (and even some with 2nd or 3rd series) it often doesn't even have a heatsink as it's even more power efficient.

There is the BREMEN-UL, shown here : https://cache3.youla.io/files/images...6593452322.jpg.
This board appears to have relocated the cpu socket and chipset and extended the fan attached copper prong to cover both of these and so improve the cooling of the chipset.

This is an older board with a Core 2 CPU. Back then there was a separate northbridge, that was often connected to the heatsink as well. Starting from Arrandale it's integrated into the CPU. The southbridge doesn't have any heatsink, it is comparable to the PCH on Arrandale and newer platforms but on Core 2 and older it produced a bit less heat more spread on the package so it often came without heatsink.

There is the Bremen-M Revisions 1.0 - 1.3, an example shown here : https://skylots.org/images/images/n/...2abe49c632.jpg.
This board still appears to have the chipset cooled only by a metal plate but has a second set of cooling fins (located where there is a removable blanking plate on my laptop chassis) and a second metal prong and heatsink cooling an additional chip, which I presume is a discrete GPU?

Yes, this has a discrete GPU, they typically generate a lot of heat and need to be actively cooled. They draw more power than the integrated Intel GPU. Note that there is only a single fan to cool both CPU and GPU, so the fan will have to do more work to push the additional heat away.

There is the Bremen-D, shown here : https://media2.24aul.ru/imgs/59e7c19...2-10469720.jpg. There's also the BREMEN-DR motherboard which looks very much the same and can be seen here : https://26.img.avito.st/1280x960/8548848126.jpg.
This board has two copper prongs attached to its fan and has three heatsinks, presumably cooling the CPU, GPU and chipset?

This is an AMD platform, the RS880M northrbridge has to be actively cooled and they are pretty unreliable. The CPU also generates more heat than Intel CPU of the same era. It also has a dedicated GPU which will generate heat too. The ATi/AMD GPU from this era were also not very reliable. Still a single fan to cool all this… Better avoid these platforms.

There is the Bremen-VE, shown here : https://ireland.apollo.olxcdn.com/v1...age;s=1000x700.
This board has a fan with two copper prongs and attached heatsinks, one is cooling the CPU socket and the other seems to be cooling the chipset.

Same deal as Bremen-M but with a different discrete GPU. It still has the same PCH with the small heatsink where the light reflection is.

There is also a Bremen-L which I can't find a picture of the cooling solution for.

Can't find a picture for this one so I don't even know if it actually exists, but according to schematics this is a Core 2 platform with a discrete GPU so you'd most likely have CPU and northbridge on the same heatpipe, another heatpipe for discrete GPU all cooled by a single fan.

Checking these architectures I believe the Arrandale is the most advanced?

Yes definitely.

I was considering moving to a separate CPU and GPU in the Bremen-M, as this would presumably reduce the heat on the CPU socket as the GPU component was separate, but I presume this board is meant for a Gaming chassis and the separate GPU would overheat in a business laptop chassis (presuming there were no issues fitting it in)?

A discrete GPU will generate more heat than the Intel iGPU, so there's no point in doing that especially since it's all cooled by the same fan, the board will generate more heat overall. Additionally you'd need a chassis with the proper vents for the additional finstack.

However if I want to have both CPU socket and chipset cooling, the only option seems to be the Bremen-UL, which is a step back from the Arrandale to the Penryn architecture?

Yes, meaning it's slower and less efficient in terms of power so no reason to do that.

So wondering if anybody has a view on what I see as the potential options :
1. Stick with my Bremen-C motherboard with a renewed thermal paste (I see cryonaut grizzly is rated).

Yes, you basically got the best board in terms of power efficiency of all those you listed. Thermal paste definitely has to be replaced. Also no need to go crazy on the thermal paste choice, MX-2 will be good enough. Just don't pick the cheap ones on Aliexpress.
Also this machine doesn't have a bad cooling system. It's like any other laptop of this kind.

2. Move to separate CPU and GPU in Bremen-M or Bremen-2L?

That'll draw more power and generate more heat.

3. Step back in architecture to Bremen-UL in order to have CPU socket and chipset cooling?

Will be slower and less efficient, and northbridge is inside CPU on Arrandale so it's not like you're getting anything different in terms of cooling capabilities.

4. Any aftermarket fan or heatsink upgrades that are available, although I've looked and cant find anything.
I have experience of building desktop PC's, but little experience with laptops so may have taken an overly simplified view of the above, am happy to be put straight on anything I've said thats wrong.

No, it there's really an overheating problem after cleaning it properly and replacing thermal paste (it shouldn't), then you can just put it on a laptop cooling pad, but kinda defeat the purpose of a laptop so better get a desktop…
If it's still shutting down it might be a NEC Tokin issue.

[Ace Perception]

Re: Samsung R530 Bremen motherboard cooling

Thanks very much for sharing your obviously greater knowledge than my own.

I've arrived at the same conclusion as you suggest, that my best option is to stick with the Bremen-C motherboard.

The only other option that seemed like it might be a good idea was moving to a Bremen-M, however for completion of the point for anybody else looking along similar lines, whilst my laptop chassis has a removable blanking plate that would allow air for the additional set of fins on the fan, on further inspection I can see that the Bremen-M as well as having all the same connectors as the Bremen-C also has a PCI Express slot and an additional USB/ESATA port in between the HDMI and USB ports. This would mean I would have to cut out additional holes in the case of the laptop in order to accomodate the Bremen-M, which I dont think I really want to do!

So having settled on staying with the Bremen-C board I am of course going to upgrade its drive to an SSD as probably the biggest impact upgrade possible, but I am also looking at potentially upgrading the CPU.
Currently it has an i3-330M installed, which I see has a TDP of 35W (https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...-2-13-ghz.html).
Looking at the list of Arrandale processors (https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...e.html#@Mobile) I get the impression that the Intel® Core™ i7-640M Processor (https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...-2-80-ghz.html) is the fastest one for the Arrandale architechture and it also includes integrated graphics? This also has a TDP of 35W and is also a PGA 988 processor.

Am I reading that right and does that mean it will work in the Bremen-C motherboard or are there any other factors I need to consider and if so how do I check them? Thanks for any help.