M17x-R2 with i7-920xm, high temps?

Hello,
I was monitoring my 920xm cpu temps (cpuid hwmonitor) on my M17x (see sig for system config) and at idle they were around 55-60C and under heavy load (when running 3dmark vantage or playing GTAIV) they went up as high as around 85C. I'm only using the 5% bios cpu overclocking and everything else is at stock.
Are these temps normal or are they a bit too high? I'm debating whether should I bother opening the system to check the cpu and the heat sink.
Thank you!

 

Mine is about the same get up to 90 playing crysis changer thermal paste to as5 it helped a little.

 

Hmm, so I guess they are normal for that cpu?
I'm a bit worried cause I keep seeng people in the benchmark forum with screengrabs showing their idle temps around 45C and 75C under load for the same cpu like mine. Would opening it up and applying some as5 thermal paste help a bit?

 

The people in the benchmark forum are using extreme cooling solutions. Mandrake uses an air conditioner, for instance. And this is for benchmarking. Do either of you use a notebook cooler of any kind? That will bring temps down, and so will nicer thermal paste. You've got to pay attention to ambient air temperature as well. If your house is hot, your CPU and GPU temps will be higher too.

 

No, I don't use any extra cooling. The laptop is on a flat surface on my desk and the room temp is around 70-72. Nothing fancy.

Out of curiosity, and i appologize in advance for the noob question, but if I would want to add some thermal paste on the cpu and heat sink, do I just apply it on whatever thermal paste/pads is already put there by Dell or do I have to completely clean the cpu and the heat sink before applying the new stuff?

 

You will NEVER combine thermal paste and thermal pads. Paste is replaced with paste, and pads are replaced with pads. You should thoroughly clean the CPU/GPU die with Q-tips and rubbing alcohol. Keep using a new Q-tip until it has no residue on it. AS5 is gray, so it's easy to see when you're done cleaning. And the garbage that comes from the factory on your laptop will most likely be a gray color too. There are a couple of schools of thought concerning the application of thermal paste. Some say to put a small 'ball' of it in the center of the die and let the tightening of the heatsink spread the paste where it needs to be. Some say to spread a thin film on the die and then tighten the heat sink. I PERSONALLY use method number two because I've tried method one and seen that after tightening the heat sink, that the edges of the die had nothing on them. The ball of thermal paste will spread in a circular pattern, not a square one. But yes, completely clean. Any foreign material will hurt cooling. You don't even want fingerprints on there.

If your laptop is on a flat desk, you may want to use a couple of soda bottle caps to prop the rear of the laptop up. This will help more than you think.

 

Thank you for all your answers.
Does the 920xm come with paste or pads on the R2? I'm pretty sure it's paste but just wanted to make sure.

Thanks again

 

Pads are generally for memory. I don't own one, but I'm sure it's paste. Joker would know for sure. He's using a 940.

 

Remove the stock thermal paste (you can use ArctiClean or any other isopropyl solution ) then apply a new paste using either a "grain" method or spreading (that's what I do) it with a credit card to create a very thin layer! Apply it only on the CPU or GPU crystals, don't replace the thermal pads on the GPU with a paste! Best to leave the pads the way they are if there are no critical temps on the GPU (MEM sensor).
You can use MX-3, AS-5 and pretty much any high quality paste.

 

Prop up the back of your laptop to get a little more airflow also. My laptop seems to run cooler then my old M17, the fans were always on with that one

 

I am running that hot too 86C was my max Doing 3dsmax rendering. I installed the chip so I'm thinking its me. I used Shinetsu paste and left the thin grey square on the heatsink.
I am actually going to run the same rendering on my m15x to see what it does. (x9000 processor)

 

Like others said, I'm more of a fan of spreading the paste on the die. This ensures that the whole thing is covered. Typically the arguement against this is that air bubbles get underneath so spread carefully, but I don't see to many air bubbles getting in since it's suck a thin area. The paste I use is normally Arctic Silver 5, but when I set it up for everyday use, after all the benchmarking, I use IC Diamond as it's rated one of the best. If you get into replacing the pads, I buy the 1mm pads from frozencpu.com

Also the 920XM/940XM will run at higher temps then the other CPUs. One of the reasons is the extreme mobile cpus have a max TDP of 55W from Intel, and the non extreme are rated at 45W.

 

Allow me to chime in and be the odd one out.

I cant recommend 'spreading' the paste in ANY way.

When you spread the paste its kind of like kneading dough. When you spread it, you are adding tiny amounts of air into the mix. You wont see them until you apply the heatsink.

As you increase pressure on the heatsink and it pushes down the die all those air bubbles create pockets of air between the heatsink and the GPU, and reduces the contact surface by as much as 60%.

There are some youtube vids of this demonstrating as such with a piece of glass instead of a heatsink to see.

The ball or grain method remain the best, as the gpu/cpu die does not need total contact around the edges, only the center.

The spread method leaves air bubbles uniformly across the die, cause much less heat transfer.

An X method is a good compromise between them, but requires more paste to do it, which is kind of counter productive.

So yeah, dont spread. Ball, grain, or X will get best results.

-Ash

 

I've been using the spread method too. GUILTY! I'm so worried about covering the entire die with compound though. Seems like a 'dot' of compound would spread in a circle. The die is a rectangle. I would think the edges wouldn't get any love. I've never had any cooling issues, and I've been using the spread method for ~10 years. Dunno.

 

0,1,3 cores are 42 at idle and 3 is at 48.

Room temp 79 degrees
Have metal laptop cooler ,no fans

920 xm stock. have not done anything to it.