coolermaster u3 dissapointed

Ok, so I upgraded my 3x fans from the U3 with 3x 120mm Radiator Scythe CFSVSL12M that take like 68.5 CFM each one, I made a 3dmark11 test without anything, the laptop sitting on the desk...first image ....and with the coolermaster u3 modded it is plug at 12v not in the laptop...room temp is 29 degrees...not happy...I will cut holes in it and then I hope I will reach 70 olso at the cpu and 67 at gpu

 

They won't lower your temps by some insane amount. The most useful aspect of a cooling pad is it elevates the laptop and gives it better airflow and prevents anything from blocking the vents. IMO they are more comfortable when you are using your laptop on your lap as well.

 

The thing is that without the coolermaster the laptop reaches max 2-3 degress and with this 3 new big fans there a lot of air pumping from down to the laptop and not such a big diffrence 2 max 3 degrees...now at idle it remains the same...
Tomorow I will cut the u3 in front of the fans, hope I will see the 2-3 more degrees less.

 

Changing the fans doesn't do much of anything. The controller in the U3 is too weak/slow to support decent cooling. I had to modify it by taking two cooling pads and shoving them into one. I took the HD3 cooling pad's controller, which allows the fans to speed up to like 3000 RPM, and replaced the U3's with it.

You can see the results here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/accessories/703124-my-ultimate-cooling-pad-build-2.html#post9065721. My ambient temperature was 21C.

 

Iven at 3000rmp your vents dont do better then 1 of mine!

 

Laptop coolers are more or less smoke screens and marketing gimmicks. I use the NZXT more for on my couch gaming so the lappy has proper air flow, not for cooling. But the fans on the cooler seem to grab the dirt and dust first and help in transferring less to the hardware fans.

 

I will not accept this, cooling pad is made for cooling the laptop, if they are bad made,we can make them usefull, I will be back when I cut it.

 

You may or may not accept it, but a cooling pad won't make a huge difference in temperatures. The system fans will be the bottleneck, supplying the ammount of air that they are designed to supply. The external fans from a cooling pad will only help the system fan to breath fresh air, may help on reducing the ammount of dust that the laptop will breath.
You can actually replace the cooling pad with just 2 bottle caps, just rising the back of your laptop, and the result will be almost identical to having a cooling pad under the lap.

 

Your not going to see 5-10 degrees difference. But the real test should be put it flat on the desk, and then compare it with the results you had on the coolermaster.

 

My first post is what you are saying
1. laptop on desk
2. laptop on cooler
there are 2 pictures

 

My bad i misread thinking you said, one with old fans and the second with new fans

 

Guys, the OP most likely saw my modding thread (link in sig) as well as this post and got disappointed because he didn't see the results I did.

So I'll just point out a few things:

1. The AW17 already comes with pretty good cooling from the factory, so the thermal benefits to be gained from modding will be less than can be achieved with my Clevo
2. I'm using Rosewell RFX-120 fans which can push 87.5 CFM vs the 68.5 CFM for the Scythe fans the OP is using (27% difference)
3. Liquid Ultra used on 4900MQ, so at the very least it'll run 5C cooler under load compared to any non-metallic paste. Also, running a -80mV undervolt, which cuts temps by another 3-4C.

 

Yeah, it's all your fault.

 

The fix is simple: return the AW17 then buy a Clevo, and enjoy a cool refreshing beer while seeing those massive temp drops

 

Return the laptop and purchase an inferior product in hopes that a laptop cooler to help a bit? He just needs to accept the fact that laptop coolers only help if the ambient temperature in the room is cool enough to allow the air being pushed up into the laptop to make a difference. I saw a drastic temperature decrease with a modified cooler because my room's temperature was low, and the fans were moving faster with the modification.

What he needs to do is re-paste the laptop with IC Diamond or Liquid Ultra every 2-3 months and enjoy. I've owned several Alienware's and they've all cooled just fine after re-pastes. The thermal compound Dell uses is cheap and is not designed for optimal temperatures - it's designed to "manage" temperatures over longer periods of time.

 

I hope you realize I wasn't being serious, hence the at the end... Clevo's build quality certainly pales in comparison, the performance though is every bit as good. But I'm not here to argue that, so for FWIW, I managed to shave off pretty much 7C across the board (both GPUs + CPU) in my Clevo by using those 120mm fans and cutting out some metal on my U3. All this with an ambient temp of 25-28C.

The 120mm fans I'm using can push 87.5 CFM of air each. That's more than all three stock U3 fans combined (22 CFM for each fan). So yes pushing more air makes a huge difference. Not having the cooler obstruct the airflow of the powerful fans is also important, because if half of those CFMs is either blocked or diffused due to the cooler, then their effectiveness drops significantly.

 

Pushing more air does help but you can aloso look at the vent locations and the 120mm might be a little big and causing turbulent air flow into the vents, here is my mod , 5 Arctic cool f8 pro on a bitfenix controller with the temp sensors in the GPU and CPu heatsing fins, fans auto controll according to the exhaust output, full gaming 1080p the oem fans never go full throttle, stays super cool ,

i7 4800, 780m .....

 

I was worried about the turbulent flow at first too, but all my results indicate that with my modded Clevo, the more airflow the better. Probably something to do with the internal fans receiving a "boost" from the 120mm fans. (the fans were definitely starved for air, as simply cutting out the bottom cover dropped temps by 3-5C). Also helps that the master 780M is receiving airflow from TWO 120mm fans, which keeps it really cool.

Very nice mod btw, I like the nice and clean cuts. Much better than mine which has scratches all over the place LOL.

 

I used a nice pair of wire cutters.. hahahaha snapon - flat end wire cutters,

 

Please make a 3dmark11 test and post the temps...

 

will do when i get some time

 

These are what my results look like with the modded U3 + 120mm fans (and all the other mods I did with my Clevo):


Ambient temp was 23C. 4900MQ pasted with Liquid Ultra, both GPUs pasted with ShinEtsu X23-7921-5.

 

yeah, far away from me i've read about that ShinEtsu X23-7921-5 , and only good things about it, maybe that's why is so damm low gpu temp.

 

Well my ambient temp was 23C and yours 29C, so if you take away 6C from your temps, your CPU is pretty much the same as mine, and your GPU is only about 4C hotter. If you cut holes in the U3 and used stronger fans the temps would be pretty much comparable. Plus component temps don't scale linearly with ambient temp.

Oh but I just realized you're using Liquid Ultra on your 780M. Hmm ok so maybe you could improve temps a bit more if you cut holes in your U3.

 

your almoust right, I will not change the fans because I wanted also the noise to be low, I can bearly hear them, they are ok for 65cmf. Thank you

 

And here's a run WITHOUT the 120mm fans (laptop on U3 only):



Interesting it made no difference to the CPU, and GPU temps only increased by 4C or so.

Btw there's no better paste than Liquid Ultra, so if you switch to ShinEtsu you're guaranteed to see an increase in temps.

 

ok, so I made the cut, 3 holes...not as big as 120mm but like 90mm and 1 smaller holl for the ram memory ...I am now ok with the temps...gpu 67C and cpu 73...during gaming...before there was 70 gpu and cpu like 77 max....all done.

 

Anything USB powered will be pathetic. I have actually done the same thing but since I have been into laptop cooling for a couple years not I didnt even bother trying the usb fans but immediately bought 3 coolermaster blade master 120 and connected it to a PC variable board and a external harddrive power supply. You can turn it up to 2000rpm developing 224CFM between the 3 of them. It does sound like a jet engine and will need loud music to drown the sound but then you can also turn it down and reduce rpm to 600rpm and you cant hear them at all even in a silent room. Have them in a triangle shape will post pics sometime. It defiantly can make 5-10 degrees C difference. will bench it for you guys. another option is remove the bottom cover for better access ofcooling from the fans. I used this for 3years on an alienware M15x and it reduced temps by 15 degrees+. Had an overclocked 260m gtx that had same clock as the 460m gtx
Model R4-BMBS-20PK-R0
Dimension 120 x 120 x 25 mm
Speed (R.P.M.) 600 - 2000 R.P.M.
Air Flow (CFM) 21.2 - 76.8 CFM
Air pressure (mmH2O) 0.40 – 3.90 mm H2O
Noise 13 - 32 dBA
Bearing Type Long Life Sleeve
Fan Life Expectancy 40,000 Hours
Voltage 12 V
Current (Ampere) 0.36A Max.
Power Consumption 4.32 W Max.
Weight 166 g

On a final note you should replace the thermal paste on your gpu and cpu and you will get a 5 degree drop in temp. The stock thermal paste is terrible. The coolermaster X1 extreme fusion thermal compound is pretty good. I used another one from them 3yrs ago and got 10degree drop in temps. You can imagine a 260m gtx overclocked by 40% running at 67 Degrees. 260M GTX OC'd Core 700mhz (550mhz std) Memory 1100mhz (950mhz std) Shader 1750Mhz 1375 mhz std) Volt 1.03v(bios flash) geforce 460m gtx clocks core 675mhz Memory 1250mhz shader 1350mhz. hope you all find this inspiring and interesting. Lets make our babies run like beasts they are born to be.

 

Understand that it will slow the rate at which the computer will reach high temps but not reduce it. If you really want to test your rig, place it on an XTU CPU stress test for 15min straight with and without the cooling unit. When you are playing demanding games, sessions can last up to several hours, a 15min stress test is just a small stresser for your CPU to undertake. If you really want results put it on a 45min XTU stress test, you will learn your cooler does squat.

Now what you can do is purchase a better CFM fan and modd it to fit in place of your CPU fan, as the one that comes with it is a POS, pushing like 2.3 CFM. I upgraded mine to a 10.5 CFM fan and do see a long term difference. Remember this is not on a laptop cooler, but replaces the stock hardware fan.

 

Best solution => get a portable A/C face the back of the laptop, like Mr. Fox did years ago and your problem is solved. You can put fans all around your machine; is not going to make any much difference no matter what you try. Those guys from alienware they have spent years to find better solutions and they have tried all those before any of us.

Anyway, best of luck with your projects!

 

ok, first of all if you had checked I replace my cpu and gpu thermal paste with CLU, I started with cpu themps that were reaching 90C sometimes even more, and gpu that was reaching 81-82, after repaste they droped but not enaugh for me.
My coolermaster U3 it's using 3x 120mm 65cmf plugged 12v in other power supply (not the laptop usb) because the laptop usb has only 5v , maybe I could had find something more powerfull but I wanted that the sound to be low, mine has only 24db (theres's a youtube video test with them). My gpu stays now after 3-4 hours of playing in a hot enviroment (room 29c) at 65C checked for me that's ok, The cpu droped from max 77 to strage 1 cpu I think the 4-th one has 68c but the packege is 75C maximum, when it reaches 75 the laptop coolers start and drops it to 67-68 and then it goes up again, the strang thing is still that the laptop coolers doesnt seem to run until the Cpu reachess 75, HWinfo doenst help...if I turn the manual fan the fans stop from spining....
I am finish with the Coolermaster U3, I wanted a temp drop and I did it. That's all, I will show some picture tonight

 

I disagree with the fans not making a difference. Alienware need to get a fan that is as small as possible and just efficient enough to keep the gpu and cpu temp under 80 Degrees and enough tolerance to last a couple years with no cleaning and dirt build up. Hence why they use rubbish thermal paste thats just good enough to get the basic heat out and cost effective in production. Replacing the thermal paste with something like the coolermaster has just reduced my temp by 2degrees on the max tempand the temp drops faster from the max after the stress.

This makes it much more effecient and obviously helps the chips last longer as the average heat is less. now with the addition of 3 massive 120mm fans blowing a combined cfm of 224 and you say it wont make a difference? Take your clothes off get 3 big high velocity fans and have them blow on you. you will be colder than one small fan. sure this is a silly example but the science is there and the proof is in the numbers and my numbers tell me its way cooler. This now allows me to overclock without any damage risk to the gpu or cpu.

Why dont the manufacturers encourage OC because of the risk if you dont have good cooling over and above their fans which wont cope with the OC and good thermal paste and keeping it clean its a high risk of burning out the chips and its at their expense.

I will run some stress tests and post my findings.

 

That is fantastic results!!! wow bro thanx for sharing. we need more posts like this to encourage people to take care of their very expensive machines and put them to their full use and potential. You considered overclocking? the fans will only come on in the laptop at the set limits to reduce sound levels of the fans. You should be able to edit them in the bios by reflashing it. but then realise that your laptop will be much louder fan noise at lower temps that you set it at and obviously use more power and possibly wear faster. keep us posted with more updates.

 

The alienware 17 bios A08 that I have is the worst bios ever, let me tell you a little story, first time I tryed to undervolt my cpu for lower temps 0,025mv and the laptop got into "no post" dell change my motherbord, then I tryed to OC adding +1 the cpu like 36 35 34 33...and again bios blocked "no post" mode change of motherbord again...so cant OC i7 4700mq.
The most important thing is that Alienware cant come with a bios that helps fan speed...mine only when it get's to 75 degrees I can hear it but it's not on full speed...if at 70 degrees the cpu and gpu will start spinning correctly then it will be great.
I did something last night I didnt let the gpu stress it self during gaming...I have 60hz monitor on the laptop.,..I put the fps to max 120 and the temps on cpu and gpu dropped 5 degrees on bouth...I could try also 60fps but I read somewhere that is not good for cs go. So if you are playing games that dont need more then 60 fps try to cap the fps...maybe using vsyng.
coolermaster is makeing it's job, CLU the same...my room temp is horible during this time, I will post during winter when the room will be around 23 C.
The worst enemy of the laptop is heat...if we improve that we are wining against desktop

I am playing like 7-8 hours a day, and the laptop stays 13-15 hours a day plugged...long sessions are the way I test it and the max temps during long sessions games and the temps I posted during 3dmark test are the same.
I was wandering if some cooper heatsinks placed on the cpu and gpu heatinks will do any diffrence more ? like in this picture

 

It is like pee in your pants, just the opposite. In the beginning cpu a little colder but gradually so there will be no difference in temperature.:laugh:

 

Those heatsinks will only help if there's an active airflow over them.

 

the fans are putted on top of the cpu and gpu heastink

 

looks awesome!!! and with the nice cooling holes in the bot of the alienware cover and an extra fan on the bot I wonder the potential. Every degree is worth it. wonder if one to make cpu and gpu under 55 degrees. be interesting to see. Where can one get those copper heatsinks?

 

I dont know if I will put them any time soon, my room temp is getting lower 26 C now...and cpu max temp 70 gpu 59....so it's ok for me

 

To get better cooling from a pad's fans requires copper ramsinks a d holes cut into the casing.