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

Repost from the lounge:

Very nice and welcome. I too am currently a Mac user. Gaming laptops for gaming, editing, rendering, programming, encoding, Adobe Premier, Pro Tools etc... and MBPr for everything else...

Please post some graphs when you can.

Tip: Avoid uploading pics to NBR as they break often and it gets annoying. Use a photo service like imgur etc...much much better and stable.

 

Oof, be very careful when cleaning up that paste. It's probably already suffering cuts and bruises on the die.

 

Hey brother, great post!

When you get a chance could you grab the BBCode and update the post so that the pics show up? Thanks!

Looking good...

 

I just respated the stock stuff with it.

There weren't any scratches on my chips they were clean as glass when i applied it.

Maybe if i plan on removing in the future.

 

@iunlock Im looking forward to the video.

Why are people saying that pasting with liquid metal is dangerous and difficult, what are the differences from pasting with a "normal" paste? If one dont want to use liquid metal, what is consider to be the best alternative?

 

Most thermal pastes are not electrically conductive, which means if you make a mess, it doesn't matter much as it won't cause a short circuit or anything. Liquid metal is conductive though, and if you get a drop on the motherboard and you don't clean it up properly, you can cause a short circuit and fry the entire motherboard.

There's some debate about it, but generally it's either Gelid Extreme or IC Diamond. Note that IC Diamond can cause what looks like scratches on copper heatsinks. This doesn't affect the cooling capability, but is generally very noticeable. Personally, for that reason I've gone with Gelid Extreme, although had to order it internationally and it won't arrive for a couple of weeks.

 

I see, thanks

How about Arctic Silver?

I will get my AW17 unit next week the conclusion from this thread is that doing a repaste is mandatory, however i have no experience with it so i hope it wont be too difficult and wont take longer than a day.

 

There's nothing wrong per se with Arctic Silver, but it's basically been superceded these days. But if you've got some lying around and want to save a bit of money then it'll certainly be better than the stock paste.

Won't take longer than a day. Even if you're really taking your time to keep track of where everything was, and to apply the paste, shouldn't take more than a couple of hours.

I think my AW15 will arrive tomorrow, so I too plan to see what the temps are like before repasting. The Gelid Extreme I ordered will take at least a week to arrive, so it'll give the laptop a bit of settling time before I make the decision to repaste or not. At this stage I'm almost certainly going to do it, but if it maintains sub 70C then I might not. Seems unlikely based on most reports.

 

Very well said and explained. I'd like to add that there are reasons why people use certain pastes over the other. One is cost...they are all so close in price that it does not make sense to save a few bucks to opt for an inferior paste. Second, the pastes that a lot of us recommend are tested and proven by actual enthusiasts.

Below are the conductivity numbers for the top Liquid Metals and Traditional Paste:
(As we know the numbers don't mean everything, however, from all my tests done so far, Grizzly Conductonaut has always topped CLLU by an average of ~3C. Results may vary. However, because I am repasting, every drop in C's count. It could make all the difference in some scenarios. To each his own...)

Liquid Metals:
Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut - 73 W/mk
Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra - 38.4 W/mk
Coollaboratory Liquid Pro - 32.6 W/mk

Traditional Paste:
Gelid GC Extreme: 8.5 W/mk
Grizzly Kyronaut: 12.5 W/mk
ICD: 4.5 W/mk

For traditional paste, Gelid Extreme and/or Grizzly Kyronaut. If I had to choose...gosh blind fold me...despite the difference in numbers of Grizzly Kyronaut being higher, Gelid Extreme is still a fine paste. I'd try to get a hold of Grizzly Kyronaut as it is the newest product out designed for extreme overclocking and yea...has better numbers on paper. Does it back it up? Yes it does.

As for Arctic Silver, I wouldn't even bother with it. It's old news and there are much better and newer products out there...

 

Go with Gelid Extreme.
Day?? For you it will take a max of 1 hr. Unless you wanna worship it.

 

Whats your config ?

 

Whats your model 15 or 17?
And are you on the 6820? stock or OC?

 

So I repasted with some Arctic MX4 I picked up from a local store for $4 while I wait for my Kryonaut to arrive. I stress tested the processor (6820hk) for 15 minutes with OCCT and one of the cores hit 83, and the others topped at about 78. Typically they hovered around 58-60 though while I was watching. Is that good? The graphics card maxed at 68 while playing Overwatch on epic settings at 1080, which usually gets to 74 so that was cool!

Also is it bad to repaste again so quickly with the Kyronaut since I just repasted with MX4?

 

mx4 does not last very long, the paste dries up very quickly if you load the cpu and gpu a lot. I'd say maybe a good 2-3 months before the paste dry up and you need to replace it.

Kryonaut will last you around a year, and Conductonaut/CLLU should last 2+ years, longer even (don't open heatsink after you repaste).

 

I got AW 15. I got the Gelic thermal compound. What items/tools do I need ?

Also, what's the electric tape for?

 

You shouldn't need anything further. I believe it comes with a spatula for spreading but that's not typically recommended to do as it can cause air bubbles. Standard tools to get the laptop apart and then the pea method of applying thermal compound should be all you need. It's non conductive so you don't have to worry about shorting anything out when applying too much. Just make sure that once you press down you don't lift up for best results. Let it cure for a couple days and you should be seeing some lower temps.

Electrical tape I would assume would be for the conductive pastes and to avoid getting it on components.

 

I got my AW 15 R3 (i7 6700hq gtx1070) 3 days ago.
As most ppl in here the temps are crazy.. i see 80c just when installing programs and web browsing.. under easy gaming ( World of warcraft) i saw 94c ad the GPU is no ice block either.

Now i have 2 options.. 1 is to call dell and say WTF.. ( i can do this in Norway) or i can repast it..
Here in Norway i don't have the one you guys in the states recommend.. i could ofc buy it online, but it takes to long.
What i do have is Noctua NT-H1 paste.. is this a good option? =)

i love the hardware on the Alienware

 

Noctua is a good paste, you should see good results with it and definitely better than you are getting now.

 

15 R3
6700HQ
1070
2x8GB 2667
256GB + 1TB
120Hz 1080p

FWIW I also have a 1TB Intel 600P on order that should arrive today also.

 

What is your bios version?

 

It's the first one. since the beta one is for the 6820hk

 

It's the first one. since the beta one is for the 6820hk

 

This is weird, since the 6700HQ batch is not defective.
So you have to repaste, or get a technician to do it for you with Gelid Extreme / IC diamond.

 

Yeah I plan on repasting soon. And as much as I'd love to use Conductonaut the conductivity of it makes me nervous. Though the temperature decreases are incredible so I might think about it.

 

Consider my service if you're not confident in pasting yourself

 

Took me 2.5 hours to repaste LOL but im super careful with everything I do. Takes me 3x longer to work on my car as well than most people LOL

 

Which paste did u use?

 

IC Diamond. I got an average of about 12-15C decrease in max load temps. I can actually run my CPU at TRUE 4.1GHz (Clock/Cache) and keep it below 83 degrees. Above that and I got some BSOD tho - might need to play with some voltage modding next

I am tempted to get some Grizzly Kryonaut tho if the IC Diamond is performing well.... but I don't think temps is why I can't push past 4.1GHZ - so i need to figure that out first.

 

Use XTU and undervolt it, you will get better temps

 

65 during max load at 4.1GHz? Wow! What would you undervolt it to?

 

I'm talking 99% CPU Utilization not gaming (which stays around 65 already for me)

 

83 for IC diamond is good, u can get another -5 with undervolting.

 

AH which would allow me to push my GPU a little more since thier temps run slightly in tandem

 

true that

 

What's a good way to clean the old paste?

 

So I followed the guide and spent over an hour trying to get this guy taken apart but could not seem to pry the panel off from the motherboard. I also noticed with my wifi card that the black connector might actually be broken and was only connected because of the plastic connector.

Should I be worried? I was able to snap the white one back on and with the help of the plastic holder get the black one connected. I tested WiFi throughout my house and the connection seemed fine. Now is anyone located near the Washington DC area that might be able to lend me a hand? I have not had a chance to really game too much on here and everything seems to be running fine, but I would like to have that sense of security with a better paste job on my cpu and gpu.

 

I'm a fan of using the Articlean products but isopropol alcohol does the job just fine as well.

 

Whats a good tool to open up the laptop?

Sent from my E6853 using Tapatalk

 

I use ArctiClean as shown in one of the pictures in the OP. I also use rubbing alcohol...

So I use Formula #1 to soak, wipe it off, rubbing alcohol to continue cleaning then Formula #2 to finish / polish it squeaky clean.

 

I just wanted share that I decided not to repaste my unit, I'm returning it. Although iunlock certainly proved that the system hugely benefits from a repaste, I don't believe that this system performs like it should and it doesn't meet my requirement. I might rebuy the unit later on or I might try the 13 when it's released.

My eyes have certainly been opened and no matter what system I buy, there a huge probability that I will repaste it.

 

It's a shame you have had to do that It should of at least operated at a reasonable temp, seems like a bit of a lottery with the 15's right now.

I'm getting the 17 / 6700HQ so am hoping that I will have better luck heat wise.

Is it only the 6820's that really require re - pasting or will the 6700 benefit much? ..... anyone? thanks

 

All sorts of prosessors/graphics regardless from who, will benefit from re-pasting. None of the ODM / OEM deliver quality paste/proper application.

 

I don't really mind. I couldn't really choose between the 15 and 13. It's a Performance versus portability thing.

I choose performance, burned my fingers(literally). I get to try portability now.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

In the 17 inch the 6820 stays <85C at stock.

 

So i have a dell tech comming to switch out CPU and Motherboard on my 15 r3 and i asked if i could provide my own thermal paste they said that was fine. I have some artic mx-4 laying around is that fine or should i invest in something better?

Thanks

 

Junk!! ICD, Gelid Extreme or Grizzly Kryonaut. Other brand's thermal paste is wasted money And mx-4 is bad!!

 

Hey I have some Fujipoly .5mm pads on order, but my 17r4 showed up today. I want to repaste and install my SSD right now! Will the fujipoly pads make any difference or should I cancel them and crack this sucker open?

I have the 1440p/6700q model btw

 

its best to wait for the pads, but they wont make that much of a difference i guess.

 

Hi Guys,

Just received my AW 15 R3 with the 6700HQ.

Apart from the fact that the display has significant light bleed in all four corners of the screen, I am really disappointed with the temps as well. I am getting peak 95C on the CPU whilst playing overwatch as you can see bellow.........The cooling system is working overtime.....Do you guys think that this is a thermal paste issue?

*The system has not been OCed
*The GPU had a max temp of 70C which is way better than the CPU

 

Simply: yes