[Alienware 17R4 / 15R3] - Disassembly + Repaste Guide + Results

Its designed to pull air from the bottom of the laptop. Like it or not you have to do this for best possible temps. Possibly stick something to the bottom corners to always have it raised? Like laptop feet or stick a engineers scale to the bottom like another user did. If by "desk" you mean your home desk setup possibly put a cooling pad.

 

Understand that. However I shouldn't have to do that to get useable temps. That should be to improve thermals not the other solution to use the laptop.


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Return it and try another brand. Not much else you can do about it.

 

Ah, I was already wondering why the GPU felt super dry and it looked like a stamp whilst the CPU had more of a paste like feel to it.


Re-pasted my Kabylake 13R3 with Gelid GC-Extreme and I'm having some mixed results. CPU temps dropped significantly, around 10C on load. GPU temps dropped maybe 5C? I'm still hitting 80~83C on the GPU, although before I was hitting 85~87C. It might also have something to do with the odd warm day today. I have to also say this is with a -0.140V undervolt on the CPU.


Now before this I had a Skylake system which was also repasted. Temps, both on CPU and GPU were lower but I'm not sure why. Sure, it did undervolt to -0.185V but even at -0.140V the temps were seemingly better. I tightened the screws in the 1-7 order and went back to re-tighten a second round. Used enough goop in a line one the die. The fans don't ramp up as much as they used to though so maybe it's just a BIOS thing because my Skylake was running an older BIOS and it seems like they change fan profiles with every release for no apparent reason.

Edit: I didn't realize this until now, but if you look closely you can see that the CPU fan is rated at a higher amperage and CFM. Not sure why they went for this as the GPU also gets quite hot and could use any additional airflow.

Pics of the stock crap:

 

For some reason pascal doesn't really care about thermal paste, unlike older generation where better paste = better thermals.


Maybe it's the combination of much higher heat density and that heatpipes aren't cutting it anymore for these smaller die sizes since they don't transfer heat fast enough.

 

@Mobius 1
It's actually due to several things all at once.

It's partly because of the throttling; The lower power limits means you're going to be hitting power limits at some loads, even if you don't overclock, so that's already going to limit some heat.
With a TDP mod, there would be more benefit to better paste. Desktop cards, with the better heatsinks and higher TDP, benefit more.

Also the GPU die is larger than the CPU die, that, combined with usually more heatpipes (on systems without shared CPU/GPU), means any heat on the GPU gets transferred more to the heatsink than the CPU one, because of the larger surface area, thus saturating the heatsink more. So the CPU will show much larger benefits due to the smaller size and surface area, making the thermal conductivity of the interface material more important.

 

From stock paste to liquid metal on my GTX1080 desktop 1.063v @230w the temperature only improve 2c...

 

Only 2c?
I saw a video a few days ago and a user gained 10C from repasting *AND* +100-150 mhz on the core (automatic overclocking/less throttling)I don't remember if he was using Kryonaut or LM, however. Also its unclear what stock paste was used. Some of the OEM's use MX4 or Tuniq.

 

Maybe because the size of my 1080 heatsink and I run the fans on 100% all the time

 

That would make a lot of sense. But it's really hard to say in my case because i'm not experienced with thermal conductivity things. I assume if the existing heatsink is being thermally saturated already, changing paste won't do much. But if there's room for improvement it will. Usually, the larger the die surface, the larger the contact area, and the less difference the high end pastes will make since the large die is transferring so much heat already. At least I guess this is how it is!

 

If the cooling is proper and correct sized, you don't see the big gain with LM on graphics. Same for Cpu cooling for desktops.

 

This is definitely the case. Used LM on my desktop gtx 980 and 1080 with no gains whatsoever. If you want cooler GPU temps, water is the way to go.

 

Most of the time GPU-Z shows me that I'm hitting power limits on the card. I would've expected however that reduced temps on the CPU would yield lower temps on the GPU as well since they have to share less heat. Perhaps it just means the GPU can go crazier? I did notice that turning Vsync on in GTA:V will let the card boost to 1900MHz sustained instead of the normal 1600~1700MHz. It also drops the temps by a couple of degrees.

Either way, still pretty good results.

 

Pascal is limited by temperatures and by TDP. The GPU doesn't throttle all the time obviously. It only throttles (Power limit) when it gets put under heavy load and power draw exceeds what its rated for. That is when you get power limit. Overclocking the card gains some minor benefits, usually when the GPU is at high load, but due to what is being rendered, is below the TDP, so a higher core clock=more FPS (as long as the GPU is being close to fully utilized). But yes, overclocking the card gains a few FPS (maybe up to 5% more) and simply makes it TDP throttle more often.

this affects 1070 laptop cards more than 1080 laptop cards. For 1080's, this depends. If it's a 150W or 180W card, that's also going to throttle like crazy too. the MSI and Clevo cards have an auxiliary power connector, and are 200W cards, so they will TDP throttle less, and have some more room for overclocking. The 115W 1070 cards gain the most benefit from a TDP mod from a hardware programmer (going from 115W to 150W TDP is enough to stop most power throttling on the 1070, then you can overclock it 200+ or more, and then you should have VREL throttling. 170W should stop all power throttling until you start playing with the curves to change the voltage).

 

Just a completely off-topic question. Is it possible to undervolt these laptop GPUs? That would probably take some heat off and allow them to boost a bit harder as well. However for me in afterburner all the voltage controls are locked.

 

What kind of glue should I use for the PCH?
I'm going to apply liquid metal, replace thermal pads, and do the PCH mod today or tomorrow... but I think this is my only questions.
Will post results.

 

Use Kryonaut first instead of LM.

 

I already did and it wasn't enough sadly. CPU still hit 90C even when unclocked and undervolted lol.
I have an Alienware 17 R2 so it's a little different.
What glue?

 

For 15 r1 and 17 r2, ask @judal57

 

I'm not sure how to ask them...
I need to know what glue to use to attach the PCH mod.

 

I used Kryonaut on the R4 still hit 92C on the cpu cores.

 

Yeah... it's not very good for mobile processors I'm finding out.
I've tore down my 17 R2 right now to apply liquid metal, new thermal pads, new heatsink + fans, and do the PCH mod... but I cannot figure out what glue to use

 

Are you talking about PCH mod using aluminium and heat gun? Well, that's for 17 r4.
I think its Arctic Silver Thermal adhesive.

 

Yes, something like that... would a hot gun work?
I'm looking for something I already have.
I have hot gun and gorilla glue I think.

Here's it apart, I need to add tape around the stuff for liquid metal.
Anything else I should do?
I need to clean them a little better I know.

 

See this link http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/pch-heatsink-mod-alienware-15.794484/

 

I have, but that's different.
I need to glue the heatsink.
I put thermal paste under it, and glue around it so it sticks.. what do I use?

 

I'm not sure if this stuff is still around, but in my modding days I used these tiny heatsinks and used some double sided thermal adhesive from Sekisui (very thin and sticky) to mount the heatsinks to video RAM modules. That stuff stuck pretty well on. However, not sure how it's going to hold up on a bare die.

Edit:

Haha, turns out it was Sekisui not 3M. Actually googling it one the first results was a forum post I made 10 years ago: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/539952-Sekisui-thermal-adhesive-tape-question

It's this stuff: https://www.ebay.com/p/Sekisui-5760...sink-100mm-X-200mm/753204017?iid=171112683534

Like I said, no idea how well it holds up on a bare die. It does really well on RAM chips.

 

Omg... you people aren't getting this...
I'm trying to do what he did, but don't know what glue was used.

 

I know what you're saying, I'm just saying that this is an alternative way of doing this. There isn't one single way to these mods. My guess it's just superglue

 

Then I shall get super glue! -w-

 

Read!!

 

Hmm.. I don't have that glue.
I'm not sure how to figure out what's strong.
We have hot glue and gorilla glue that I know of.

 

How long is everyone stress testing with aida64? 20 minutes?


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How's this tape?
How bad is it if Liquid Metal touches the green part of the CPU/GPU?
I highly doubt it would, but in worse case?

 

hello iam new to this. want to re paste my 15 R3,
So is it necessary to replace the thermal pads?
And whats the proper way to apply thermal paste on thermal pads?
Can it be applied on stock pads?

Anyone know what spec pads to use for 15 R3, how many are required?

 

In worst case, it will roll further down and reach places you don't want it to be

 

What is viewed as acceptable temps for with stock paste? Under 90C full load? 2-3 hours of gaming under 90C?

cores 39 37 37 36

 

That is "technically" in spec for temps... but it's not good for the computer. Within spec normally means it will survive in that, but doesn't mean it would last. Long story short, I highly recommend you repaste. Imo 80C is max, as it will let the computer live a lot longer in most cases. There really is no downside to repasting. I have yet to break anything when replacing something. Whether it's a desktop, laptop, or PS3.

 

I find 80C max is odd... there isn't a laptop with decent gpu that stays under 80C on the market.

 

You could cut into thin stripes. For gpu use kryonaut since the temp difference is 1-3C with LM

 

Yeah, it is odd to find on a laptop... but that's just what I'm comfortable with.

 

I was thinking of doing that, but it's hard to do.

 

use a good 2mm thermal pad and 0 problems. i am using it right now. i have 2 of 2,5mm

 

Okay so 2-3 hours of gaming with two cores hitting 91 at around 1-1/2 hours on Max. Temps usually between 82-85... This seems like thermal paste only would help a bit like 5c? Or does this need an entire repad repaste?

 

Chances are I fried my laptop.....
I shot liquid metal all over the motherboard...
Cleaning it up as best I can and will post back.

 

Did you enable CPU performance mode and try running in max fans. If the temps drops drastically in max fans then the issue is connected to non optimal fan profile which you can fix using HWINFO64. @Papusan everybody has issues with fan profile and its disappointing.

 

Did you apply more force on the syringe?
Good luck.

 

what I am saying is I don't think 91 MAx temps when in use the cores are generall between 82-84 is fine?

 

Sadly yes.
Thanks.. I'll need it.

 

Yeah its fine.