Artcic Silver 5 Results

Hi all,

Yesterday I decided to disassemble my M14x and apply some Arctic Silver 5 on the CPU and GPU, all I can say is; the result is amazing , all my cores were idling at arround 55c and loading at arround 85c, now I get low 40s idle and high 60s/low 70c load on all cores . The GPU went from 46c idle to 41c and 67c load to 60c.

It's well worth it, even know the disassembly is a very long process, you literally have to nearly tear down the whole laptop to get to the heatsinks

Will post more details about the temps later... with Prime95.

 

hmmm whats the ambient temp usually? Im tempted to do this... but the temps have not been to bad.

any pics of your teardown?

 

Didn't take any pics unfortunately, ambient temp is 20c.

 

Wow that's quite the difference. Too bad it's such a hassle...

How much more would Dell have to charge if they used a better TIM? $5? $10? $25? All worth it to me...

 

To have someone do it right? Probably $75+. Most people apply way to much paste and cooling gets worse but any idiot or computer arm can apply a thermal pad ;-)

 

Is it possible to do this without making the warranty void?

 

I'm thinking it will probably void it because of the near total disassembly it takes to repaste. But on the other hand for them to find out they'd need to tear your laptop apart and even they it would probably go unnoticed.

 

I'm certain it would go unnoticed. With Alienware's in-home service, I doubt a tech would pay that much attention, and aren't paid to care really. Unless you strip half the screw heads, it might raise suspicion. I know if/when I buy mine I'm going to repaste with IC Diamond. Stock factory paste is nothing more than toothpaste, seriously. Might give you some nice minty fresh smell!

As long as there are no "warranty void if removed" stickers around.

In any case, thanks vasvas for sharing your results. Good to know it was worth it.

 

Ugh, the process sounds tediously long.

Would anyone trust a local computer shop with education credentials?

They're generally 40$/hr, so I assume this whole process takes between 1-1.5hrs?

I'm just curious, still haven't picked an M14 up yet.

Great results btw and thanks for posting them

 

See, if it was me I'd just order it through HIDevolution where they can do a paste job with IC Diamond straight off.

 

Does HIDevolution offer price negotiation?

 

Pretty much anything is negotiable

 

Hmmm, according to HIDevolution's location, they're just two miles away from me, I might just stop by and see if they'll repaste my system for a fee.

 

Any update on this? This is probably one of the first things I'll be doing after getting my model. As far as I know though, no complete takedown/repaste videos have been posted of the m14x yet.

Curious what goes into it.

 

So do the fans spool up as much with the repaste?
One of the reasons I got turned off by the M14x was the very loud fans.
I know people will say "oh it's no big deal" and " you get used to it" but it's one thing that I really don't care for.
Yes I know it's a gaming laptop and expect some fan noise but the fans on the M14x are LOUD!

 

If your fans are spooling at idle, check for background processes, I removed a lot of unnecessary processes and my fan is totally silent when I'm not gaming. And even when I am gaming it doesn't get as loud as it used to, or as hot.

 

Excellent work then.

 

Not anymore! They only start up when the temp goes above 55c I think, which is never during normal use.

 

Just download the M14x service manual from Dell's website. More than enough infos to help you with the teardown.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/M14x/en/index.html

 

Great results!

My CPU goes 55/97 and my GPU 47/75 without overclocking.
After reading your post I decided that this huge delta might well be worth a total disambling

I just ordered some IC Diamond 24 and will update here once it's done.

Cheers.