M17 gpu temperatures and paste change

Hello, i am getting worried over my gpu temps.. i recorded them with hwmonitor...
idle: 50/52C
full load with crysis warhead: 89/91C - this worries me.. (once i hit 96C but the vent was blocked that time )
I noticed that sometimes the game would drop 10 frames at a time (no explosions and nothing special just walking in the snow) and i alt tabbed out immediately to gpu-z but never noticed any underclocking so i dont know how to explain the frame drops - any ideas? My settings in warhead are varied, but most are gamer and enthusiast (only environmental is minimum and water quality is mainstream) 1900x1200 resolution, so i am really pushing the cards.. Average fps in the most demanding map till now (the snowy one) is 21 (ranges from 17-27) otherwise its around 25-32. Am i pushing them so much so they get so hot or is this still not normal?
On other games i dont get over 85, but besides crysis i only tried only warcraft tft (alot lower temps) and half-life 2 deathmatch.

If not i would like to know how to remove the mxm crossfire cable.. i opened the lappy up and i just dont know how to do it.. i am afraid ill tear it with pulling since i dont even know which direction i should pull... And should i remove those pads around the card? (not the crappy alienware thermal paste pads i intend to replace that with arctic mx-2)

I know that alienware pads are crap since i changed them with mx-2 on the cpu and the little chip (northbridge?) and my temps dropped by around 7 degrees.

Also on that note.. that little chip is always around 2C hotter than my cpu.. is that also normal? (i have q9100 and my highest temps were 67 on cpu and 69 on the other chip)

I know im asking alot and its not organised but answers would be greatly appreciated. Im really in the dark myself.

 

well your gpu are alittle warm but not by to much. i suggest you to the dust protecter off the cover where the gpu is and to raise the back of it. this should bring you down 5-10 degrees.

 

It is raised on a zalman cooler.. but i am not comfortable taking off the dust cover since i believe that it does serve its purpose of holding out some dust.. i was just wondering since E-wrecked claims it should be under 80 or 85 all the time since he reaches that only when ocing.. and im not ocing. Any other idea? or how to take the mxm off to replace the paste or is that a waste of time?

 

Are you using any kind of laptop fan cooler? AW says to only worry if they get above 100, but yeah you should worry a little if theyre above 90.

 

Have u opened up the computer and cleaned out the vents? My vents got completely clogged up and this caused me to get really high temperatures. U actually have to unscrew the whole fan to see if the vents are clogged (heatsinks) as just blowing air into the fans or through the fans are not enough. It is the connection between the fans and the vents that gets clogged up.

 

I had similar temps and concerns with mine (recorded peaks of 91 and 93 on two separate occasions so far while playing graphics intesnsive games, on a cooler, with the back of the notebook raised a bit to improve air flow and (on one occasion) with an additional fan blowing across the back to ENSURE good air flow...

Anyway, I contacted alienware, and their response was:

So, the official party line is temps we're seeing are not considered by them to be hot, i guess. I, too, am concerned, as mine is 3 days old - I can imagine that the temps will creep up a bit as dust accumulates on the heatsinks...

Anyway, my plan is to try and a) keep the laptop very clean, checking every month or two for dust buildup, b) keep a close eye on temps, especially while playing games that stress the system, and c) be ready to activate my alienware warranty should anything go wrong!

 

Yea i would gladly take off the heatsink but i dont know how to remove the mxm cable atop of them so i cant do it! Please a guide on just how to remove that crossfire cable. And should i replace the thermal pads with arctic cooling mx-2?

 

And is it normal for my TZ00 chip to be 3C hotter than my cpu cores?
Thank you again for all your effort...

 

On either end of the MXM cable there is a little black tab. Just pull straight up to remove.

 

Thank you for the info Rob41, i took off the heatsink and all was completely clean... i didnt change the paste yet though... do you think i should go ahead or not? Someone did it so they can tell me if it improves the situation?

 

it will void your warrenty i m pretty sure

 

Alienware team already screwed me over.. long story so read at own risk.. a seller on chat said its fine to change the cpu myslef (i even asked him twice if he is sure it wont void warranty) so i did it.. i had a p8400 and swapped for the q9100 and no i didnt buy it from alienware i bought it in germany.. i call in a few days later asking for some info about the gpu temps and they say that me changing the cpu voids my warranty.. i didnt make screenies and they say theyll look into the logs so they see if the seller really said it.. the chat is in usa and i bought from gb so they know nothing.. im still waiting but not expecting much and frankly i dont care.. Their attitude is awful and i will never buy from them again. They let me wait 30 mins on the phone with an international call and they didnt even give me the thermal operating specification numbers!! just two numbers i didnt ask for anything else (which i got later from ocz - i will probably buy with them next time). 1 year warranty really isnt much anyway and i wouldnt send it back from Slovenia to Ireland and pay 300 € shipping there and back. Id rather buy the broken part if it happened within the 1 year timeframe which i highly doubt.

So anyway warranty.. screw it - i want cooler gpus + the seller also said its ok to change the paste so if they will admit they have the logs of my chat it doesnt really make a difference... and im changing the cpu again when qx9400 or qx9500 comes out anyway.

I just want to know if anyone knows for a fact that changing paste to mx-2 helps (basicaly same as as5 but silicon based so no curing needed and no danger to short circuit and a bit better at transfering heat).

I know i am writing too much. I just get pissed off when the words alienware and warranty come up in the same context. They are the worst sellers i dealt with.

 

I wouldn't have removed the heatsink/fan assy without some new thermal compound like Arctic silver 5. Anyway, IMO, you might want to "squish" the original thermal paste on the sides a little so when you reinstall, the paste will be able to compress a bit to ensure there is a good contact patch.

 

lol yes it has been said by some one else who changed it dropped 5-7 c depending how good they put the orginal paste

 

Whell thanks thats good enough for me.. ill do it tomorrow prolly.. still playing with setfsb today got to 2,93ghz by upping the fsb but dont dare run 3dmark anymore.. already got almost 15k on 2,6ghz ^^

 

your useing a q2100 right ?

i hit almost 15k as well

 

Yes its a q9100. Love it.. its a real difference over p8400 - which is crap.

The thermal paste change to mx-2 made a huge difference - alienware crud is really crud. They are supposed to be selling the best gaming notebooks for 2k prices and above and they dont bother to assemble them with quality cooling paste and just claim its normal for temps to be sky-high. The cooling paste is a few dollars guys! If i spend thousands on a notebook i would expect it to work perfectly.

I am now getting 79/82C max after 2 hours of crysis and expirience no more fps drops! Praise to arctic cooling !

 

good to hear at least i gave you good advice lol woulda sucked if i gave bad you can OC that thing to im curious how high can u OC with setfsb?

 

Ill play a lil again tonight with it and post some screenies of how far i come .

Btw: does any1 have any info if intel will really release a succesor to qx9300 or is it just made up (like a qx9400 or qx9500)?

And if i change my bios to ocz to get rid of stuttering and bad fan control (my fans sometimes dont stop blowing even at 42C they blow like mad) will i still be able to use all the features of the quick keys and fn+x keys - will all still work like before?

 

my fans are fine. but the stuttering is there but i heard people who switched from alienware to the ocz saw a difference.

 

use mx2 paste imo for gpu its better then as5...and the ocz bios (pm me if you need my .28 with the installer i made for it) is for sure better than the aw bios is

 

Any1 got any info on qx9500 or such?

 

it will be a while and it is still not a final def release on anything over the qx9300. the qx9400 is supposed to be a sure thing but after speaking to intel they said it may or may not be out any time soon.

 

So basically, if i can get a cheap qx9300 qs i should just get it right ^^?

 

yes. the newer ones will not give you much of a performance gain imo. most likely if i had to guess they will be overclocked versions of the qx9300

 

Theres also one more thing: the gpu drivers; i tried to instal catalyst 9.1 when i first got my m17 and the whole system flashed changing resolution and i had to format and reinstal the whole os to completely fix it.. now im still running the alienware drivers which i believe are far inferior to the 9.2 or 9.3? Which work 100% and are the best? E-wrecked? A link perhaps to which you recommend ?
(and do you have any comparison data perhaps ^^)

 

look in my sig for the m17 sticky it has driver comparison if you follow E-wrecked instructions it will work perfect. i would try 9.1 for no overclocking or 8.10 if you want to over clock

 

I followed the instructions and got to the refresh in clevo folder and it didnt work so i tried phlash16 coomand and it opened a blue screen and a red window in the middle saying error its a bad file or something.. luckily my bios still works.. any idea what happened?

 

Hey, zfactor i successfully flashed the bios and almost got a heart attack when it rebooted for 5 times in a row always changing keyboard collors... and then when it said no operating system since i forgot to enable raid.. but then it got to windows and now it says i dont have a genuine copy and that i need to activate today! :S what do i do now?

 

put in your product key under your battery

 

Ah thanks that worked Dont really understand why it flipped out on me though.. btw can someone with windows 7 tell me.. is it worth upgrading? cause ive been whinking to install it..
And if so can i just upgrade or will the old drivers ruin it and i need to do a fresh install?

EDIT: In the bios my multiplier option is not greyed out even though i have a q9100.. i tried hightening it but it doesnt really do anything.. why is it there then?
I know i made a humongus thread but this is my first laptop..

 

ohhhhhh yes it is

nope im pretty sure u can just upgrade but u will loose your respawn thing

windows 7 is what vista was ment to be

im not sure about the multiplier PM E-wrecked or Johnksss or ichime

P.S when you changed the bios it made windows think it was a differnt machine, its a known issue.

 

Ahh.. thanks for the info and explanation ! Ill instal the windows 7 fresh when i get the new ssds and cpu..

 

nice!!!! win 7 was mostly optimized for my SSD and it boots in 7 sec

what SSD did you get ? and what cpu?

 

I got 2x (raid0) transcend 64gb ssds now (read 148, write 91 each). Im probably gettin 2x ocz ssd 250gb (read 155, write 90) and im gettin the qx9300 qs as soon as a good offer comes up near me.

 

ughhh try to get the vertex you will not be disapointed. There is no stuttering ....

but that looks good

all i could afford after a month of saving was the 30 gig OCZ vertex lol

 

Wow 250 read 160 write.. not bad.. but pricey.. i need space too so i really gotta have at least 250 if not 500 gigs..

 

get 1 ssd for OS and 1 for storage

 

So a 30gb vertex ssd and a 500 gig normal?
But isnt it also efficient to have games on ssd? (i usually have around 20gb of them and 15 gb vista+programs and the rest is movies and music which i think doesnt matter if its on a normal hdd)

If it isnt a difference than i seriously might consider it since good ssds arent cheap.. still raiding ssds gives me a 500 read .. i wanted to get a normal external 500 or 1tb drive with the two ssds.. but now im not sure.. (the best thing is still the ssds dont make a sound which i really like)

 

no the games will only load faster they will not run faster

 

Thats what i had in mind
Anyway im still waiting for a good offer to come along on our version of ebay..
so im still in a dilemma.. 1 smaller ssd + 500gb 5400rpm or two ssds.. the price difference is huge though so i might now actually get the first choice.. ill test how loud the normal drive is in my notebook first..

 

60 gig vertex super fast 180 bucks at new egg free shipping

i have the vertex and its amazing

 

Im from Europe so i cant get it from newegg.. its a bit more pricey here.. its 279€ (300$+) at the cheapest shop.. thats why i buy from ebay.de or a similar site in my country.. I just got a 2,5 slim external 320gb drive.. the 500gb ones were ridiculasly expensive, large and require external power source unlike this one which just uses a usb port to power itself..
Ill definetely get the vertex.. just have to find a good deal..
Youre lucky in usa.. you get tech equipment really cheap unlike us..

 

where you from in europe?

 

Updated my profile.. just take a look on the left

 

anyone have any thoughts on express card ssd's?

 

small, slow and overpriced. any further questions?

 

Come on man, tell us how you really feel

 

I just found another good one.. ocz apex 60gb - same speeds as vertex.. know anythin about it?
If you could tell me the difference it would be great.. (apex is cheaper btw)

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=367610

check that out the apex is fast but will stutter