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    Thermal compound replacement

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by Oww, Sep 4, 2011.

  1. Oww

    Oww Notebook Enthusiast

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    Will replacing my thermal compound void my warranty? Have a bottle of Antec Formula 6 on me so yeah. Thanks.
     
  2. Bman2309

    Bman2309 Notebook Geek

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    I did it on my M15x and it didn't void warranty because they never asked me anything like that. I'm not sure if you are actually allowed to do it though.... i have also done it to my current M11x and it really hasn't made much of a difference.

    I dont know what you're getting, but i never go above 70 degrees.... (GPU), CPU is a bit lower.

    Unless you're keen to have a look and use you're paste, its not worth the effort.
     
  3. Oww

    Oww Notebook Enthusiast

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    Its not really that my temps are bad but I want more thermal conductivity so heat dissipates into the heat sink faster because it is taking a while for my gpu to get to a lower temp from 69 ish and I noticed that the higher my temps are the worse my performance. Fresh use when I haven't used it can be like 80fps at 44-46c and up at 60c i get 66 fps.
     
  4. CatWare

    CatWare Notebook Enthusiast

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    I noticed this aswell, performance drops has heat goes up. I'm going to replace my paste with some mx-4 and do a heatsink mod, has I'm getting 85c when playing dirt and other demanding games. I'll probably make a thread about it posting the results.
     
  5. Bman2309

    Bman2309 Notebook Geek

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    thats odd, mine does not do that, you dont have an R3 do you?

    the only thing it may have helped with (for me) is that the better conductivity means that the fan comes on less...
     
  6. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    Technically, it will void your warranty for your heatsink and CPU, if anything were to go wrong with those. In reality, if you ever do have a problem with heatsink and CPU down the road, Alienware will probably still honor the warranty... simply because it is cheaper for them to just replace parts than to investigate every warranty claim and try to play "gotcha!" with their customers.

    Replacing the thermal compound will typically lower temps by 2C - 5C. You also have the added benefit of disassembling your laptop, and giving you an opportunity to give your heatsinks / fans / vents a good cleaning while you are there.
     
  7. Oww

    Oww Notebook Enthusiast

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    Alright thanks