Having a tech re-paste / re-pad my system.

I need to order thermal paste / thermal pads to have a tech repaste my system. I know Alienware does a terrible job initially, so redoing it seems beneficial. I can't do it myself due to my hand being damaged. The tech has the M17x R2 teardown video, so he should be able to get it apart just fine. My questions are:

1) What would the best paste be to order? Is there anything I should tell the tech specifically about using the paste?

2) Where can I get new pads for my M17x R2? I know some people say leave them, but I'm confident mine are full of cat hair considering I have cats that shed. I'd like to replace them if possible.

3) Is there anything I should instruct the technician specifically on? What not to do? What to do?

4) The cooling mods found here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ll-internal-cooling-mod-huge-improvement.html seem to be well received. I've been told in my other thread that they aren't worth doing unless I'm doing extreme benchmarking. All I care about it just getting the best performance possible in my games. Should I just avoid these mods all together?

Thanks!

 

1) The best paste appears to be Arctic MX-4. Of course, lots of fanboys will chime in for what they've got, but in the end, you might sacrifice ~1C between all the top paste brands. So just pick up whatever is cheapest

2)frozencpu seems to have a good stock of pads. Look for ones with high W/mk ratings, that means they have better thermal conductivity. Mxm upgrade has some insane ones with 17W ratings, but they cost an arm and a leg.

3)No idea here. Watch him carefully and make sure he does screw up anything or break anything. If he does, hold him accountable and have him send in a report or something to document it. Don't let it slide, you paid good money for your system.

4) I would try everything except the rention clip mod. A lousy tech might crush your gpu die and time to RMA. Ashtefere (can't spell), lists an alternate method at the bottom of that page, and closer to the back there is a guy who used thinner pads between his ram and heatsink instead of the retention clip mod. You could try those.

Best of luck to ya mate. And sorry about the being unable to do this yourself as a result of your hand

 

Thanks a bunch. Just scheduled my appointment and ordered my greese / pads. I'm not going to do any mods, just repaste. My issue is CPU throttling after the machine has been on for a while, and a reboot fixes it. A repaste should improve performance no problem.