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

And don't forget to underclock 3bin ? Yeah, lower clocks → Less voltage → Less Powa →Less Heat

 

It should have been clear from the context I was being sarcastic, you already know I certainly don't condone lifting power limits for a few measly FPS, pushing the laptop into failure.

Ya'll been watching too many a them picture shows.




Chill and learn the *P*O*W*E*R* of Finesse.

Chasing the illusion of power through CPU / GPU excess wastes time you could be using to pursue far greater opportunities for enriching your life.

 

been playing bf1 3 hrs solid, hwmon says cpu temp max was 60 deg, ultra settings, .125mhz u/v, the aw 15 r3 1060 is a beast with a bit of TLC.

this guide is awesome props to iunlock

LM F T W

 

The picture of Kirk and Scotty makes this worth it for me.

 

Hey guys! So I just got a request from a friend here in India regarding fixing his core differential (>15 C) on the 6700K AW 15 R3 with gtx 1060, which he noticed after about 4 months of using his laptop. Mine didn't have such an issue so the repaste sufficed. I have tried repadding and repasting with Arctic pads & Kryonaut respectively on his piece; the temps definitely came down around 10 C, but the differentials exist. I have come to the conclusion that I may have to lap the heatsink and bend the north side of the tripod design (as mentioned in the core differential thread) manually.

So, if someone could please provide me some pointers regarding fixing of a warped/unbalanced heatsink by lapping:- like
1. what kind of surface to lap on,
2. how much pressure to apply,
3. orientation of HS while lapping,
4. how to handle weird shaped hs while lapping compared to traditional tower shaped hs on PCs,
5. Also what grit should I start and end at (800 - 1500 seem fine?).
@iunlock @Mobius 1 @hmscott @Papusan your inputs will be really helpful. Sadly, I'm unable to avail the great repaste services provided in the US .

Please, note that here in India warranty and return policies aren't like that in the U.S., so any kind of official repair by Dell is impossible without spending 100s of $.
Current temps after 1/2 hour dota-

 

One thing you can try is cut a thermal pad to the size of CPU and GPU dies and put them on the die. Afterwards, screw in the heatsink partially and press the HSF a little hard and you will an idea about surface imperfection on the pads like a stencil. From there, you can judge whether sanding is needed or not. I'd start with 800 grit 3m dry/wet one and sand or lap in either horizontal or vertical direction. At the max do the four to five time, do it more and you risk damaging the tiny heasink and the resulting temps would be worse. Start with small blob on gpu and smaller blob on CPU, afterwards apply a thin coat on GPU first and then the CPU (don't wipe the applicator).
After assembling everything, use ePSA to determine the current cpu,pch and gpu temps. Next is, undervolt the maximum you can 'cause that will reduce the temps by 5C-10C.
I hope @Papusan @iunlock @Mobius 1 would fill in extra details if I missed.

 

Why do it so complicated. Just put on pads as usual and put a very small amount of thermal paste (creamy, low viscosity paste) on both die's and tighten down. Open up again and see how the paste is spread(Look after how even the paste is on both die's). And I wouldn't used 800 grit. 1500 if needed and sand carefully in zero or eight shape. Sand both ways. And not too much. Put quality paste on the final application. Order some quality paste.
But this will not fix the underlying problem... The third leg. Need be fixed like this.

 

6700k in a laptop

my multipliers are different and i have hotter cores starting with 0 which has a x38 mp and the coldest is 3 which is x35, as far as i know it cannot be changed (i have 6700hq), im not pc expert but thats my thought.

 

Kryonaut is very expensive in India, so why waste precious paste? In my lastest repaste, I did use your method though.

 

Buy expencive computers (+$1500) and save cash on thermal paste... Not what I would recommend.

 

I meant 6700Hq...

 

I already have Grizzly Conductonaut LM here, would you advice against using LM on such a HS even after I rebalance the HS the best I can; using the methods you guys mentioned above? @Papusan @Vasudev
I do have some sacrificial Artic silver 5 for knowing the HS balancing.

 

Hahaa. I didn't mean it, uhm.. I paid almost double close to $2700 with AMP and mouse and everything Alieny. TG K costs 38$ for 1g of paste. So, a 13$ paste from CM MG Nano sounds fair price to me.

 

I would be sure HS is in good condition before I used Liquid metal.
Use what you have, but don't use your best thermal paste for testing. Wasted money. Remember creamy toothpaste work well for this type testing

 

AS 5 sounds good to me. LM on your friend's laptop, I don't recommend it. If the CPU hits 90 plus temps, then putting on TGK will reduce that by 5-7C.
Test using AS5 to get the HSF balancing to be perfect, then apply TGK.

 

I can only find Grizzly Hydronaut here (VietNam). Is it still good as I will bought some headsink, thermal pad, copper pad and new paste to do some mod and repaste my machine.

 

refer this guide http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...nd-apply-traditional-and-liquid-metal.806840/

 

Thanks for the guide. So you prefer Kyronaut, Gelid extreme and Phobya. I found 1 place that may have all 3 of them and everything I need for a good price.

 

Scroll down a bit to see rest of the paste. I didn't choose Kryonaut but instead chose CM Maker Gel Nano.

 

So why don't you choose Kryonaut but CM Maker instead?

 

$$$$$

 

Refer previous post by @Papusan
Yes it was expensive to tell you truth. Simply I can't pay $38 (imported to India) so not a nice investment.

 

I get it now. 12$/1g for Kryonaut or 15$/4g for CM mastergel Master. Which one shoud I get?

 

Kryonaut.

 

Their performance would be similar, I'd say Kryonaut would be 1c cooler than CM mastergel Nano. Don't confuse Mastergel Nano with standard Mastergel. The paste in that thread is CM Mastergel Maker Nano and others

 

It's Mastergel Maker Nano. But I think I will try Kryonaut. I'm not going to repaste right away as I will do pch mod and wait for a new dc cable to make sure that throttle comes from those and not the cpu itself.
I used mx4 before and now running on stock paste from Dell. Not see any difference between them.

 

mx4 and dell paste performs similar on laptops. mx4 is somewhat better on desktop cpu than stock paste.
Kryonaut is better or Phobya is the best paste money can buy for reduction in temps by 2C than kryonaut.

 

Looks similar make up as ICD, how does it compare in application / results?

MasterGel Maker

• Ultra-high CPU/GPU conductivity (11 W/m.k)
• NanoDiamond particles maintains through a wide range of temperatures
• Excellent viscosity makes it easy to spread or remove without cracking or drying out

http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/thermal-compound/mastergel-maker/

Cooler Master MasterGel Maker Nano Review
https://www.eteknix.com/cooler-master-mastergel-maker-nano-review/

"Q: Do the nano-diamond particles leave scratches on the cooler base or CPU IHS? A: No, the particles in the MasterGel Maker are too small to leave any scratches. "

 

Here the link for my recent repaste of 15 r2 6700 HQ/ 980M *OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge
Though it can't be compared to @iunlock work but my max effort as a result of my super OCD. Ambient was around 30C. I think with 25C ambient the cpu and gpu temps will be better.
Also wrote some CPU stress test app (Thanks to @sagarbhathwar for his inputs) that can really stress out CPU and can judge undervolt stability(really quick if the undervolt is stable; within a minute you can find that). So far, it runs in console mode and switching to GUI with some graphs will add another 5-10C of heat on CPU. @hmscott if you're interested I'll give you the code, actual calculation code is only 4-6 lines. You will Visual Studio 2015 and above along with Eigen addon. I do have it packaged as a MSI installer as well, size is under 500 KB.

 

Don't be lured by inferior products touted by sellers/manufacturers or their affiliates to generate a premium purchase price.

1) Most important fact about repaste is the application not the type of thermal material.
Products are often touted to be the best but in fact it's nowhere near in actual performance, ie think Thermal Grissly as "Snake-Oil".
Some products are not advisable for usage due to difficulties in removal when another repaste is required, ie Liquid Metals.
I've used MX2, MX3, MX4, Artic Silver 5, Shin-Etsu X23-7783D, Kryonaut, Gelid GC-Extreme, IC Diamond........at the end of the day, I settled at using Noctua NT-H1 due to ease of application, longevity and Noctua's product quality (compare a Noctua fan to any other fans on the market and you'll understand but do compare them yourselves rather than read reviews).

2) Thermal Pad like thermal paste are also touted so the sellers and manufacturers can maintain their high value purchase price, ie think "Scam". Fujipoly SARCON XR @17W/mK, Alphacool XR @17W/mK and also Gelid GP Extreme @12W/mK are NOT suitable to fill the 'gaps' as they are far too dense/hard/stiff/difficult to compress. These high-end thermal pads are used for the CPU or GPU die only. They are not suitable for multipurpose use as they will create different levels of contact and in the worst scenario, leave some part with no contact at all (the reason why they measured the thickness of required thermal pads).......BUT these heat-sinks may have different depths of gaps therefore the best solution is to use very soft/easily compressed thermal pads to ensure all have full contact with the heatsink.
The 17W/mK is like an overkill, it is not necessary as anything slightly better than standard 1½-2½ W/mK pads will suffice, having contact is by far most important.
Using a SILICONE based thermal pad ie. Artic Cooling ACTPD00005A (145 x 145 x 1.0mm) is much more appropriate in this instance.
This one package will suffice to do the AW15 R3 twice over, for 0.5mm just roll a thinner piece and if require >1mm then roll a thin piece and overlay onto 1mm.

http://ebay.eu/2xB7UYy

NB. I do NOT have any affiliation with Noctua or the ebay Seller.
I did use Noctua and I did purchase from that ebay Artic Cool Listing (after repadding with Gelid pads then repadded again with Fujipoly.
I did not use Alphacool 17W/mK because it's basically same as Fujipoly so it's a waste of time and money.
I settled with Artic Cooling Silicone Thermal Pads, Noctual NT-H1 Thermal Paste.

Your mileage may vary but this is the solution which worked for me.
I'm content with the heat dispersion of my AW 15 R3 i7-7820 GTX-1070............for now.

 

NT-H1 isn't a bad paste, although it looks like there might have been a bad batch recently because I've seen multiple reports of people having horrible temperatures despite having good application and fixing the issue when they switched to a new tube of paste, although I've generally found that Kryonaut gives better results.

 

I would only use LM on a laptop if you use nailpolish or kapton tape to fully cover the SMDs (surface mounted stuff all around some of the chips), or 3 coats of nail polish to cover them, and THEN use a highly compressible foam (it must be highly compressible) dam around the silicon, with a cutout (with a few mm to spare) so the slug can fit inside it, without the foam touching the edge (you don't want the foam to come into contact with the LM on the slug, so it winds up blocking the heatsink or absorbing LM on the slug--make sure you allow a few mm of clearance).

Look at Mr Fox's posts about that. The foam is to give you FREE INSURANCE so that LM doesn't somehow escape off the chip or heatsink and start sliding around. If any LM touches anything on the GPU or mainboard, you will have a conductive ball of doom shorting out stuff and moving around.

IMO the foam dam should be used even on good fitting heatsinks like on Clevos and MSI Titans, but be very careful using this stuff on alienware heatsinks.

 

So I ordered a new heatsink from Singapore evidently the 2017 model. So put it on just to put back to stock so I can complain again to dell. ? For iunlock or anybody else is this normal? Looks like a huge gap. Where they have that super thin thermal white tape

 

Maybe it needs a couple of 1mm thermal pads which are soft like arctic. I reckon the system is barely usable with horrendous core differential temps and overheating.
That's a huge air gap, you could apply some pads directly on the MOSFET.

 

Can you replace the thick pads? That will lower the HS so the thin tape touches the chokes. But I would ask the boss here since he has a lot of exp with these machines.

 

Yeah im hoping iunlock chimes in on this

It is strange if this is dells fix the 2017 heatsink that knowing that one is lower than the rest that it doesn't even come close to touching. Also found a few pads that are loose after applying the new heat sink so might try to put some kryonaut on those to see if that helps

 

what is your heatsink assembly part number? can you take a picture and show us? it's a small square sticker with DP/N on it

 

Where do you get the materials for the PCH mod? I'm assuming that the AW 1070 section applies to the AW15 R3 as well.

Also, if anything, how does iunlock's service work? It might be better if I ask him instead of doing it myself, but I'm pretty much open to ideas.

 

Search for aluminum vrm heatsink or copper shim on amazon.

Aluminum heatsink
https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-20mm-...8&qid=1507062460&sr=1-7&keywords=vrm+heatsink

Copper heatsink
https://www.amazon.com/Chipset-Ther...F8&qid=1507062420&sr=8-2&keywords=copper+shim

Then you can either use a thermal pad or thermal paste to stick it on
https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-Therm...F8&qid=1507062559&sr=1-3&keywords=thermal+pad

Heres the electric tape everyone uses
https://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Super...=UTF8&qid=1507062632&sr=8-3&keywords=super+33

 

Thanks for these! I have a few more questions though.

1) I kinda remember people filing or cutting the aluminum heatsink. Is that going to be a must for this mod, or can I just buy it then use it as is?

2) I also remember some people talking about copper being better, but @iunlock's post has since been updated with him using aluminum instead. Is aluminum the best option?

3) Similarly, is the Arctic the best choice for it? @iunlock's latest PCH mod was using glue (which brand?) and just the electrical tape.

4) Where's the best place to buy the Fujipoly thermal pads? They seem to be overpriced ($50+) on Amazon Canada.

I've been meaning to do all the mods/LM repasting from the guide. I apologize if I'm asking too specific questions. I just want to be shown how to do things exactly to prevent any mishaps. So far, the updated post is amazing, and I'm just missing out on the finer details of the PCH heatsink mod.

 

You have to cut aluminum\ so that it fits.

Copper is easier since you don't have to cut anything. Temps aren't that different.

 

That's why I was wondering because @judal57 filed/cut his (as seen in this thread), but @iunlock's recent update seemed like the normal one from Amazon. They look different because the other one had several parts of it filed/cut. What's the suggested thickness if it were to be filed/cut?

EDIT: I just remember someone else's thread which touches mostly the same stuff in this thread, but it's more focused on asking how to do it properly for the AW15 R3s.

 

The CPU have bulge issues and the heatsink was badly designed , there's no helping no matter the effort from Dell support in attempts to fix the core differential issue, the CPU side have imbalanced screw points, it needs 4 but only have 3.
Judging by the heatpipes, it may be better to utilize two separate heatsinks, one for the CPU and one for the GPU. Heat travelling in opposite directions is never good and that one pipe (at screw points 2, 3, 4, 6) extend from the GPU passes CPU makes it worst, thermal dynamics.
Maybe Dell could test out the solution of 2 separate heatsinks, simply by crimping (seal), cutting (separate and solder the ends) the heatsink into two.
Just crimping the heatsink without separation may not work as well due to the heat will still transfer between GPU to CPU and vice versa.

 

Yeah, I’ve seen the pictures of it. It’s really a huge blunder on their part to continue working on it. It’s a reason why I want the exact details/instructions of the people who made the mods for their units. I mean, that’s about the only thing we can do at this point.

EDIT: I've been trying to find where I can buy Fuijipoly thermal pads in Canada, and it's a bit hard. I'm looking into a website called "FrozenCPU.com" right now, and they also have the heatsinks. Can anyone give the exact measurements of the heatsinks they used? Buying the Thermal Grizzly LM is hard as well for Canada.

EDIT 2: They're out of stock for the thermal pads. *sigh*

 

My first repaste using Noctua NT-H1 Pro + Fujipoly pads resulting both decrease and increase in different core temps.
Second repaste with Noctia paste + Artic Cooling silicon pads (soft/pliable) approximately 10°, stated I was content..for now.
I being me, I was not happy with 11° core differentials, so........I took it apart again.
Third repaste with Noctua paste + Artic pads + [marked the bold patches on heatsink copper plates, emery paper then polished] resulting maximum OCCTPT core temps running at stock speed dropping to..... Core #0 78° | #1 68° | #2 77° | #3 64° | GPU 38°. This id down from the first reading from factory of 98° 77° 93° 72° | 43

Very happy with the temperature but the differentials is still nagging. I may take it apart and lap the heatsink a little more in attempt to couple the CPU die and heatsink plate more 'flat'.
GPU is perfect, no issues...

Fujipoly may be very good but as it's stiff, I found silicon based thermal pads to be more appropriate for this application.
I found Fujipoly to crumble when I removed it.

After reading through, I formed suspicion that a few people are milking these issues by using fear tactics to promote a repaste service so be wary of newly registered members who are touting this, that and the other.
As it's under warranty, I have great faith in Dell to fix these issues but they require time so why the necessity to pay more cash to a third party for repair/repaste ?

I do not work for Dell or have any affiliation with any company mentioned.
I do not service, repair or repaste anyone else's laptops.

 

Just buy the copper since its much easier. Grab whatever thermal pad is cheapest, for a mod such as this the difference will be negligible.Can't help you with the canadian pricing

 

What's the specific dimension for it? Also, what kind of specific tools do I need to file/cut it if ever?

EDIT: Also, will the Scotch 33+ be better for the CPU or a Kapton tape (thinner one that’s been recommended to me in a different thread)?

 

Looks like I'm the master at reanimating old issues (AW15R3 with uneven heatsink). After running ICD with relative success for about 1.5 months (thanks for the suggestion!) I was finally able to get my hands on some Phobya Nano, and I must say this stuff really worked like a charm for the CPU, temps have dropped significantly and are now within 5 degrees between cores. But now there's a new thing - GPU temps under heavy load get to 89-92. Unscrewed and reapplied but the temps remain the same. Any suggestions? @Mobius 1 @Papusan

edit: 1070 slightly OC'd, didn't go over 87 with ICD, and since CPU temps went way down with Phobya I was kinda expecting the same for the GPU instead of an increase

 

Don't expect same results for cpu vs. Gpu. Cpu is harder to cool. Maybe use ICD for gpu. Or re-paste and test again. Aka Phobya for cpu and Icd for gpu.

 

Thats exactly my point, if CPU is harder to cool its surprising that with the same paste (and application) GPU temps went up while CPU went down. Actually Im testing right now and it appears that GPU only stays around 90c because it starts to cut the clock down more and more once it reaches that temperature. Something definitely isn't right?