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

You can use 3000 grit on the chip. I've done it many times. Just put the alcohol on there and start stroking. Eventually you will see some nice black liquid coming up which is the hardened stuff.
3000 grit is polishing paper. Very useful for this stuff. It's the lower grits you don't want to put on the CPU.

 

What if using the 3000 grit on the chip starts to from micro scratches? Is that okay or is that sign I should stop?

 

Won't be a problem. Microscratches won't do anything. My GPU was filled with them.
Should only take a few strokes anyway. You are using 91% or better alcohol right? Alcohol helps greatly with keeping things even.

 

Oh okay then, I saw them and freaked out. I'm just using ArctiClean, I think solution number 2 is just rubbing alcohol. I used 2500 followed by 3000 grit on the heat sinks which worked well, they are nice and smooth now. Just trying to get the chips spotless at the moment.

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I'm sleepy and keep forgetting you have arcticlean.
GPU's look nice.
For the CPU just give it some vigorous rubs until the black oxidized LM comes off. I usually use about 10 finger strokes (with alcohol). Then once the LM comes off, then give it a wiping with a regular cloth.

 

I didn’t think LM would dry and bake into CPU or GPU like this. I was under the assumption that once applied this material doesn’t dry at all. Based on these pics I will stay with the Kyronaut.

 

All types thermal paste and even Liquid metal will dry out with awful heatsink fits on die. Doomed to fail.

@PandahNZ Why put this much Liquid metal on Cpu heatsink? Near 100% of the LM is outside where the die will meet the heatsink coldplate.

 

I didn't initially put it there, that's just where it ended up when I took it apart unfortunately!

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Liquid metal isn't a metal. It's an alloy. It's an alloy of Gallium, tin and iridium or indium or whatever it's called (sometimes a few other components).
All of the individual metals in liquid metal will turn into a solid at room temperature. The melting point for each item is higher than normal room temperature.
Adding gallium to the components causes the melting point of all of the items to *lower* to between 8C to -13C (google this to understand; it's a property when two metals combined together have a lower melting point than each metal by themselves).

When gallium gets absorbed into copper ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-compatibility-with-copper-heat-sinks.800890/ ), the remaining materials no longer can remain liquid at room temperature and they harden up, causing uneven core temps. After a certain amount of gallium gets absorbed into copper, if it's left there (but the hardened layer removed), the battery differential effect gets lower on the Ga-Cu alloy vs new liquid metal, which reduces absorption of newly applied LM.

The presence of oxygen greatly accelerates this "battery effect", as well as the presence of high heat. Temperatures over 80C will increase the battery effect of absorption of the gallium. Combine high temps with low contact pressure and oxygen, and the absorption can happen in a matter of hours, rather than days or weeks.

Thats why it's important to have even, solid pressure, combined with an good seal.

I also would not use a super thin layer of LM also, as using too little leaves not enough LM to compensate for the GA-CU absorption effect even with an good airtight seal and good pressure. It's better to use -slightly- more than you think you need than to use far too little on these weak heatsinks, but you have to make sure the pressure is good and even and use foam dams and insurance protection.

You never see this on IHS delids because Nickel->gallium has only like a -.13 differential or something and there are no air gaps.

 

If he "tinned" the copper heatsink with liquid metal that's perfectly normal and expected. In fact you're supposed to tin the heatsink with LM (for one thing that helps start the battery effect sooner when you massage it in). It's even recommended to tin the backside of the IHS when doing delids with liquid metal. People on OCN tested applying LM with a delid with and without painting the IHS backside first. Painting the IHS gave between 1-3C lower core temps. It could also very well have to do with offsetting balance issues with the LM not being completely evenly spread, but I'm a gamer, not a metallurgist.

HOWEVER if he did tin it, it shouldn't be spread out in that pattern. You should try to only tin in the shape and size of the CPU or GPU without going too far out (1-2mm extra is okay).

And the right amount of LM to apply is to make sure the entire surface is spread and coated evenly, with no gaps in the coating. Gaps in the coating can cause hot spots. The trick is to apply the right amount. Not too little (too little leaves no room for gallium absorption) and not too much. It is better to apply very -slightly- more than needed than to apply far too little. One trick is to just use any excess on the CPU to tin the heatsink

That being said, best to use foam dams when tinning the heatsink anyway.

 

I know all this. My reaction came because of... I looks like he spread it out over the whole cold plate. It shouldn't look like this mess. Even if he only removed the Heatsink from the die (more Lm outside vs. where the die hit HS).

 

Let's ask him and see what he did. I see an even 'square' pattern, even though he has a rectangular CPU, so it looks like he spread it out in a square shape. We'll find out.
@PandahNZ ?

 

I just spread what left over on the brush into the heat sink, the same as what iunlock did in the guide. It wasn't initially as big but when I pulled it apart all the LM had spread out over the heat sink.

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It definitely should not spread any more than what the original "tinning" layer you did. Anyway next time, just paint a layer in the shape of the CPU BGA right on the heatsink instead of dong it as a square. The square is for the GPU. You don't want LM to be outside of the CPU contact area in general, on the heatsink.

When you get the thermal pad thickness sorted out and everything reapplied, try that.

 

Okay will do! Still trying to get these little specs of hardened LM off the CPU chip but nothing seems to be working and I don't want to use the 3000 grit too much.

Edit: I think this is the best I can get the chip, still a couple specs on north side but they don't wana go.

 

Initially I thought it was traditional thermal paste as it was all over the place..

From my experience Gelid is 3 degree Celcius better..

 

@PandahNZ why are you so afraid of your CPU?
Just put some alcohol on the 3000 grit sandpaper and sand those specs off!
It will NOT damage the CPU.
If you've seen what I've done to my own BGAbook, you would think these things could get hit by a truck and survive.
Just do it.

Only leave the specs there if its nice and smooth. If it's fully smooth then its cosmetic.
if it's hardened (meaning you can feel it), put some elbow grease on your finger and rub it off. It just takes a few strokes.
I dont know about arcticlean but I use 91% and it does the job.

 

Alright I did it!! No more specs - now to start rebalancing!

 

A few ways to clean old Liquid metal.
5% HCL(Acid) Works wonders as well. But as long the surface area is even and flat after cleaning just let it be. Although you can see marks after old LM.

Grizzly Kryonaut ain’t a good choice if the heatsink fits is bad.

 

I have the alienware 17 r3.. core difference between gelid and kryonaut is 2 to 3 degree celcius.. My gelid core temps doesnt reach 70 degree celcius always 67 or 68.. for kryonaut is 69 to 71.. I really didn't buy the kyronaut thermal paste.. It was from my cousin and I just wanted to try and tested it.. From my results gelid wins.. ^_^

 

Alright I rebalanced and used softer Arctic pads around the CPU, did a trial run and seems like a good spread. Have now repaste with LM, only used one drop and it did both chips plus the heat sinks, it goes a lot further when there is already a layer on the heat sinks.

Do you think there's too much on the gpu?

Fingers crossed it all turns back on!

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Post the core temps from 5 consecutive nonstop runs of cinebench R15 (don't let the CPU cool down),or, a 5 minute run of prime95 (latest version): disable AVX and FMA3 first:

open local.txt file in the prime95 folder
add the following lines to the top:

CPUSupportsAVX=0
CPUSupportsFMA3=0

Then run a stress test custom test of 1344K FFT size, checkbox FFT's in place for 5 minutes then post a screenshot of the cpu temps.

 

Just ran some benchmarks (all with an undervolt of -0.13V and rear of laptop raised by about an inch):

Prime95 (using specs you said above):


Fire Strike (Gave score of about 14k - does this seem a bit low?)


Time Spy


Unigine Heaven


I know these temps aren't all within 1-2 degC and possibly still a little high for LM but I'm pretty happy considering I had 30degC differential and Core 0 was hitting 100degC..

Thanks again for all the help!

 

Happy with these results.
Do another test in 1 month and post your temps. If they are the same (with same ambients) then you should be good for the next year.
@judal57 had no change in temps (in fact he had a very slight reduction) after 1 year of the same LM.

 

Hey, what pads did you use? (what are the most important ones)
I am from Brazil so no Amazon for me, i need to buy them from China (Aliexpress site)
I have to repaste my 15r3 again and i think its time to chance the pads....
So i saw your post and i got encouraged...

Searching Aliexpress for the pad and i found this, is it this right? how many do i need?

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...9ac4-423f-9f13-ec6b6bc6a528&priceBeautifyAB=0

 

Guys do you know how to reduce the temperatures from the HD part of the laptop?

I was playing KCD this weekend and the hd part (the middle part abore the mouse pad) got EXTREMLY hot.
I plan on repasting at the end of the month so i need to order some new pads also...
Is there a way to reduce the HD temperatures (i am using SSD with 1TB HD)? if so, what do i need? Can i buy the materials from China (aliexpress)?

Thanks for the help.

 

Those are GP Gelid Extreme pads, 0.5mm and 1.0 mm are fine for the VRAM modules and most of GPU's Chokes and VRM.
For CPU Chokes and VRM i suggest using 0.15mm thermal adhesive, squished 0.5 gelid pads, thermal grease like K5 Pro or else thermal past.
I bought them from ebay UK.


For the 1To SSD Nmve cooling, I suggest this Topic :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/chinese-heatsink-for-nvme-drive.813448/

 

i cant find 0.15mm thermal pads to buy....

 

What about one of the other options @leeloyd mentioned?

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is this any good?
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...d2a7-44eb-92eb-0beb0ae7c055&priceBeautifyAB=0

also, i have a 7700hq should i use LM this time? I used thermal gryzly kryonaught paste before, it lasted a year (more or less).

 

Sorry I'm not too sure about that product nor aliexpress in general. If you were happy with Kryonaut temps then I'd recommend sticking with that - if you think your laptop still ran too hot then consider liquid metal but is much higher risk.

 

If you mean the spot next to the left arrow key and between the spacebar and trackpad, thats not the HDD/SSD thats heating up that spot but the laptop power section and PCH controller.

 

Gentlemen,

Hello. 17R4 1080GTX 7820hk owner here. I have repasted a few times and have changed the thermal pads as per OP but seems I suffer from differentials.

I am overclocked at 4.1ghz with an undervolt at 0.090V core voltage offset at time being and my temps while playing pubg go around 85 degrees which isn't that bad consider pubg is very demanding.

I want to repaste and repad as I am certain that my heatsink is not balanced yet. I don't take the whole motherboard out, I just unscrew the top of the fans and take the top of the heatsink on, repaste/ repad and then put everything back together.

Four questions.

1) Can someone advise how do I check on the balancing of the heatsink? Shall I put a dot of thermal paste, screw it and then unscrew again to see how is the spread? Also, I have extra thermal pad that I could use to see the "marks" on them, but unsure on what the technique would be.
2) How do you bend the single tension arm and make sure it doesnt break? I tried putting some force but not sure if it bended much.
3) Are the thermal pads thicknesses in the OP the go-to solution? Has anyone found success with different thicknesses? I have read a few posts where people used GC Gelid extreme pads and they say they can be a lot more adaptable/squeezed to accommodate the balancing (i have the arctic thermal pads).
4) Is there an optimal way of screwing down the heatsink for better balancing? People are mentioning different order of screwing the heatsink down. Does this actual make a difference? Do the 4 screws across the gpu, affect the heatsink pressure/ fit around the cpu?

I thought of putting a bit more of thermal paste to compensate for the imbalancing, hoping that will cover the cores that are not well covered from the heatsink (as the paste will spread towards the area that is less pressured by the heatsink), however, I don't wanna go excessive and just want to sort it out, as I would like to move into LM in the future.

Thank you in advance.

 

The dot of thermal paste is the only way you can dry test spreading without proper testing. It has helped users in the MSI thread with their convex heatsinks and knowing how to sand the heatsinks down.

If you can afford it, invest in some contact pressure paper, which will give you a lot more information.

https://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Cooling-Contact-Analysis-Heatsink/dp/B07CKHRKHQ/

 

Ok, i Will look for a PCH mod, it was getting reeeeally hot.


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Thank you for this. Any idea where I could find this in europe or any other alternative? I tried searching for the term paper pressured film etc., to no avail.

 

It wont help, its mostly the power circuit there that is heating up that area. The pch is underneat the spacebar, the power circuit is next to it between thr pch an the left arrow button.

 

I repasted my A17 with 7820HK and GTX 1080 using liquid metal, but my gpu is no where near what OP has.
Under load, and after gaming for about an hour my gpu still gets up to 74/75 C.

Before my CPU would reach up to mid' 90s, and the GPU would have an average of 90, and go up to 92C. So definitely an improvement, but how do I get the gpu/cpu down to mid 50's or 60's?
I'm confused on how some people have better temps on their gpu than I do without even having to do a repaste.

 

Have you tried undervolting gpu and raising the rear of your laptop?

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My laptop is lifted a couple inches from the rear.
Have not tried undervolting the GPU yet, would that reduce the performance of the GPU?

 

Nah it's same as undervolting CPU, just runs same but at lower voltage

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You can't get a GTX 1080 to run at mid 50's or 60's. That's not possible even on a Clevo or MSIbook (200W). A GTX 1070, yes, that's possible. Not a 1080.
People with *desktop* cards have problems getting temps that low on air cooling.

 

I am using XTU to undervolted CPU voltage by -130MV and it has dropped the CPU temps. I used XTU to undervolt GPU by -120mv but it doesn’t seen to drop the temps. I am still seeing the same max temps of 79-80 with or without undervolt? Any ideas why or am I using the wrong software to undervolt the GPU

 

Try adjusting the curve in msi afterburner

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Can I use intel to undervolt the CPU And then use MSI for GPU?

 

Yup that's what I do! Would be good to know if anybody does it all on one bit of software though.

 

I am using “that old guys” power shell method to undervolt CPU with XTU to make the undervolt always stick without me having to manually run it. I am wondering if MSI after you make the changes to undervolt GPU, will it be permanent and no need to run it every time you log on.

 

With XTU it is impossible to undervolt the geforce gpu. You are undervolting the intel gpu with XTU.

 

Yeh you just save the profile to one of the 5 numbers and can set it up to always load that profile when windows starts up.

 

So I just made an account to ask some questions:

My laptop is the one with an i7 7820hk & a GTX 1070.

Do I have to get thermal pads exactly of the thickness specified in the OP or can I use thicker ones? Specifically the ones linked below

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZSJQUT8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A15YNZR7YB053N&psc=1

I ask because the OP mentions, the thicker, the better. So I'm not sure. I'd rather ask before wasting money on Amazon.

Also, I'm not really getting good results with Kryonaut, still hitting 94°C and thermal throttling. I didn't do a repadding, honestly, but I should be getting better results, right?

So I ask: Exactly HOW MUCH thermal paste should I put on the CPU & GPU? It's way different to do this on a laptop than on a desktop CPU, so I'd rather be sure.

EDIT: Is the PCH mod absolutely necessary? If so, which heatsink from Amazon should I get? I'm having a hard time finding one that fits.