M15x internal fan mods?

Has anybody managed to upgrade the internal 5.5CFM fans to something higher, like the M14x R2's 11.4CFM fans? I feel that would help keep the 920XM 26-26-26-26 in check.

 

Yes sir, but for now just the GPU fan. As written in the other thread, I used this one, found on ebay:

 

Is this the same from this link?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/For-Dell-Al...364298?hash=item2a6f71ef8a:g:NUsAAOSwmrlUrkGW

If yes, how did you plugged in ? because my mb gpu fan got 5 pin, and this only have 4...

 

Curious on how you got it workking in the M15x

 

I am pretty sure both my stock fans are around 7.8 or 7.7 cfm. I haven't dismantled the laptop in a while and may do so today to confirm. I think Dell may have had different fan versions on the M15X during its production.

If I remember correctly (when I replaced the damaged pin header on my fan) the stock fan only had 4 wires coming out of it and the 5th pin was actually spliced into one of those 4 wires. Look at the pic below of a stock GPU fan. You may notice a green colored wire near the connector, but no green wire going to the fan. That wire is spliced into one of the 4 wires. You can confirm this by peeling off the tape around the wiring harness on your fan.

But just from looking at the pics of the upgraded fan, I can tell that it won't fit properly without modding because of the obvious difference in the shapes between the two.

 

You are quite right. I used a dremel to grind surfaces to fit and then epoxy to glue the fan in the right place. Its kind of difficult to explain (and I cannot remember exactly how, as Im getting old and memory isnt what it used t be), but this was no easy task. Regarding the power, I just left the fifth pin disconnected on the original connector, but connected all the other wires matcing colors, and it worked. Maybe it breaks native fan control (EDIT: It does not), but I couldnt tell, because I was already using HWInfo to control speed because of the 6990m from a Clevo X7200.

 

^ This is exactly how you do fan upgrade - keep the case/frame, change the fan and yes, Dremeling is a must, there's rarely a straight fit and even if there is, it might not be much of an upgrade over your stock one. So just go ahead and get the largest fan that can fit inside and grind the hell out of your case/frame. Just make sure to stand at more than 5mm away from the radiator or it would create quite some noise. Oh and yes, don't forget the wires.

 

Correction: took my laptop apart for repasting today and CPU fan is indeed a lowly 5.5cfm. GPU fan is 7.8. Now this mod is a lot more tempting.

 

There's any problem to keep my GPU fan at full speed for about 20 days ? (thats the time to get a new plug) Notebook will work about 10h/day .

 

Nobody can say for sure. These things can fail at any time. They usually use ball bearings or fluid dynamic bearings for these types of fans and those tend to last longer on horizontal mounts.

 

@MZWiZard : Can you please let us know exactly what's involved in fitting the M14X fan? Is there a lot of cutting of the heatsink involved? How did you mount it to the heatsink?

I took apart my CPU fan before (just 3 screws hold the fan to the heatsink). There's not much room in there. The blade assembly is held on to the motor magnetically and just pulls off. Was wondering if maybe a different (maybe bigger) fan blade attached to the stock motor will work if it fits. I was also shocked to see a bunch of dust clumps inside. I'm usually good with cleaning my heatsinks but there was still lots of dust trapped inside the fan compartment.

 

Hope this helps?



Actually, theres no cutting in the heatsink, just the fan cabinet. I remember i cut and dremeled the old fan off. Then used toothpicks to stabilize the new fan in place, while the epoxy dried for 24 hours.

 

Just bought another 11,4cfm fan to fit the cpu side

 

+Rep, great effort!

 

I think some black Mylar insulating tape would look nice over the fan shroud on the inlet side and to bridge the gap between the heatsink fins and exhaust shroud. I think with the heat, the duct tape is going to start separating.



Think I'm gonna get me some new fans now. Are you using the same fan that you linked for the CPU side as well?

 

I would like to see how the temps are reduced with some liquid ultra on the 920XM + those fans now. Should keep it well out of the 90s range.

 

There's not much standardisation in these things, apart from external size, and it won't help much either if you're still limited by the strength of the motor itself; the heavier blades will just drag the little motor down.

The maximum rating is [email protected], so 2.5W per fan, this derives from the limit of the mb fan connector (very rarely there's a 0.55 or 0.6A model). The heavy-duty fans will have more windings per coil, increasing the motor's size relative to the blade section. The latter only has permanent magnets and these have to be as close as possible to the electromagnets of the motor itself in order to minimise inefficiency losses. Hence 'brushless', btw; your washing machine has electromagnets on both the fixed and moving part, so the carbon brush is necessary to transfer power.

Anyway, look for a 2.5W fan that will just fit when the old fan, its housing and that of the new fan have been removed:

Spoiler: Clevo W230SS - stock fan clipped, 2W

Spoiler: Clevo W230SS - stock fan and housing removed, surface sanded

Spoiler: Clevo W230SS - new 45 cfm vs. stock 10 cfm

Of course, you can't draw that kind of power from a 5V fan connector, but at least a larger fan is usually possible even without having to resort to creating a 12V power source. Also, even this server/gpu fan will run on 5V, so with a relay it is possible to switch between both circuits.

 

Awesome post @t456 . Thanks

 

Just measured the stock fans for anyone interested. I just used a ruler so my measurements may not be totally precise. Both GPU and CPU fans seem to have the exact same blade and internal housing dimensions.

I'm going to be searching for fans around this size with highest cfm possible. I may just go with the fans mentioned previously but I want to see if anything else is available.

 

ok, for those who cares i found the m15x fan plug in Brazil! I'll buy one tomorow to confirm if its really exact the same plug!
I'll post as fast i can when get it on hands, so if some one want too i can buy here and send for u guys who want to mod and need it!
And just to remember, like @kosti sayd the fan had only 4 wires and the plug 5! The green one are GND spliced from the black wire!
Here's the link where i found the plug, but the page are in portuguese so if need any help feel free to msg me!

#edit i forget to say, but the price is 8R$ = BRL and its about 2,30USD



http://www.hobbycontrol.com.br/details/MOLEX125-5PIN/conector-molex-1-25mm-5-vias-com-cabos

 

Let me just say it moves A LOT more air when spinning at max, around 4250 rpm, according to HWInfo.

 

what do temperatures on the 920XM look like at 3.4-3.6ghz?

 

Looks like the two best fans I found so far are:

1- M17X R4 Fan (Dell P/N: THPDJ) / 11.4cfm
2- M14X R2 fan (Dell P/N: XN0G5) / 10.4cfm

Both are 5V .5A.

I can't find specs on their dimensions but since MZWizard already mounted the M17X fan, I think that's the one I'm gonna go for.

I also searched Mouser and Digikey for blowers that would fit but none come close to the cfm rating of the above fans. I'm sure there are others out there, but for the dimensions we're looking at, I would think that 10-12cfm is the maximum realistic airflow.

 

I cannot tell yet, as I only have my GPU fan modded. I set fan speed, so when my M290x at 975/1250 is reaching 72 degrees, it maxes the fan and then temperature usually drops.

BTW, Raidriar... Have you ever looked at the M15x R09 bios? I think I saw you were into that stuff in another thread. It could be really nice, if we somehow could edit out the throttle part

 

I look forward to hearing how well this works to keep the CPU fan cool. Even 5C cooler would be worth the upgrade for me.

 

I don't know what throttle you're talking about. I have had no throttle in the m15x when using the 240W adapter unless you were exceeding the power draw on the MXM slot, which is a circuitry thing and not a BIOS thing. svl7 couldn't get rid of it, no way i'll be able to either. Best bet is to find a lower consumption card or undervolt the 8970M

 

EDIT: Moved to PM

 

M15X GPU is possible to mod an upgrade but the cpu is really really hard because the mounting plate and fan chassis are all one solid piece of metal!

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

iirc you can disassemble the fan and get the plate that houses the fan motor out, it's just a single piece of metal with the motor glued on top of it

 

After looking at pictures of both sides of the CPU heatsink and fan, it looks like what Mobius said is correct. It seems like someone would have done this upgrade a long time ago with how hot these CPUs get when overclocked, though. It makes me wonder why this hasn't been done before.
I hope the picture works.

 

Any updates on how the fan mod is going?

 

Haven't gotten around to it. I had my motherboard die on me recently and am waiting on a replacement. If I go ahead with the mod, I'll definitely post the results.

 

Haha my motherboard died too. I have just installed a replacement and have the M15x running again. I melted something in the power controlling circuit, while drawing app. 300W through a modded psu...

In the meantime, I recieved the 11,4cfm fan. I will try to mod it in place soon.

 

Mine was weird. All of a sudden it stopped receiving power from the power jack but did still operate on battery. I checked with a multimeter and confirmed that the jack itself was fine but somewhere along the power delivery something must have failed. Motherboards are cheap now (paid 70USD shipped from Aliexpress) so I didn't spend too much time on the dead board.

 

Mine got really warm on the left side and then started to smell burnt. At the same time, charging power started to turn off and on once every 2 sec. I powered it down and let it rest until cold. But power kept being erratic. Finally it stopped charging like yours...

 

Any update on the fan? 11.4cfm should help significantly instead of 5.5cfm

 

Also interested, ill be modding the m17x r4 fan into my y510p in the coming months (gathering the supplies, and have to replace dremel sadly)

 

I purchased a M15x CPU heatsink/fan and a M17x Cpu fan (DP/N 0U012M). This M17x fan is rated at 11.2 CFM. This fan is just too big to naturally fit inside the M15x cpu fan case. The good news about these fans is that they just pop right off the fan motor (just the actual fan). I figure that if I can find a higher rated fan that simply fits in the fan casing (that also just pops off), I won't have to do any type of dremel work. I still plan to test whether or not this fan will work with my Gpu's fan. I will update this post once my backup gpu fan arrives.

 

I will admit that I have got the 11,4cfm fan, but I'm hesitating to try to install it, as I dont have a cpu temperature problem.

 

I do lol, though its for a different laptop, my y510p someone else had already modded the 10.4CFM fan from the m14xR2 but have been curious about this 11.4CFM one

Anyways the thread is watched so if anyone does it, should be fun to see

 

Would you guys be willing to measure the diameter of those fans as well as provide their Dell Part Number. I think this thread would benefit from making a list of possible fans that may be used. When I say "diameter" I am referring to the diameter of the actual fan, and not the fan casing. This means that the case would have to be opened in order to measure the fan.

I will go first:

1) Alienware M15x CPU Fan (DP/N PR2H1)[AVC Stock] : 5.5 cm diameter/5.50 CFM/2.5 watts

2) Alienware M15x CPU Fan (DP/N ?????)[Delta Stock] : 5.5 cm diameter/7.70 CFM/2.5 watts

3) Alienware M15x GPU Fan (DP/N 074W61)[AVC Stock] : 5.5 cm diameter/7.80 CFM/2.5 watts

4) Alienware M17x R2 CPU Fan (DP/N 0U012M)[AVC Stock] : 6.5 cm diameter/11.2 CFM/2.5 watts

 

I dont this fan. I am just really curious how it plays for people

 

For you guys that don't want to mod your fans, apparently the heatsink + fan combo came in 2 different versions. Any system that did not ship with the 920XM from factory cam with the 5.0cfm fan. systems that came with the 920XM shipped with a 7.7cfm fan. Just purchased one from here. For 5$, hard not to do it for a plug and play upgrade.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alienware-M...hash=item2a218377c3:m:mBc5kJs4PGxBwOfOIt7tXmA

 

I have AVC fan which one is 5.5cfm and this fans spins up to 4600rpm as 7.7cfm Delta fans do.
So, where is the difference?

 

possibly number of blades, curvature of blades, etc.

 

7.7 cfm still ain't enough

 

I purchased three of these. They were 5.5 CFM fans so I am asking for a refund. Bleh...

 

As did I, i told them I wanted a 7.7 and they said they didn't have any....the hunt continues.

 

They refunded and didn't ask for them back. Probably because it would cost them money to return them.

 

I ordered the 10.4 CFM fan from the m14x R2 for my y510p model number
0XN0G5

I culdnt risk the larger m17x R4 GPU fan, as its slightly larger I believe