The laptop: a Clevo in a Metabox shirt
The donor machine is a Metabox P950EP. Tom's Hardware describes Metabox as an Australian brand that rebadges laptops from Clevo, a Taiwanese ODM. Australian forum posts from the time of its launch describe the P950EP as essentially identical to the earlier P950HP/HR, apart from the new CPU and 120Hz and 144Hz panel options. Owner threads for the Clevo P950ER/EP6 describe a thin chassis, under 2cm thick and just under 2kg, with GTX 1060 and 1070 Max-Q options.
That context matters. A thin 15-inch chassis with a six-core H-series CPU and a GTX 1060 is a tight thermal envelope. One owner of an i7-8750H/GTX 1060 Metabox said it runs hot, and that he used a cooling pad and an undervolt while gaming at full tilt. Cooling is a known pain point on this class of machine, which makes it a reasonable target for a "what if I go absurd?" experiment.
The reporting doesn't give the laptop's RAM, display or storage configuration, so I won't guess at them.
What was built
According to Tom's Hardware, TrashBench started with a cut-up 360mm all-in-one cooler left over from another project. The build then grew in several steps:
- Pump upgrade: He first wanted to reuse the AIO's pump with a second waterblock. Testing showed it wouldn't push coolant through two blocks, so he moved to a bigger standalone pump.
- Extra waterblock: The standalone pump has no block attached, unlike an AIO's combined pump and block, so he needed another waterblock.
- Block mounting: The blocks sit in a 3D-printed holder. It is screwed into the holes that originally held the stock heatpipe and blower cooler.
- Radiator placement: The radiator sits behind the screen on 3D-printed mounts. The gap between display and shell was too small for screws, so he reluctantly used two-part Loctite epoxy.
- RAM and VRMs: Thermal pads raise the RAM to the VRMs' height so one heatsink can cover each cluster. The VRM heatsink is held on with thermal paste and a dab of epoxy, which makes that part of the mod permanent.
- Plumbing: Flexible clear tubing and screw-type hose clamps connect the blocks, pump and radiator.
After assembly he did a leak test. The article quotes him saying "I think we're good," just before some bubbles passed by. The reporting describes no long-duration leak test or reliability testing, so a brief check shouldn't be read as proof the loop is safe over time.
Power and the toggle switch
The laptop runs on 19V, while the pump and radiator fans need 12V. TrashBench soldered a DC-DC step-down converter to the original blower fan's electrical contacts to supply the cooling hardware.
The catch is that this supply comes on as soon as the laptop does. It has no way to ramp up only under load. He therefore added a toggle switch on a 3D-printed plate, screwed to the bottom shell. That shell has a large hole cut in it to make room for the pump and waterblocks. A 3D-printed riser screwed to the underside lets the laptop stand.
This is where the "laptop" label starts to strain. With a radiator behind the lid, a pump and blocks poking through the base, and a manual cooling switch, it is a mostly stationary machine. A conventional laptop's thermal design is automatic. This one needs the user to flip a switch.
The numbers, and how to read them
Tom's Hardware reports these results:
- Temperatures: About 60°C lower than stock on both CPU and GPU during benchmarks and stress tests, with both staying well below 40°C under full load.
- Performance: The initial gains were described as conservative. With the extra thermal headroom, TrashBench overclocked, and Forza Horizon 5 went from 75 FPS to 77 FPS, then to 83 FPS after overclocking.
- Headline figure: The article cites an average 14% gain after overclocking.
Some caveats apply:
- The text gives no exact stock and modified temperatures, ambient temperature, test duration, fan speeds, resolution or graphics settings.
- The Forza example (75 to 83 FPS) works out to roughly 10.7% over the starting figure. That is not the same as the 14% average, and the article text doesn't include a test table reconciling the two. Treat them as separate numbers.
- "60°C lower" is a claim about this one machine. It is not a general expectation for other laptops.
- A GTX 1060 and i7-8750H are old, modest parts. Parts like these will respond very differently from a modern high-TDP gaming laptop.
Sub-40°C under full load is still impressive for a CPU and GPU that normally run hot in this chassis. Large radiators, a strong pump and a dedicated fan set simply have far more thermal capacity than a thin laptop's heatpipe-and-blower design. Reported gains after overclocking are consistent with that, since removing thermal throttling lets clocks hold.
Trade-offs
The build's costs are clear even from the short description:
- Permanence: Epoxied mounts and a cut-out bottom case aren't easily reversed.
- Portability: A radiator behind the screen, a pump underneath and a riser make this a desk machine.
- Electrical risk: Soldering a converter onto fan contacts and running liquid near live electronics are risks the reporting doesn't evaluate.
- Maintenance: Loops need periodic attention, and the reporting doesn't cover how this one would be serviced.
- Warranty: This is my own inference, not something the reporting says. Cutting the chassis would almost certainly end any warranty on a laptop like this.
TrashBench plans to give the machine to his daughter to play Fortnite. That is the stated intent, not a tested result, and the reporting includes no Fortnite benchmark.
Bottom line
This is a fun, extreme example of what happens when thermal limits are the only constraint you refuse to respect. The measured-as-reported temperature drop is dramatic. The costs are a ruined chassis, a manual cooling switch and a lot of unquantified risk. For ordinary users, the practical takeaways are more modest: repasting, undervolting and a cooling pad (the same measures Metabox owners discuss) are far safer ways to tame a hot laptop.