Second Alienware 17r4 - Thermals

Team, Need your help.

First computer was just replaced with this one. First one no reported thermals issues but games would drop fps after 10 minutes of play. Assume improper heatsink contact.

Second system showed up today. No issues with crashing or dropping fps... no issues at all except; There seems to be high cpu temps.

Specs - 7820hk
1080 GTX

Average under load mid to high 80's while gaming. However the peak temps are really concerning 94 peak on all cores...Screen shot below. Do I need to be giving Dell a ring?? Is this normal? Thanks for the help see picture below.

 

Anyone able to share some insight here?


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If those are at stock clocks then , its way too hot. You either need to repaste on your own , or have Dell do it for you using a better paste like Kryonaut. OR get a replacement.
@Mobius 1

 

Those are stock clocks. On a desk. I have it on my lap desk now and not getting above 79 degree.

So is it a thermal paste issue or is it a Heatsink issue?

 

Have you try to elevate the back of laptop, or a cooling pad?

 

Right now it is spanning my leather chair and sitting on this. Thermals are great.... not sure why down stairs out of the box they were so high. Maybe just needs a repaste and repad or something else wrong here?

 

Good chance the airflow was blocked.

 

It wasn't blocked I checked but it was close to other things allowing the hot air to be sucked back in. Seems like it would still need a repate?

 

Back down stairs on desk 10 minutes of gaming already at 86. It shouldn't be this hot is it more likely Thermal paste of heat sink issue?

 

Up to 90 degree's on desk nothing blocking the back 1 foot of clearance space... this doesn't make sense.

 

Do the temps go down when you raise the laptops back about an inch ?

 

That is what the lapdesk is doing providing more space for intake. When lift temps go down.

What does that mean? My office is 68 degrees F. So it's not warm in here by any means.


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That means when its sitting flat, its not getting enough air intake.

 

Right I understand that. Which shouldn't be happening.

Is it the heatsink?
Thermal Paste?
Bad fans?

It seems odd


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No in most scenarios when the laptop is sitting flat, there isnt enough space for enough air to go in/sucked in by the fans.
Just the fact that when you raise the back and the temps go back to normal, means that the heatsink / thermal paste / fans are working just fine.

 

Make clearance space between bottom vent and the desk you're on.

 

So the expectation is this desktop replacement needs to be elevated on a desk.... that does not make sense.


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So every user has to elevate the rear of this laptop to have usable temps? That tells me something else is wrong.


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Alienware sending a tech to replace heatsink fans and motherboard after extensive testing.

They agreed the thermals are out of wack. It seems odd that the only solution is to elevate the rear... and that nothing is wrong.


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You're supposed to do that with every laptop. Escept macbooks because their cooling system is already useless to begin with.

 

To be fair MacBook cooling is actually *quite* good they just would prefer the machine to run much hotter than we'd like. Plus the intake vents are on the side

 

Their cooling system is under spec'd for the TDP of whole system.


Macs are not designed to hold more than 40% of potential performance.

 

Testing now. Will let you know but that is not acceptable. My 13r3 with 1060 and 7700hq doesn't need to do that to keep temps down. So I don't think that is acceptable.


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There is no way alienware did not test their systems on a desk, if they required constant lifting in the rear they should have designed it so. MSI does not have this issue.. Most people buy these for desktop replacements. I am probably one of the few who bought as a mobile travel gamer.

 

That is simply not true it has nothing to do with the heatsink and everything to do with the fan profile. If you force the fan to 100% it runs every bit as cool as my repasted AW13r3, the fans literally do not even turn on until 90C* because Apple chose to make them silent not cool.

 

Elevated back system stays under 80 degrees... which is still high with a 1" gap wouldn't you agree?

 

Its the same thing with all the laptops in my signature. And true with almost every laptop. SPECIALLY with the ones that have 6820HK/7820HK/7700k.

Undervolt your processor a bit and see if that helps.

 

Maybe higher elevated would help

Exactly what Mac? A lowend 15" with a base CPU and no radeon dGPU while running non AVX tasks?

 

The EVOC's you have are not laptops.... lol by any means....

But I don't think you "have" to elevate the back of it to make sure you are not near 95 Degrees while gaming. You mean to tell me you can't game on stocks without almost hitting thermal threshold?

 

The 17R4 is the same weight as my DM1. And slightly longer in width.. so i guess the 17R4 isnt a laptop either?

Either ways.

You can try if the repaste with Dell helps , but in certain cases based on the silicon lottery you processor might be using way too much voltage by default. (Considering everything else is ok)
The ambient temperatures matter as well, and how warm/hot the air is in the environment the laptop is sitting in.
Also for why your 13 R3 didnt do this, well simple , 7820HK vs 7700HQ.

Another solution is to get something like this -
https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Maste...TF8&qid=1501684714&sr=8-1&keywords=notepal+u3

 

Ambient is 20 Degrees C.... so like 68 F... That isn't the issue.

Alienware / Dell is replacing motherboard, Heatsink, and Fans.

You think under volting would solve it? It seems like a joke that this wouldn't have usable temps while being used on a desk.

 

The heat output by a 7700k in the same foot print of a 7820hk would be different.

 

Yeah that kind of ambient temperature is rather good!

That might help, but keep a good eye on the guy Dell Sends, if possible buy a tube of Kryonaut and have him use that instead of the default dell stamps. And make sure he cleans the old paste off first.

Undervolting might solve it IF nothing else is wrong, i.e Heatsink/paste job/ etc.

It most definitely is, but at similar clocks, it runs cooler. Much cooler. Because mobile processors are made out of the rejected low binned silicon that dont make the cut for the full unlocked processors like the (6700k/7700k).

 

I completely agree a cooling pad would help too

---

Which Mac? Several

15" 2016 w/t TB
15" 2015 w/t m370x
15" 2012 650M

The Skylake MBP with the 460 loads at high 70s low 80s on Firestrike and WoW and the fans were about 2500rpm or 50% give or take. The hottest by far was the m370X but once the fans got going it was fine. It is not near as bad as you make it out to be. The cooling is fine, the fan profiles are not aggressive enough for some folks liking.

 

Most likely going to need a repaste. What you'll have to decide is whether you are going to do it yourself, or go through dell. iUnlock has an excellent tutorial if you havent checked it out yet. http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...5r3-disassembly-repaste-guide-results.797373/

 

Already way ahead of you. I repasted and repad both of them... 250$ in material. I still have heating issues. I even had the motherboard and heatstink replaced on one of them.

 

Oh wow, didnt realize there were 4 pages! My apologies.
Too bad you are still having heating issues. I guess I just got lucky on mine. Have not reworked the pads yet (although I have them on hand), just applied LM, and havent received any temps higher than 78C (Thats max temp, other cores are at 68 -70C. That is running at 4.3-4.4GHz for a prolonged period of time.

 

What where your temps out of the box on a desk heavy gaming load after 20 minutes?

I have had 3 different mobo all hitting mid to high 90's quickly.

 

The max I've hit after conductonaut LM repaste and repad is 86c on the highest core and 82c on the lowest. No OC. Might try another repaste... I'm amazed people are getting below 80 for max temps. You guys playing inside a fridge??

This was 2 hours of witcher 3 all max (no aa, sharpening, mod to keep hairworks on except for Geralt's hair), 4k.

When I play something like Dota 2 or Overwatch max, I get around 75c after a hour or so.

One thing I'm happy about is that the core differentials are only 4-5c.

 

Even with repad and repaste kryonaut I am getting mid 90's on both machine. Like I said giving this one more try through dell. Having my third replacement sent. I really want this to work. I just can't believe I haven't been able to get it to.

 

Maybe try conductonaut liquid metal... kryonaut isn't exactly the same league.

 

But it should be enough to be an improvement over stock


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Need to know the CPU VID !!!!!! when overclocked+load.
None of this means anything otherwise.

 

Right I will have to get cpu vid on monday when I head back home. Not overclock just stock (even below stock speeds 3.7) Load would be Overwatch cpu mid 60% on all cores and gpu at around 80%

 

I have a 7820HK with a 1080, Fully Repasted and repaded, on the coffee table it runs in the mid to high 80's if flat on it. I have a kickstand for it that I use that drops those temps down to the mid 60's to low 70's. You seem to think a HIGH end laptop should not need a kickstand which is nonsense, some gaming laptops are even coming with it pre built in to the laptop, when you open the lid it elevates the back end. The system needs more airflow to run hard constantly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having the back of a laptop elevated for proper airflow.

I have a friend that has a MSI and he uses a gel wrist rest for a keyboard to hold the rear of his system up. When he travels he is a small collapsible lappy table that has vents / slits thur the table that fits in his laptop bag. That allows air to come from under the table and thur and allows his laptop to be flat on it.

Edit.
Something tells be on the next revision of this laptop the side vents will be used to suck in instead of blow out to give extra airflow, that and hopefully a freaking 4 screw CPU sink.

 

I accept it should need more airflow when in demand or overclocking. It should not need to be elevated under normal use... I think most of the community can agree with that.


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Then my best advice to you would be to return the laptop and stay away from anything with a 1080 or a 7820HK in it. Both of these items run extremely hot and will need adequate airflow to be able to cool the system, and this requires SPACE for the air to suck in and the 1/12th of a inch pads on the bottom of the laptop are not adequate to accommodate this.

You are expecting a High end laptop to compare with a low end one when the TDP values of both being way dif. The only other one I can recommend is maybe a MSI with a built in kickstand or the one with the rubbers that stand about a inch that act like a build in kickstand.

Also, by all accounts why your laptop is running HOT when flat it is not technically over heating as your pic did not show it hitting 100C in max and the sensors showed no thermal throttling. So why the 90's are not ideal the laptop can run those and 99% of them do under synthetic benchmark. (its not only Alienware)

Best of luck to you.

 

i highly recomend not to change the motherboard if its new one, the replacement board you will be getting is a refurb.. just get the HS changed.. and only asus zephyrus comes with lift up bottom base.. any other laptop for good airflow you need a better laptop stand.. there are lots of cheap ones, or just use a bottle cap or a Game DVD casing Box..

 

Stupid question but how are you tightening the heat sink down? If you're cranking it all the way down on each bolt in the order that dell prescribes it wont be level.

Essentially you tighten it down like a waterblock on a desktop PC. Again I'm being overkill in this a bit for emphasis but you want like a turn or a half a turn on each of the 8 screws so that it takes several passes of turning the 8 before it's finally bolted in place. I recall from reading the repaste guide that if you try and tighten in a single pass you'll end up making the heatsink cockeyed

 

That's a good point. I did not tighten the same as if I was tightening a water block. I followed the 1-8 tightening pattern as shown on the heatsink. Maybe that will make a difference.

I think it's only 7 screws.

So basically put them all in half way then rotate turns in number order half turns until all in? I didn't make it super tight either.

Thanks


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