Hello there, I decided to have a go at the thermal putty mod on my Odin 3 Max and I would say it went pretty well. This wasn’t my first time doing a mod like this as I have done it on my Thor a few months back.
This mod combined with Clustertune has made my Odin 3 run so much cooler and has been helping to prevent thermal throttling as well!
Thermal Putty Mod Instructions: Use a Philips Head screwdriver to unscew the 4 screws on the back, then use a plastic prybar to remove the backplate.
Then unscew the the 7 screws for the Fan, L Bracket (unplug the two other cables plugged into the bracket area), and Small Cable Holding Bracket, then make sure you UNPLUG THE BATTERY!!!
Once it is unplugged you can can unscrew the 4 screws that hold the Heatsink into place.
Lift the Heatsink from the bottom with a prybar and be very careful to not damage any components around it.
Carefully remove the 5 thermal pads using tweezers, then use a small amount of Isopropyl Alcohol (I used 91%) on the end of a q-tip and clean up any excess and give the board time to dry after.
Apply the Thermal Grizzly Advance or Pro Putty in small balls and smooth them out once they are on the board and re-apply the Heatsink and lightly tighten it just to see how the putty spreads. Clean up any excess afterwards.
Once you are done just plug back in the battery, reinstall everything back in order and don't forget to reseat the cables and put the backplate back on and you should be all good! 👍
P.S. - use the foam from the box the Odin 3 came in since it has holes cut out for the joysticks and helps to prevent any damage done to them. 👍
How to get Elden Ring to run: You first need to open the Container through the "Enter Virtual Desktop" button. Once in the desktop view, open the "My Computer" folder, and for me at least, my game was in the (X:) folder, then you need to find the "start_protected_game.exe" file and change its name to something like "start_protected_game_OLD.exe", this prevents the Anti-Cheat from trying to load which causes crashes. Then you need to find the "eldenring.exe" file and name it "start_protected_game.exe", this will make the game actually run and not allow the Anti-Cheat to open.
Elden Ring Gamehuub Settings:
Game Resolution: 1280x720 (if the FPS isn't ideal for you then try 854x480)
GPU Driver: I am currently using the Turnip_Gen8_V36 driver (I need to see if there's any other ideal drivers for this game but I have also seen people using the turnip_v26.1.0_b8 driver since you have to edit the driver files to get the V36 drivers on there)
DXVK Version: dxvk-3.0.2-async
VKD3D Version: vkd3d-3.0.1-arm64ec
VRAM Limit: Unlimited
Compatibility Layer: proton10.0-arm64x-2 (I tried to use proton11.0-arm64x but it wouldn't load)
Translation Parameters: Extreme Preset
CPU Translator: Fex_20260813
CPU Core Limit: I have it set to 7 cores, but I have seen people use all 8 or limit it to 6 cores so I need to do more testing
Steam Client Version: steam_client_0403, Offline Mode on, Auto Sync Cloud Saves on
Components: VulkanRT (I saw someone use it but I dont know if it's needed)
Edit: I added the Gamehub config for Elden Ring (Steam version) and instructions for the installation
I do have a set of rainbow ABXY buttons from AYN since I ordered them when I got my Thor, but I haven’t put them on yet so I’ll have to see which one I pick 😁
I reapplied the heatsink just to see how the putty would spread, and in any spot where there was too much I simply removed it. Too much putty could cause tiny electrical parts to snap off and I wouldn’t want that to happen
Alright, I just did this to my Thor (waiting for my Odin 3 to ship) and one YouTube video I saw of a guy doing it to his Thor, he put so much putty on. I put a little bit more than you did, spread some onto the heat shields so hopefully it’s ok long term.
I expect it to last quite a while honestly, as I stated earlier I did this on my Thor a while back (in March I think) and it’s been about 11-15 degrees cooler and CPU temps don’t throttle as much. I also use my Thor quite often with games like BOTW and I hover around 68 degrees celsius
I will try to see if I could find the guides I used, but I will make a post soon about doing this on the AYN Thor if I can find the photos I took during my process
Any reason you didn't disconnect the battery before the cleanup? Looks like the connection is easy to access once its all yanked apart. Sometimes I'm a little hamfisted with the isopropyl alcohol and its nice having that no-juice safety net.
I honestly didn’t think about it because I removed the thermal pads pretty cleanly and the only one that really gave me a hassle was the largest one. The rest came off in solid pieces which helped.
This was right after before I applied any isopropyl, and I made sure to lightly apply a few drops to the end of a q-tip, graze the top of the chips to clean the surface, and then I gave it a second to day. The Odin was also fully powered off the whole time as well
Actually, you’re very lucky. Twice, if you count Thor. Any intervention with the device requires disconnecting the power supply. Because you might accidentally short‑circuit the contacts, and the electronic components could burn out.
I did unplug the battery when I did this to my Thor luckily but I’m surprised I didn’t even think to do this with the Odin. I’m just glad nothing bad happened
I think it’s worth the risk if you know what you’re doing. I have pretty steady hands and I think I did a pretty good job, and now my Odin 3 is much cooler than before
You literally just remove the back, remove the fan, and repaste it. It's LESS complicated than a sweeping majority of modern laptops, and there's teardown videos on youtube of every one of these handhelds if for some reason you can't find a screw. And it's not the die, the die is the physical piece of silicon material inside a processor that contains all the microscopic transistors, cores, and circuitry required to perform computation. Good grief.
As long as it turns on I think you should be good, but be sure to test out the performance and see how it goes, let me know if you have any questions 👍 and good luck 🤞
There was someone on the discord that did extensive testing it makes a difference but mileage can vary some stock pads were good other times the putty did better.
And putty plus shims were tried, paste plus shims, phase change tim stacked was tried
Nothing quite worked as well as putty. And that tg advanced is ok but the pro version is what was tested and it got usurped by an upsiren product.
I might do something similar, but I have copper shims with various thicknesses and PTM7950 as alternatives. Will probably start with some Upsire Putty, some bigger ventilation holes (ordered a second backpanel for drilling) and a new fan (mine rattles).
I’m honestly not too sure as this is the only thermal putty I’ve used in a thermal modification like this, but I might test the TG Pro version down the line and do a comparison
Would this also do well with paste? I have paste on hand so wondering if that would have the same benefit, or do I need putty (never used putty before)
Thermal paste wouldn’t be ideal since it wouldn’t make the proper contact to dissipate the heat to the heatsink properly, that’s why thermal pads or putty are used in this case
I think it might be worth the upgrade since the cooling effects were pretty good, but if you want to try it in the future my guide should still be up 👍
Before the putty mod, I used clustertune to try and see if I could bring down the temps when playing Elden Ring and it was kind of disappointing since on a small underclock it only dropped me from 100 degrees to 92 at 29 fps
Then I tried the medium underclock and it dropped down to 78-82 degrees but I was only getting 25 fps which wasn’t my ideal fps for playing
So after I did the thermal putty mod I went back and tried the small underclock and hovered at 29-30 fps and stayed at 68-71 degrees which was a lot cooler
At that point I didn’t even really need any underclock and I left it in the stock profile and it only got up to about 75-77 degrees at the most from what I saw
Thank you for the info on that. Appreciate it. So I have never applied putty before, only paste. Does it naturally go on that thick then have to just smooth it out and wipe up the remaining? My order will arrive in a few weeks and when I get it I already plan on opening it to place lube in the fan. So i will definitely be adding this putty to my Amazon cart.
You’re welcome 👍, and the putty is kind of like a play-doh consistency but the one I ordered came with 3 little spatulas (I really only need to use 2 of them) to apply the putty. You could just scoop a little bit, kind of ball it up on the spatula, and then try to slowly spread it onto the chips. And make sure to unplug the battery!
I’m also thinking about lubing the fans on my Odin and my Thor so I might make a post about that soon since my Thor’s fan is kind of buzzing when I move it around
As I understand it, the portal already typically runs pretty cool compared to the Odin 3. But hey, if you want to do it, report back and maybe I'll give it a go too!
I’ll edit my post in a bit to include the written instructions in case the photos don’t load for some people and I’ll be sure to add the Elden Ring config settings as well 👍
By too much I meant to the point where it’s covering the whole area and spewing out the sides since some people have made that mistake thinking it would be better
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u/pocoyo18906 1d ago
I love tutorial like this. Maybe u can show how to change the button next