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

Frank Azor has talked about liquid metal and its uses before; it does not void the warranty however any damage resulting from its application is obviously not covered (leaks or spills). 80 degrees is fantastic for gaming and you don't need to worry about it. Mine goes to 93 and I'm not too worried (same specs as you) as before repasting and repadding it was getting PROCHOT at 100 degrees. You will need to clean the vents by taking apart the fan. I have a cat so I need to do it every few months but that's just part of it. Welcome to the Alienware club!

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Thank you very much! I'm just not used to seeing such high temps and I get choppiness and stutter. The laptop is tank but the temps make me uneasy. Also I've seen results of psopeo getting 85-90 degrees on a max synthetic load not just 50% in a match of pubg.

 

Ya synthetic loads don't really do anything. I go up to 93 Degrees on gaming in Black Ops 4, PUBG and Destiny 2. If you're getting microstuttering you might wanna look at the PCH mod (I have a strip of thermal tape running from the PCH to the heat pipes but other people have put a copper shim or shaved down a copper heatsink). That might rectify any stuttering.

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I try it here too...


Good morning all.
i own a 17 R5 with I7 8750h and 1070 placed on my Cooler Master NotePal U3 for 19"
so the back side is raised.
I use the re paste guide 5 times - with and without remove the MB - the last time without - all
time with WLP and also undervolt. Max temperature spike - playing FC5 - 81°
Here my question.
Knows someone the position of the Core inside the CPU?
My temperature on 0/2/4 are ~12° higher than 1/3/5
Looks like the HS tip to one side!?
Also i bolted - slowly in circle - first the CPU (4 5 6 7) and after the GPU (123)

Is it safe to use liquid because the Laptop is always angled?

Thank and regards,
Frank

 

Its not a good idea to use liquid metal if you have such a big core inbalance. You need to rectify that first.

 

0,2,4 are closest to the screen. You need to balance thermal pads. I had (only) success with Gelid pads. If you need details please let me know.

I used to have 10c higher temperatures on cores 0 and 2. Now it is pure 0. And I used LM. Max. temperatures on processor are now 70 C compared to 85-95 when I received it new.

 

Hi c69k,
thank you for this info.
My temp on stock hit the 99c

I order Gelid - 1mm and 0,5mm 80x40 - now.

Do you have a special method to measure the right pad thickness ?
I'm not sure if i can use the pad thickness from the guide here?!
I will first try with WLP - if i solve this issue i will re paste again with LM
and remove my NotePal.

Thanks and a good start into the week,
Frank

 

You have to measure yourself. Each heatsink revision is different. You have to check the current indentations. And if they are very deep, you can check if thinner pads make contact.

 

Hi,

just to add to what @rinneh (thanx) correctly said, right after assembly, I would give Gelid pads maximum load during first 24 hours (to reach maximum possible temperature), so they would adjust if a bit too thick (they get very soft under heat). Also, the pressure arms produce the strongest pressure, I believe, right after re-pad or re-paste.

If you are not happy with the results right away, give it 24 hours to adjust. I hope all goes well. For the processor side, during re-pad itself you can also try to flatten the pads by pressure, however I found out that heat takes care of it if pads are heated-up right-away.

Check post #7949:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...3-owners-lounge.797884/page-795#post-10816754

Now it is January 2019 and my last re-pad/re-paste was August 5. Temperatures are still same, no core differences at all.

Going a bit thicker on pads is okey with Gelids from my experience, but this was only the case with Liquid Metal. Gelids do not 'fire back' or are not elastic, so by heating up and pressure you only get progressively better die vs. heat-sink contact.

As @rinneh said previously and very correctly in another post, when disassembling heat-sink with Gelids already applied, it is good to have completely cooled down laptop (say 5 hours off), so Gelids do not break when removing heat-sink.

If you have any more questions just ask.

 

Well I've repasted before, never did I repad. Figured I would as I was hitting 98*C gaming on Black Ops 4. Recently did just that, cleaned my fans out from fur and dust, and sure enough... still hitting those temperatures... yay. Don't know what they did in the most recent BIOS but updating to that, and turning off SpeedShift in ThrottleStop and now I was maxing out, not averaging, 71*C. I thought, 'this can't be right...' so I played around with some OC on both CPU and GPU. After playing a bit on Black Ops 4 with the OC's and max temp of 76*C, great framerate, Firestrike score of over 14K, and 5*C core differential. I'll take it!

 

When you use Speedshift 0 cpu clocks will be at MAX. Use 80 and disable speedstep.

 

Tried that and was getting 89*C in Black Ops 4 instead of the 76*C I was getting with solely SpeedStep. Wasn't getting any better performance either so I'm going with the fact that SpeedShift is unnecessary and merely increases temperatures. Windows apparently does a better job at regulating frequency than the Kaby Lake chip itself (again, my chip anyway as not all chips are created equal).

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Maybe try 128 which is the default value Win 10 chooses in balanced mode.

 

Stop suggesting crippled mode. 0 or better say Zero. If the cooling can’t handle it fix the underlying flaws. Not hide them.

 

Nothing much I can do if the CPU is too hot to handle!

 

If I can remain in performance mode with SpeedStep why would I use SpeedShift at all? It doesn't benefit me at all and, in fact, would hinder my performance when I can get good temperatures while gaming using only SpeedStep.

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Speedstep is slow, inefficient and depends on OS p-state driver to ramp up or down clocks on demand.
Win 10 uses Speedshift too.

 

I doubt that first statement if I am seeing the same results (fps counter) with both options.

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In terms of frame time or frame per sec? If its the second there's no difference at all. If its frame time there's noticeable difference during gameplay!

 

You seem to be right. Same fps but more dips and longer frame time. It does feel smoother too. Guess I will deal with 89. I mean that's not terrible at all but I liked the max of 76 lol
Also, with the same settings, 3D Mark was actually getting over 15K on SpeedShift instead of 14K on SpeedStep (looked like it was maxing at 3.5GHz for some reason)

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Thank you so much for this guide! I have repasted my Alienware 17 R1 with Conductonaut last weekend with amazing results! Cannot say thank you enough! It got my laptop out of a deep performance hole..

One thing which might be obvious to you but wasn't for me: it's nowhere mentioned that the tape is supposed to stay inside the machine after all is done. In the first place I thought it's only protective for the moment. So maybe add this piece of info to the guide and that this is because it is required to have certain and decend tape with proper temp resistance! Cause I have had cheap electrical tape at home and wanted to use it and remove it after the fact. Then I realized that Conductonaut is conductive and that the tape has to remain inside the machine.

Edit: temps dropped about 20 - 25 degrees on the CPU. The machine is now more quiet even under full CPU load. Did OCCT Full Test and after 10 minutes the CPU package leveled at about 69°C.

 

Hi guys, I going to be doing a repaste this week and just wanted to confirm what size pads I need for 1080 6820 version? And also what’s the best way to make sure the heat sync is level? Thank you

 

Just wanted to chime in with my update. I have a 17R5 that I got from the outlet (you'll see why that's potentially relevant in a bit) that has been terrible heat/throttling wise since I got it.I had 12 degree or higher core differentials (one core was drastically hotter than all the others), and even with performance mode enabled in the BIOS, an undervolt and the fans on max I wasn't able to maintain reasonable temps even with the CPU throttling down well below the max turbo (I have the 8750H and the 1080).

I finally got some time today and opened it up and wow. The CPU and GPU both had what appeared to be double layers of dell's trademark "postage stamp" thermal "paste", and 2 of the 4 little square thermal pads were missing from the gpu area, and the 2 that were present still had the plastic on one side of them. I cleaned all the dell thermal gunk off the heatsink and the GPU/CPU, cut 4 new 1mm pads for those GPU components and laid down some new noctua thermal paste (it's what I had and I was tired of waiting for my kryonaut to get here). Previously, I would run OCCT, get basically instant throttling and core temps in the low to mid 90s. Now, I've been locked at 3.9Ghz solid, with a max temp of 81c and averages in the 70's while running for 10 minutes. I still have a temp differential across all cores of about 10 at most, but now I Just have 2 cores that are cooler than the other 4 and averaging in the high 60's/low70's.

It's a huge improvement, I wasn't expecting anything this drastic and it makes me love the laptop a little more. I urge you, especially if you have an outlet system, crack it open, repaste it and just make sure everything that's there is actually there since apparently we have to do Dell's QC for them now.

 

So, back from 2 time re paste ^^
There is not that much difference.
first with Gelid and no modification on the HS - temps are bit lower but
the core different still exist.
second i raise the arms from the HS on Screen side a bit to get more pressure on this side
i have still the different at Core Temp


on normal prime95 test i get around ~60°
with FarCry5 around 75°max but all with angled Laptop.
on flat i will hit 89°and higher and throttling .

i don't know what to do next! Think my skill to do this
ends here


Maybe a opportunity to re please the HS with a new one?
Should i contact the support for this issue?

 

You can try using a thin copper shim (0.3mm) and very soft 0.5mm pads on the cpu side and see if that helps.

 

all without WLP?

 

WLP?

Whats that? you mean wafer level packaging? Thats not a factor with the CPU.

 

Sorry
heat conductive paste - Wärmeleitpaste is german

 

ah okay, you ened to put a dro pof thermal paste between the CPU and copper shim, and between the copper shim and heatsink. So the shim will be sandwiched between the paste. Then you should be good, but make sure that you use new thermal pads on the VRM's etc to make sure they make proper contact. It is a lot of work but could be a solution. You could ask for a new heatsink ofcourse as well.

 

Do you undervolt your processor? This can drop you temps by further 10C. And you need to keep back of you laptop lifted by 2 cm during gaming.
If you have not done it ... already.

 

Played about a half hour of AC: Oddesy and my CPU temps never went higher than 88c once I lifted the back of the notebook a bit. With the notebook flat on my laptop stand (worse than a table really cause the back foot of the laptop doesn't make contact so the vents are right up against the stand) I topped out at 96c on the CPU. The GPU never went above 73c. Keeping the notebook elevated gives me perfectly reasonable temps in my book. This is with the CPU running at full turbo (3.9Ghz) and the GPU slightly overclocked (+150Mhz on core in afterburner).

 

Yes, i undervolt too. Without i hit the 80°
Also i fix the Core to x37 max

I think i can live with this temps now.
The only problem are the difference between the cores.
Like Rinneh wrote, i have to fix this before i try with LM.

i'm not sure how to bend the HS to solve this

And i use the Cooler Master NotePAl U3 for my Laptop

 

Same here.
Need to lift the back up to get the temp ~70° playing FarCry5
without ~82° too

 

You can also limit your frames to 60 (if you have 60 Hz screen), that drops temps drastically, and what are the core differences and which cores? And under-volt GPU if you have not already.

 

Not all the Time but there are there
My temperature on 0/2/4 are ~12° higher than 1/3/5

And i have the normal screen panel

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...e-guide-results.797373/page-386#post-10845971

 

You need to bend the cpu side down where the cpu pads are to apply more pressure. So exhaust pointing out, looking at the black side of the heatsink. The top of the cpu heatsink with the single arm needs to be bent down.

 

Try to understood
what i done so far:
The area for 5/7 are lifted up a bit for more pressure.

The distance arm to thread is not that much compared to the cpu

 

You don't need to touch the gpu side. You know the cpu is on the right side right? So the arm labled one needs to go down. 2 and 3 up, with 3 going up a little more if possible. This is with small increments. You may need to check pressure several times.

 

holy **** .f**k
your right! that's the reason that i did not fix my issue ...
i was in faith all the time the cpu are on the lef side ....

don't ask me why ... nvidia lable is so big but i
don't note this .....

shame on me

 

Do you have the 1080 or 1070? I'm hitting upper 80s with the back lifted with the 1080

 

1070

 

Hey guys,

Unfortunately my Alienware 15 R3 is having temperature difference of around 15 degrees between cores. I have already tried to repaste and replace the pads but nothing.
I assume the pads were measured incorrectly as well. Could you please tell me what should be the thickness of the pads as there only an example for 17 inch AW.
Or perhaps you know a good method how to measure correct thickness?
It is AW R15 7820HK and 1070 GPU.

 

You have to measure and test with various thickness pads yourself. Again, not every heatsink is the same revision and variations have differences.

Buy multiple thickness pads and go from there. Multiple users including me have repeated this. It takes time and effort to fix.

 

I understand that the thickness varies. But what is the method for measuring it? Pads are quite expensive. I don't want to buy extra pads just for testing.

 

Maybe - just a idea - you take a spot of paste on the - still with foil protected - surface of the pad.
Then assemble the Heat sink without screws and see if there is contact or not.
if not change the thickness and try again

Edit:
not sure if it make sence to put some past anyhow between pad and heat sink

 

What thermal pads and paste do you use? How hot you CPU & GPU gets?

Maybe I can help, but need this info.

 

It's trial and error. You have to use cheap paste on the CpU and GPU to see how well it spreads, measure the old pads and check how deep the indentations are. If not deep then it is the right thickness. If very deep you might be able to get away with thinner which would make the pressure on the CPU and GPU bigger which is what you want. It is a lot of work and documented in this thread but somethign you ahve to do if you want to do it right.

 

I usedGelid thermal pads. And I used the picture of the AW 17 R4 with 1070 as a guide for thickness.
GPU temperatures are fine. But CPU temperature of two cores gets above 90 while other two stays at 20 degrees less.
I contacted the AW support and they said it is totally fine to have this difference in temperature as long as it does not stay at 100. Seriously? They asked for to run some test and provide result.
I will post them later here as well.

 

As mentioned earlier I monitored temperatures while playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Should I be worried?

with default BIOS settings (no OC) https://www.dropbox.com/s/5grvvl91bkr92kf/default.jpg?dl=0
with OC3 level set in the BIOS https://www.dropbox.com/s/lkb8mvvkg79yxqe/OC3.jpg?dl=0

 

The thing is.....they never really reach 100c because they throttle at 99c. 20c core difference is waaaay too much. Is this with the back of the laptop raised for better airflow?

A good solution in my opinion, is to leave the GPU as is, make sure all components are touching the thermal pads. On the CPU side use soft 0.5mm thermal pads and get a 0.3mm copper shim. This will even out the pressure, this is what I do on units with a tad older heatsinks and it has worked well pretty much always for me and units dont show a larger spread than 3C of core temp differences in my case.