Ok Guys,
I had to try this experiment.
Do note that following procedures will void your warranty.
You have been warned!!!
Remove the
Four screws (Orange) below on Bottom case.
Two screws are hidden beneath the rubber feet. One of them has a Void warranty if tapered sticker.
Below in
circled Red are where the catches/ hooks are.
Two polished screws in Yellow are used to tie down the PCB to the Bottom Case.
Bottom Case
Top Case
PCB with mediocre Thermal Pads
Thermal Paste and Heatsink re-applied
The router is placed in my living room in non aircon environment with Merlin's latest stable firmware.
Temperature results were 2-3°C lower on average with/ without Cooling Pad on CPU after replacing stock thermal pad and applying with Arctic MX-4 thermal paste.
No significant Temperature differences on 2.4/5Ghz cores.
Stock Thermal Pad without Cooling Pad
MX-4 without Cooling Pad
Stock Thermal Pad with Cooling Pad
MX-4 with Cooling Pad