YouTube hardcore PC modder TrashBench attached waterblocks, a water pump, and a 360mm radiator to a Metabox laptop with an Nvidia GTX 1060 and Intel Core i7-8750H. This Frankenstein’s monster of a laptop dropped a whole 60℃ on both the CPU and GPU during benchmarks and stress tests and gained an average of 14% after overclocking.
TrashBench, a YouTuber popular for extreme PC modifications involving various watercooling solutions, decided to “fix” laptop cooling by taking a cut-up 360mm AIO from another project and plans to use it on the Metabox P950EP. Metabox is an Australian brand of laptops rebranded from Clevo, an ODM brand from Taiwan that often gets rebranded in various countries. TrashBench intends to use this laptop for his daughter to play Fortnite on.
The modder intended to use the stock AIO pump along with a second waterblock for the CPU, but after testing whether it would be strong enough to push through a second block, TrashBench realized he would need a bigger pump. He also needed to use another waterblock since the new pump was a standalone one, unlike the waterblock and pump combo on an AIO.
The waterblocks were mounted via a 3D-printed holder, then screwed down to the existing holes previously used for the stock heatpipe and blower cooler. More 3D-printed mounts were used to hold the radiator behind the screen of the laptop, but couldn’t be screwed in because the space between the screen and shell was too small. TrashBench reluctantly used Loctite 2-part epoxy to attach the radiator mount onto the laptop.
That’s not all epoxy was used for, as he didn’t forget about the RAM and VRMs. A heatsink was attached to them, with thermal pads bringing the RAM level with the VRMs to use a single heatsink for each cluster. The VRMs had a dab of thermal paste and a spot of epoxy to keep the heatsink in place, making the modification permanent.
After fully assembling everything and attaching the blocks, pump, and radiator with flexible clear tubes using screw hose clamps, TrashBench tested it for leaks. “I think we’re good,” he says, just before a few bubbles passed by.
The laptop uses 19v, while the pump and fans use 12v, so a DC-DC step-down converter was soldered to the original blower fan’s electrical contacts. Unfortunately, the power source powers on as soon as the laptop is turned on, with no way to make them only turn on under load. So the modder used a toggle switch mounted to a 3D-printed plate, screwed onto the bottom shell that had a large gaping hole cut out of it to accommodate the pump and waterblocks.
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To allow the laptop to stand, a 3D-printed riser was screwed to the bottom and is the final touch to the build. As ridiculous as it looks, it impresses with its performance, averaging 60℃ below stock, with the CPU and GPU staying well below 40℃ under full load.
(Image credit: TrashBench)
Conservative but clear performance gains were seen after benchmarks, but with the amount of temperature overhead, TrashBench decided to see how much more he could get by overclocking, and it was worth it, as Forza Horizon 5 went from 75 FPS to 77, and then to 83 FPS after overclocking.
