Alienware m15x hybrid cooling.

Sorry for any writing errors but i am dutch so its not my native language.

Project Hybride cooling

After i installed my ati 5850m and the I7 920xm the temps got pretty hot on my Alienware m15x. the Ati gave a core temp of 87 degrees and the intel 78 heavy load so i figured i had to make some kinda of cooling mod. the problem started after i saw a watercooling mod somewhere it would not be able to be portable and that was not a option. for gaming it needs to be cold and for working or other thing it needed to be portable so i found a way and tho its expensive for me it was worth it........even if its only just a project i could work on. So i figured lets make it with quickconnectors but the problem would be i dont have any native cooling anymore.....i found the solution in hybridecooling.

Hybridecooling in fact double cooling the Original fans keep working and on top of that i added watercooling, because the m15x has heatpipes mounted on some copperplate this was possible. The plan was buy some waterblocks and attach them on the heatpipes and after a long struggle on how to attach them i found a way. Because of the soft aluminium it was hard to make a good and strong connection between the heatpipes and my waterblock, so i decided to bolt them on with a spring that gave the pressure on the heatpipes.



The laptop Always was on a coolermaster laptopcooler and that was the base for this mod as well so i had to adjust this too fit my plans.





But the nerd i am wasnt really satisfied it needed a fancontrol as well so i made a coolertower with build in fancontrol that i made from a piece of aluminium and some profiles. also a few sensors needed to be there witch came with the fancontrol.

 

Awesome if it works. Someone on the TI forums made plans for watercooling but then never updated his post.

If you can go all the way and show it works well! It is an exciting idea!

How did you attach the waterblocks? I guess that is what they are?

Watercooling would certainly help ALOT when it comes to CPU overvolting. 4ghz easily attainable with an XM chip with effective cooling!

 

Wow amazing idea. How will you disconnect watercooling from the heatsinks/heatplate when you want to move laptop around?
Would love to see this in action.

 

In order to make the fancontrol work a adapter with 12v was needed and also 5 v so i made a little converter for the 5v.



i bought 2 quickconnecters (male and female) so disconnecting the watercooling would be easy and that gave me a other problem the sizes of the fittings where different so i had to buy a few new ones. At that point i bought the better stuff avalible for my plan, i found fittings from Barrow they wher very cool and well build so i had to have them........the project became pretty expansieve now but hey it's a hobby.....lol. The good part was i could use the cheap fittings as a test setup just to see how it worked.

 

I love your ambitiousness! Can't wait to read your write up on how to do this awesome mod!

 

For now i only have à few things done like connecting the coolblocks on the heatpipes, Some thermalpaste between them should be enough for heat transfer. I agree it Seems à bit rough the way i attachet them but trust me its the best way. There are spring for the right pressure and contact between waterblock And heatpipes.

 

Top down picture please! Good work so far.

 

If this works, I hope you can make one for me!

To be honest the GPU water cooling is pretty overkill because simply with powerful air cooling temps can be keep quite low. At 980/1150mhz my 680M at 1V doesn't get above 65C ever while gaming in ambient 20C. Next gen GPU's are becoming more power efficient too we can expect the cooling to hold out fine in the near future at least..

The cpu however would REALLY benefit from this mod! The m15x main bottleneck is the cpu now. Water cooling could really turn the tables! If this works well I do seriously suggest you make some money making this for others. I would buy into it in a heartbeat as a 4ghz 920xm can outlast the modern haswell machines.

 

King...way ahead of you. I'm looking at this
Alphacool HF 14 Smart Motion Universal Copper Edition | eBay
Its a universal CPU/GPU block that should fit nicely on top of the copper heatpipes although I might try to find a smaller one.
The detachable fittings from koolance are really expensive aren't they?

 

It's not a cheap project that i can say , but i love trying making things work.
the project wil be finished in about a month than i will see if it works great or maybe fail (i hope not tho)

Cpu block that i bought where only 9 euro

MIPS EVGA X58 Micro NB Cooler POM | MB - special water cooler | MB - cooler | Water cooling | Aquatuning United Kingdom

the quick release are pricie i agree.........but worthy for my plans.

Quick Release Fittings | Fittings | Water cooling | Aquatuning United Kingdom

 

smaller wont work because of the limited space on the heatsink.........tryed out a few mine were most suited for the project :thumbsup:
Btw i bought also a extra heatsink for the CPU and the GPU so i could try and have the originals still, just like i have a extra cover plate for the heatsinks.
Just found out i need 6 compression fittings because the tube is a little thicker.....10/13mm

 

Which water block did you use? Do you have a link?
10/13mm is a little odd isn't it?

 

its written in the post before my last......smile

MIPS EVGA X58 Micro NB Cooler POM | MB - special water cooler | MB - cooler | Water cooling | Aquatuning United Kingdom

and yes 10/13 is a little weird but it seems normal in Europe i guess.........Koolance and Alphacool seem te work with that size of tubes.

 

This will not be a fail. We only succeed here at NBR

Anyways even if it doesn't turn out perfect it is a learning experience for us all!

I haven't the first clue about water cooling I can't think of a better introduction to it!!

 

Agree you can never fail unless you try and even than its a learning process.
By fail i mean not really good cooling i am sure it works ......but how good that needs te be seen i guess.

 

mike your ambition is great! I'm thinking simpler now. Strap a single rad all-in-one liquid cooler such as CM Seidon 120V or Cosair H55i to the heatpipe directly above the CPU with some kind of ghetto mount.
To remove just unscrew ghetto mount (but could be a pain if using thermal paste). I'm so interested in trying this I might buy a Seidon 120v as they're only £30 in UK.

How are you planning to power the fans, pump etc? Are you using an old PSU or something?

 

Simple thinking is Always good ...but....there might be a problem connecting it a good way, sure it wil work but you do need a bit of pressure on the heatpipe. i found out that is a bit tricky because of the soft or easy bending heatsink, that why i made mine like the way they are now.
trust me i have a Corsair h55 overhere that was intended for my mod......lol....just dint find a good solution attaching it.

as for power i have made a little 5v adapter so i could use a 12volt adapter i had for powering the pump and fan's..........and ofcourse my Fancontrolle.

 

The coolertower almost ready, just need to do some soldering and finishing........shame that the stuff i ordered gonna take a while

first control i gonna be the coolingpump.
the second and thirt for the radiator.
the fourth for now is spare but i am planing a extra cooler for the memory of the graphics.

Also connected the sensors on the heatsink....not sure if it stays like that tho.

 

what About these screws......no more grinding the Xplate.

 

bye bye screws!

 

I am now typing on a hybride alienware m15x.......lol.......could not wait for parts to come so i i did a quick test with stuf i had already
mayde a little video about the test rigg when running the Vally test from Unigine, here are some results:

GPU/mem 650/1000

FPS 25,9
Watts 108
Temp 50 (78)

GPU/Mem 700/1000p

FPS 27,3
Watts 112
Temp 51 (84)

GPU/Mem 750/1000

FPS 28,5
Watts 115
Temp 53 (85)

GPU/Mem 800/1000

FPS 30,3
Watts 120
Temp 54 (87)

Red is stock cooling........here are some pictures and a video of the m15x hybride

Watercooling/hybride alienware m15x , GPU 5850m, i7 920xm. Must test setup. - YouTube

 

That is already amazing! Can't wait until you tweak this up and make it final !

So jealous! You can now overvolt that card and oc it up to 900mhz! Then you are performing at 6990m levels!

 

Can you do some tests with the CPU too? Would be interesting to see what temp you get at 3.2ghz all cores in prime 95? The best I ever managed is about 79c full load with my cooling in ambient 20c

What is the noise like? Are the stock fans still working?

 

Very excited! If you are happy with the end result I think several people here would pay you to make more!! How much has it roughly cost you in dollars?

This could very well become a sticky! Well done man!!

 

@king.........would be possible to make a CPU run but i dont think i am gonna until i have al te stuf i need. its pretty hard removing the water (i forgot a fill and drain connection....lol). To be honest i dont really overclock or had too as for my 7970m was fast enough and the CPU could handel it, i dont know how throttlestop works at this momment so that really has to wait until i am all finished with the project. By the way the 7970m died on me last week........ .

Fans/pump on low speed almost no sound and really cooling great, i dint even have too up te RPM on both of them.....imagene what is possible
stockfans working but i have set the startpoint a bit later so the dont run more than low speed as temp is not going past 55 during gaming....smile.

As the cost on this project.......depence on what youre using really, if its like this i guess about 120 dollar excl Fancontrolle (pump 37, radiator 30, little fittings and connectors 25,2x waterblock and fans 2x 15 dollar). the way i am making it about +/- 250 dollar i guess, but needs to be sayed i ordered even more as i did run in too some problems and better ways in making it.

Here are some pictures on the test runs i did last night, i am happy because i know what is possible .

 

Don:t worry about giving hard numbers yet. It is early days! Once you have perfected it you will have a better idea on total cost for the ideal setup.

Looks really good though. Shame about the 7970M. Unfortunately you would need to spend nearly the same money to get a new one as the watercooling project! Better to wait until HBM based AMD cards get released next year!

 

I might go for a 870m really i am not really gaming anymore, ok sometimes i play Titanfall and some more games like that.
The 970m would be even better but it needs some more testing on the m15x i think.......and thats just not my thing i want it plug and play really.
when i see the result on the 5850m just 3 FPS more from 650 to 800 clock i dont think its much of a improvement.....but thats just me i rather have a stable pc that is very silent. Now you know why i dont have used throttlestop as well.....but i wil look on that now the cooling is better.

searching for the new frontiers i guess............:thumbsup:

 

970M seems to be plug and play. If you don't like OCing the 980M looks like a better upgrade once prices drop that is. Then again AMD might well land in the middle or surprise us and blow Maxwell away cheaply. I wouldn't do any upgrading for another 6 months or so and see what happens.

920xm should be OCed. Otherwise the 840qm performs the same. On stock voltage the thing will fly right past 3ghz easily. In this day and age it makes a BIG difference as the chip is aging.

 

Youre right ....so how about you teach me how too do a overclock and excplain me how throttlestop works....

 

Firstly download throttlestop. Use version 4.10 if you can as that is what I use and you can simply follow my instructions step by step. The newer versions don't unlock anything extra for the old nehalem chips.

Then go to windows scheduler and set throttlestop exe to launch automatically when windows starts.

In throttlestop make sure you have performance mode selected (1) should be set to performance mode by default anyway. Then under the TRL tab set your CPU to 24x on 4 cores 25x on 3 cores 26x on 2 cores and 27x on 1 core. Under TPL tab increase TDP to 100W and TDC to 80W. This is more than sufficient to stop it throttling and to run at full speed. Then test in Prime 95. Without watercooling with good aircooling expect temps to reach at least 80-85C in low ambient temps of 20C or cooler. With watercooling I don't know

Stock speeds are pretty pathetic these days. The above settings will suddenly boost your cpu to run 3.2 - 3.6ghz as standard. Then you can tweak it slowly to find out your maximum OC. With watercooling you might indeed have much more headroom than most.

My chip is a golden sample able to run 3.6ghz on 4 cores and 3.73ghz on 1-2 cores on stock voltage. Most end up somewhere between 3.2 - 3.6ghz on 4 cores on stock voltage. Still from 2ghz that is a big difference and you will feel the difference.

 

thanks mate ......could not find 4.10 but i do have 6 now. As soon as i have time when cooling is done i am gonna try it. So prepare for a lot of qestions.....i am such a noob on overclocking....lol :thumbsup:

 

http://youtu.be/_ktfSpZuCpU

Just a test in how fast the temp drops

 

You need to make video public

 

weird it was ..........ok changed it again ��

 

Pretty cool almost 10c drop instantly!!

I would love to see you jam a hot card in there and see the difference it makes! The more heat there is the more effective it seems! Beastly!!

 

Damn that is cool....(pun intended)! How easy it was it drill through the heatsinks and mount the waterblock on top of heatsink copper heatpipes?
Do you have the detachable fittings yet?

 

@Fatboy.............For now i have everything except some fittings from Barrow and i do have to wait for them too arrive , I am goin to do a write up when finished because i have a better view on how things went ( pro and cons ) drilling the holes was easy but figure out where and how or what type coolblock that was the difficulty really.

@king........this card Always got hot, about 86 degrees (on 800/1000) just the coolblock attached works in dropping the temp (78), difference watercooling vs stock is about 30 degrees.

 

Started working on my coolermaster laptopcooler , stuff still not arrived............i hate waiting
made some improvements, stronger and a place for the quickconnectors, i also made a removable connector for the fancontrol.

 

Wow that is super neat work! I wish I had your skills! Very impressive

 

Little update.....

Got some stuff connected and testing it now...still no water tho because i do need to be really sure its all properly leakfree.
well here are some Pictures..........:hi2:

 

Yeahhhh i got it running, Cpu (GTX 970m) and Gpu (I7 920xm) hybride cooled.........few days testing now an than overclocking...............me happy. Pictures will follow.

http://youtu.be/3-59FXhehm4

 

First overclock done on the CPU 24 on 4 cores with throttlestop GTX 970m Smooth as butter now, it seems that my 920xm was a bottleneck on the GPU with stock speed. Temp on CPU max 55 degrees after 30 min Unigine Heaven bench, Gpu 40 Degrees.

 

what temps do you get on the cpu in you run prime 95 small ffts from 10 mins at 24x?

 

58 degrees top after 15 minutes.........:thumbsup: and that is on slowest fans and pump rpm.

 

Very impressive!

 

I am going to take a few steps back tho just to make sure everything runs stable.

 

Can you make me one ? Pleeease! haha

 

Making it is not hard really, but getting the right stuff and make it leakfree. I would like helping you with it no problem at all

 

I am very interested in cooling the cpu only. Doesn't have to be fancy just compact and easily removable and usuable. I was even thinking perhaps to have two waterblocks mounted on the cpu heatsink lol. I do believe gpu's are getting cooler and cooler and therefore the stock air cooling is adequate.

To test this I ran my 680M at 1006mhz on core and 1120mhz on memory (slightly slower memory OC than with extra air cooling) the other day. Temps hit max 89C in game vs 69C with air cooling. The card didn't skip a beat. Sure it ran alot cooler with additional cooling but considering the card can't OC much further the cooling is actually enough on air.

However strong watercooling option for the CPU would enable massive overclocking to reduce chance of future bottlenecks. The 920xm would be absolutely ideal at 4ghz with a 980M for gaming.

If you have any ideas about what could be done I would love to know and the prices involved. I have not the slightest idea about watercooling so would appreciate the advice and help!

 

it will be even more simple just cooling only CPU, i would say buy just a waterblock as i have and mount it buy some cheap fittings and radiator a piece of hose and make it like i did when i was testing.......smile.

i would be like 75 dollar or so.......it al depence on how far youre willing to go.