Guide to Hacking Hardware Maintenance (as a developer)

My laptop is 3 years old. I paid $1,426 on a Prime Day sale shipped overseas. It was not the best laptop but my Surface Book needed to be sent back for warranty (battery expansion issue) and the replacement could only ship to Australia... so I needed a new laptop (with a decent CPU and GPU) shipped to Thailand.

First the battery stopped holding a charge and was expanding, so I just pulled it out, but in the last month first the CPU fan and then one of the GPU fans started to make a LOUD buzzing noise. Normally I would go to Aliexpress and buy replacement parts (which takes upto a month to deliver)... but because I am living in covid-cheap hotels/AirBnB's have no fixed address, buying new is also not an option and had to think outside the box.

Before we get into the specifics I wanted to share a lesson from the whole MAX-Q shift. Basically CPUs and GPUs generate a MASSIVE amount of heat the closer to maximum ability so using the same hardware and aiming lower results in great performance (just not the best) with less heat and power usage.

Here are 1 hardware and 3 software hacks that are keeping my poor old laptop alive:

1. More fans (hardware)
   Running a i7-6700HQ + GTX1060 gets hot, Thailand's climate doesn't help with a comfortable temp at 24-25C (75-77F) in air conditioned room so the hardware hack is CoolerMaster U3 ($28.73). What makes it special from the million other cooling pads is you can position the fans directly below the intakes. This actually solved the CPU fan noise problem because the fan balance is restored (apparently).

2. Undervolting
   ThrottleStop undervolt set to 0.118 V has been the sweet spot and whenever you can hear the fans always check if its working.

3. AfterBurner
   Down clocking from +116 MHz to -83MHz did the trick, keeping the GPU cool enough most of the time to not need fan power, thus the annoying buzzing sound.

4. Change "Advanced Power Settings"
   This one surprised me but you can right click on the battery icon, click Power Options, Change Plan Setting, Change Advanced Power Setting, find Processor Power Management, then change the Maximum Processor State <100% (I am no 90%) for quite a large thermal improvement

5. The Great Suspender
   Let's face it, Chrome is what a developer has running all the time. What The Great Suspender does is wait an hour then suspend any inactive tabs taking massive load off the GPU in my case from the "Desktop Window Manager". This leads to less GPU usage, less heat and no need to buy parts ;)

Bonus. Find out what is using so much resources and Google how to fix it. I recently fixed a Dreamweaver usage issue going into Regedit and deleting some Temp Files folder, now it works fine...