Can we get even more performance
out of this ROG Ally by repasting the Z1 Extreme?
Let's test it out.
Let’s fire it up. Let's fire it up.
Okay. Uh...
Let’s fire it up.
- [Willis] Adam... - Uh hmm.
I didn't unplug anything...
Hey PCWorld Fans! Adam here.
And I have a ROG Ally with the Z1 extreme chip in it
and I had a question that popped into my mind recently was,
Hmm,
would repasting get us more performance out of the ROG Ally?
you can get some great gains by repasting a Steam Deck.
But the ROG Ally
cooling solution is already more beefy than the actual Steam Deck.
So I was curious, can we actually get even more
by repasting it or is what's already in here good enough?
So I don't know.
Let's go down this journey.
Try it out.
First step is to run a couple of benchmarks
with the old school paste job applied.
So Let's go ahead and launch Steam and to launch
Cyberpunk 2077.
All right, I launch cyberpunk 2077.
Let's go ahead and go into the settings.
I'm going to pick the Steam Deck preset.
Unfortunately, the Steam Deck preset
sets, the FSR 2.1 to auto.
I don't want that variable to change, so I'm actually going to hit balanced on that
and then apply,
go down and apply.
On the video tab, I have it set to 1080p with v sync off.
So we see the theoretical max that we can do.
Let's go ahead and run the benchmark and I have MSI Afterburner
open up here to go ahead and check the temperatures
because obviously this benchmark doesn't have a built in temperature readout.
So let's let this benchmark run and see what we get.
The benchmark is done and it's telling us
we're getting an average of 30 that smooth 30.
And I was watching the temperature on the GPU specifically
and it maxed out around 80C, but it was mostly hovering around 77 or 78C.
So we have at least one variable here.
I'm going to go ahead
and run this benchmark again, just to double check the numbers.
So after three runs, we have an average of smooth 30,
thanks Steam Deck preset, and the GPU, which I was watching on MSI Afterburner,
was hanging around 73, 70C.
I will say this was at the
turbo operating mode, which is it operating at 25 watts.
The first run interesting enough was a boosting up to 30 watts
and I was seeing about 80C but it's settled down to 25 watts
and we were getting about 74C. So let's switch over to a different game
and get at least one more benchmark.
So now I have a fired up Horizon Zero Dawn.
Let's go into the settings I would set to 1080p with no upscaling
in the refresh rate 220 hertz V sync off and the graphics set to original.
So let's go ahead and run this benchmark.
It's going to take a little longer.
So I think it's going to heat up even more potentially than cyberpunk.
But we'll come back and see.
Alright, so I was actually wrong.
I was watching the GPU temperatures and it was hanging around the same place in Cyberpunk.
72, 73, 74, something like that.
So yeah, actually not not too bad.
And we got an average FPS of 35.
it's actually don't know if we're going to get any more performance
out of doing a repaste job, but maybe we can get it to run a little bit cooler.
Yeah, well, let's just try it out.
So the first things first is to actually shut the damn thing off.
All right.
You got my handy dandy screwdriver.
And let's open this up.
Now, I have opened it once during our live stream
hands on review thingy.
When I first got it,
I have not opened it up since, and I have not taken out the cooling
solution with the heat pipe in the book,
in the fan.
So hopefully I don't break anything, but...
we'll see how it goes.
I don't think these ones are going to come out.
got it,
Got my little pry tool.
And there you go.
[Willis] Is that a pry tool. Or is it a guitar pick?
This is not a guitar pick, but it would be funny if iFix It.
Started making guitar picks.
All right, so
we have the inside of the ROG Ally.
I am going to disconnect the battery just in case
you don't have to, but...
[Willis] You should, you don’t want to get electrocuted
I mean, it wouldn't it wouldn't shock me.
See if I can wiggle this out
without breaking it.
And maybe there we go.
Okay, so I did the same thing and disconnected the battery.
So we got this little flap that obviously we got access to the SSD.
But really, I want to get under here.
That's where that APU is.
So it's going to take that off, leave it over here.
And it looks like
looks like there's just one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight screws.
So let's go for those.
All right,
So I'm going to I'm going to back this off
slowly with even amounts of pressure.
Another tamper proof sticker.
Whoops!
You got me.
[Willis] I’m sweating here.
looking at you.
Oh, you get. Oh, it's.
It's fine.
What are you worried about the sticker?
Cops aren't coming.
Uh, all right.
I think this might be. Yeah.
Here. A little kick click.
So these must be captive.
At least I'm hoping.
All right, let's see.
See if I can just take this out.
Oh, here we go.
Here we go.
am I missing the screw?
Feels like it's caught on something else.
No, I just need to wiggle it out. There you go.
And like that, we're free.
Oh, you know what? It looks like the.
The fans are attached.
Yeah, the fans are attached.
Here, this cable.
So I need to peel up this sticker here.
Just going to put it here for safekeeping.
That's a good spot.
[Willis] It’s like you're playing operation in Operation.
Don't get buzzed.
Pull out that fan header.
Do the same thing over here.
You got that little fan header
Just grab the plastic and wiggle.
Wiggle, wiggle.
There we go.
Now, the whole thing should be loose and.
All right, So you can see there's
the thermal paste.
It's not it's not a heaping amount.
I like to really glob it on. So I'll try.
I'll probably make a mess more than this. But
I mean, it looks it looks even enough.
But let's see, let's see if we can do better.
So let's, let's clean it off.
I've got my Arctic cleaner.
just going to wipe off the excess first,
Okay.
It's a good amount,
There's no writing on the actual day itself.
You can see it says Z1 Extreme
off to the side here, but that's a nice big APU.
That's definitely bigger than what's in the steam deck, I believe.
All right.
I'm going to use a little bit of arctic cleaner to
clean it off.
Put some here, put some here.
if I'm doing it wrong, blame Gordon.
He's the one who taught me how to.
How to clean thermal paste.
All right.
So, I mean, there's still a little bit a little bit off the edge,
but yeah, whatever. It's fine.
Clean enough. Clean enough.
So next,
I'm going to apply some new thermal paste.
So the thermal paste that I've seen a lot of people use
for the Steam Deck is this thermalright TF.
It's very thick, very vicious.
So that's what I'm going to use for this.
You know, I didn't test anything.
I'm not a B testing which kind of thermal paste is best for it.
I'm just going to go ahead and try this one and see if if this works.
So here we go.
Let's, let's do a nice a nice sized
glob right in the middle.
[Willis] How many CCs of thermal paste is that?
2600 CC stat.
All right, let's spread this nice and even.
And, boy, you can tell how thick that is.
It's like. Like putty
[Willis] You’re painting like Bob Ross.
Yeah. Oh.
[Willis] Just a little like happy tree here, happy tree there
Just a little happy thermal paste.
Oh, happy thermal paste.
right. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Nice and thick.
Nice and thick.
When we spread.
Oh, okay.
All right.
I think that's
all right. Cool.
Then I guess we now, at this point reverse the steps, which means
I'm going to plug these fans back in without
getting all the thermal paste.
You know, what action can I do it with?
I should just plug them in.
Let's go and put them in.
The timewhen you need steady, delicate hands.
And I have neither.
Oh, is the hardest part of the whole thing.
I cannot get this.
Oh, man.
This video is just going to be 20 minutes of me.
Oh, this is where I'm going to insert some, you know, suspenseful music
Oh, my goodness.
There’s got to be an easy way to do this.
There we go. There we go.
We did it. Woo!
Yeah.
All right, so now let's
tape this down.
Yeah, sure.
Good enough.
All right, now, here we go.
Yeah.
Actually, I think I need to,
you know, hook the fans underneath before I.
It's one fans in.
There we go. Okay.
Hooked it under that little tab.
I'll hook this one under the little tab.
And here we go.
I did it.
Now it's
evenly screw it in.
If this is an application for assembly line work,
I think I would be passed up for the job.
Not fast enough, Adam.
Not fast enough.
Too sloppy,
too many mistakes.
All right, let's screw in the fans.
All right.
I think is right.
Feels
secure.
Yeah, right.
Cool.
Let's plug battery back in
and put this little
shield over.
I think it went something like that.
There we go. Something like that.
There we go.
Now let's put back on
and screw it in.
And last one.
Here we go.
I think they are all nice and tight.
All right, cool.
Now
let's fire it up and hopefully it doesn't melt.
Let’s fire it up.
let's fire it up.
okay. Uh,
fire it up?
[Willis] Adam...
Uh hmm.
I didn't unplug anything...
I plug the battery all the way back in.
[Willis] I was going to say, Is it all the way?
I'm going to try to. I'm going to plug it into a power.
It might just need a little kickstart.
Okay, so it seems the battery.
There we go.
Okay. Hoo hoo.
That was a.
Oh, that's okay.
Hey, you know, it's all part of the job.
What happen Adam?
You know, it wasn't turning on.
But now I got to turn on. Look at that.
Uh oh.
But now let's make sure it doesn't melt itself.
Yeah, I, uh.
I don't smell anything
to smell anything burning.
Not yet at least.
Oh, right.
Hey, it booted up.
All right, let's, uh.
Let's start up steam.
Start up MSI After Burner.
going to unplug power,
and we are still in 25 watt turbo mode.
Let's go and launch cyberpunk, not spider punk, cyberpunk
So I did let the ally warm up
for about 20 minutes just to make sure it's nice and toasty in there.
And even with the testing that we had done earlier,
because it was kind of sitting there idling.
So I wanted to be
wanting to be fair.
Let's go in and make sure we're on the steam deck preset
for our 2.1 set to balanced.
Everything's set there.
Let's go ahead and apply it.
Then over the video, V-Sync is off
9020 by 1080 full screen, yadda, yadda.
All right.
Let's go ahead and run the benchmark and see if it's cooler or faster.
Oh, yeah.
See, now it's hitting 8082 Oh,
even hotter.
That's right.
After the first run, it was actually still boosting up to 30 watts.
So I'm going to run it a couple more times.
But I did notice it was actually getting a little warmer.
So it was about 81, 82 compared to that first run
when it was boosting to 30 watts.
But it did turn in three frames faster,
so a little hotter in three extra frames.
Woo hoo, I did it.
Let's go ahead and run it again.
Let's burn off this boost and have it settle down to 25 watts and
and see what we get then.
Oh 32C.
Well, interesting enough, this is the third run and it settled down
to 25 watts, threw through that whole run and I did see temperatures
just a little bit higher, but about two, 2 to 3 degrees higher.
But we got we got two extra frames.
So I guess it's kind of a win.
let's switch over to Horizon Zero Dawn and see if we get
any sort of performance gains over there.
All right. We're in Horizon Zero Dawn.
Let's go to the settings.
Double check, 1080p, 120hz.
No upscaling in the original quality.
Let's go ahead and run the benchmark.
All right.
So we see the same result, 35 FPS.
I was watching the temperature and it was
it was slightly higher, I would say one degree, maybe.
So instead of 74,
it was kind of peaking at 75, but it was mostly hanging around in 74.
So not really any different.
on Horizon Zero Dawn.
So did it work?
Well, yes, it worked.
I was able to put it back successfully,
but in Horizon Zero Dawn, we didn't see any change.
If anything, maybe just a little warmer.
But it's in the it's in margin of error.
I think in cyberpunk it was we definitely saw a change.
so with the original paste, the second time I ran the cyberpunk
punk benchmark, it actually did not boost up to 30.
It settled down at that that 25 watts.
And that was the same thing for the third benchmark.
After I repasted it,
that second run actually held it that 30 watts for, for that entire run.
Once again, it was a little bit warmer but it held that boost for that second run.
And then the third run is when it settled back down into into 25 watts.
So what I'm thinking is that yes,
it's able to to actually allow the processor to get a little hotter
because it's able to wick away the heat a little bit more effectively,
which is leading to higher temperatures.
It's feeling like it can sustain those higher temperatures
and sustain that boost for a little bit longer.
But all we saw was about three frames.
So so 10% increase in cyberpunk.
But on the flip side, I didn't see any sort of gain in horizon.
If anything, we got a little bit of
warmer temperatures, but no increase in frame rate.
so what I will say is that it kind of points to the fact that ASUS
did a good job designing the Ally.
we already knew that it was,
it was better than the solution that was in the steam deck.
It's definitely quieter for sure.
So I would say props to ASUS.
Repasting it is not making a huge difference.
So I think that's
if you want to look at it another way, it's like, okay, well it's doing its job
as intended the first time and that is something to be rewarded for sure.
So was it easy to take apart and apply new thermal paste? Yes.
The benefit I got from it was just not as a parent.
Is it worth doing?
I don't know.
I'm just happy I put it together and it's working again.
It is not smelling like anything's burning.
So, yeah, I guess I'm curious to see if anybody out
there has tried to repasting the ROG Ally because who knows,
maybe it used a different kind of paste and it worked better.
Maybe you used less than I did.
I don't know.
I'm curious to see if anyone else has done it and seen drastic results.
If so, let me know in the comments.
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