i7 3840qm and Prime95 = Straith to 105degree.

Hi

I just have a question, when I try and check the CPU with Prime95 on default clock, it goes straight to 105degree and throttles. Is this normal since its a laptop and limited cooling?

 

Far too high for stock clocks. Have you been doing proper maintainence since you've had it?

 

Well, I regularly clean it if thats what you mean but I haven't re-pasted it.

 

Sounds like a repaste could do the trick if you're only running stock clocks.

 

Eh didn't OP said he got the 4930MX?

 

With my latest purchase, I have 4 Alienware computers home now

- i7-2860QM and Nvidia GTX 580M SLI (dissembled and probably not gonna put it back together again)
- i7-3610QM and Nvidia GTX 675M SLI
- i7-3840XM and Nvidia GTX 680M SLI

and now a 4930XM with 780M SLi.

 

There is no 3840 XM, there's a 3840 QM.

You need to re-paste your system and try again. Make sure you are not blocking the vents beneath the laptop.

Also, Prime95 is an "unrealistic" test in regards to temperatures you'd see doing normal tasks, or even other benchmarks and gaming. That test really pushes the CPU above and beyond. You should be seeing around 93C maximum with that test, though. So, yeah, you definitely need to re-paste.

 

Ohh sorry, you are correct...its a 3840QM

I know Prime95 push it to the limit and beyond, there is no game out there that uses 100% of each 8 threads (sadly)

Okey thanks, I will try and repaste it and do it again

 

Seems high to me too, by about 10 degrees. When I first received my m18x r2, I ran Prime 95 for a few passes an my temps were low 90's. As J.Dre said though, Prime 95 brings CPUs to their knees by default and something I rarely abuse a processor with.

 

Re paste and if it's still super high a heatpipe may be damaged.

 

We use Prime95 to stress test the CPU, it should not get to more than 90C. Let us know if the repaste helps.

 

Temperatures abnormal. Should NEVER go over 85 IMHO. Do an immediate repaste. I suspect a poorly seated heatsink. Don't apply too much TIM, just half a grain of rice's worth is enough

 

Im amazed how much paste the OEM CPU had! it was all over core and CPU board itself and very thick!

Hopefully this will help...

 

That's a lot of paste you spread on the die. It might get air pockets with that application method. If it turns out that this does not help your temps try using the thin line application method lengthwise on the die. Hopefully, you won't need to worry about it.

 

you are saying that from that picture, I have to much paste on it?

 

Yes, it may end up puddling around the edge of the die. But, that won't really matter as long as it squishes out smooth with no air bubbles. It might be perfectly fine. If some paste does puddle around the perimeter of the die it won't hurt anything and will not increase the temps. I would not worry about it unless the temps are still high.

 

this is how much after I spread it out with a credit card (same method I have always used on my desktop cpu)

 

That's why I said it probably won't hurt anything. Sometimes people get too hung up on technique. If it works well technique doesn't matter. If you waste a little bit of paste by having the extra squish out on the sides it's not a big deal. It might be a big deal with AS5 or Liquid Ultra (both are conductive) if it gets on components it should not be getting on, but with most pastes the small amount of waste is not relevant. If my original comment was seen as critical then I apologize. I was not trying to be critical... just an observation, that's all. The only thing that matters is you get the results you are looking for.

 

no no no, nothing to apologize for This is a forum and we discuss stuff, as you say....its the end results that matter.

My old past didnt look good and was very very hard and thick so I guess this will help alot.

Thank you for your input Fox

 

well, temp didnt dropped at all..goes straith to 105 degree during prime95.

 

What about if you forget about Prime95 for a moment. If you run 3DMark11 Physics Test or XTU benchmark are your temps still way too high?

Since you have fresh paste there could be some other problem. Your CPU heat sink may be bad. The tubes have a gas inside of them and sometimes that can leak out and render the heat sink worthless. You might need to replace it. I would recommend an M18xR2 3-pipe heat sink as a replacement.

 

During Valley test Im getting around 70 degree on each core along with 70 degree on the GPU'n.

 

Maybe Prime95 is the problem. Sometimes we can get too wrapped up in bad temps using things like Prime95 or XTU stress test and the temps are never actually bad doing normal things. If you don't get crazy temps running 3DMark11 Physics Test and 3DMark Vantage Physics Tests, then I would say there is nothing wrong with your machine.

 

yeah, during firestrike extreme I got 70 degree on both CPU and GPU and 4300 points on stock CPU and 958/1000 on GPU.

 

alittle offtopic but is the A10 BIOS the only unlocked BIOS out there? I currently have an unlocked A11 and I see that A12 is out. I want to get the unlocked version in order to play around with the CPU alittle.

 

Nothing has been unlocked after A10 as far as I know. I'm on A10 unlocked and there is no compelling reason to go newer. It works perfectly for the M18xR2. A09 with the newer Intel Option ROM 11.6.0.1702 is good enough. I have not heard a peep from anyone about it. Hopefully, neither of the newer ones does something stupid like adding Secure Flash. I haven't looked into only because I don't care. The release notes do not really mention anything compelling and they might not tell us about things that we don't want be added.

 

The settings remain when you flash A12 stock from A10 unlocked (but you do lose the menus, yet their values remain unchanged). So you can flash A10 then unlock it, edit values then flash A12 stock if you must.

 

When it comes to the bios if it aint broke.....

 

^^^this^^^ totally agree... Now that Secure Flash and write-protected SMI/NVRAM has poisoned our waters, this is especially true of the BIOS because sometimes you cannot undo the mistake. You can almost always fix problems caused by bad drivers, but you can find yourself permanently stuck with a bad BIOS if you're not very careful about it. What littleone562 posted is very assuring for M18xR2 owners, but don't count on that situation being accurate all the time. A13 (if there ever is an A13 released) could ruin everything in a couple of mouse clicks. For the new 18 this is critical advice because there is no ability to do a crisis recovery/blind flash to fix things.

 

Unfortunately I have to chime in and say that I just ran Prime95 on my system for about 3 hours and saw everything behaving normally. I do have one question though and this is rather obvious but I overlooked it.

Have you connected the CPU fan? It might sound pathetically simple but the BIOS on my Alienware didnt say that the CPU fan wasn't connected and began shutting down randomly. I also passed most tests including the 3Dmark ones for some reason WITHOUT the freaking fan installed. I do have a triple pipe heatsink though. Your paste technique and amount is just fine. Like Fox said, dont get too hung up on technique

 

Cpu would get a LOT hotter without a fan, the system would shut down.

 

I have to chime in here. I was having CPU temp issues while running the XTU CPU stress test. I would get to about 97°C on my 2960XM after 5 minutes of that test. So I have been trying different pastes and the triple pipe heatsink to drop a few degrees if possible. There are cases like me where the "normal" is all 4 cores and 8 threads are maxed. When I render hour long video/audio productions my software cranks everything at 100%. This type of work is exactly the same load as the XTU stress test and I am suspecting similar to Prime95. So if you ever plan on doing that sort of work or running SETI@home style research computing you definitely want those temps below 100°C while under full load.

 

truth is that this laptop is only for gaming and most likley Im never gonna get to see a game which uses 100% of each CPU/Thread on a quadcore so Im safe there, this was just a general question I raised as I wanted to know what every one els had.

Another question, I cant remember if I had a single, dual og tripple heatsink on my CPU, is it only extreme edition CPU (29xx and 39xx) that has a tripple and the rest has a dual?

 

Typically the extremes were the only one to get tripple as standard.

 

The XM series CPUs are the only ones that get the triple pipe heatsinks from dell direct but they are rather affordable on the bay and you can grab one for cheap. Most users get a single pipe heatsink. If I were you I'd grab a triple pipe heatsink anyway and see what the deal is. It's a worthwhile upgrade and if that doesnt keep your temps down then something's up with your CPU. It's the only conclusion that I can sadly offer at the moment

 

My first alienware had 2960XM so that might have a tripple heatsink.

 

If it was an m18x it would have.

 

The triple-pipe heat sink was first introduced with the M18xR2 with 3920XM. The M18xR1 with 2920XM and 2960XM had a dual-pipe heat sink, and the QM processors were all single-pipe. The triple-pipe will work on any M18xR1/R2 regardless of CPU.

 

Yeah, my R1 had a dual heatsink so I just ordered a tripple one.