The m15x HDD Heat Mod

This is a quick tutorial/walkthrough for what I have dubbed the "HDD Heat Mod" for the Alienware m15x.

While the m15x luckily does not suffer from extremely high HDD temps (I'm looking at you, m860tu ), lower hard drive temps immediately translate into higher data retention and a longer lifespan for the component, which are always nice things to have.

The idea behind this mod is to un-restrict airflow access to the HDD cage, located under the right palmrest. This is achieved by removing a part of the m15x' service cover. This guide aims to show how this is done. I've taken the liberty of snapping a few pictures to illustrate the process. on a side note, this mod should not void your warranty with AW.

Step 1: Unscrew the service cover

pretty self-explanatory. probably, every m15x user has done this before. if you haven't, it's pretty easy. simply remove all the screws marked below. make sure to remove your battery, and ensure your system is completely powered down, beforehand.



Step 2: Separate the service cover from the chassis

after that, lift off the service cover. you should have this view of your lappy:



however, we want to focus more on the service cover itself, which should look like this:



the interesting part is the top section, which is usually directly beneath your HDD:



if we flip over the service cover (either remove the screws, or put some pieces of tape over the screwholes to keep the screws from falling out), you should see this:



this plastic "sheet" lies directly underneath the HDD, blocking the airflow's access to the HDD cage (I'm assuming here that you're using a notebook cooler, like many m15x users). Since the airflow can't directly reach the HDD, you lose a fair amount of cooling potential/power. Ergo, removing the plastic sheet should improve the cooling of the HDD by un-hindering airflow access to the HDD cage.

Step 3: Remove the plastic sheet

we are now presented with two possibilities: removing the entire black plastic sheet, or merely removing the part which covers the HDD. both have advantages and disadvantages - removing the entire plastic sheet (marked green and red below) will provide better cooling (and also cool the motherboard), but will allow a bit more dust into your system. removing only the top part of the plastic sheet ( green below) will cool "only" the HDD, but will not allow more dust into your system. here's a reference pic to show what i mean:



choose wisely, young grasshopper! and then break out the exacto knife and make the cuts marked below. again, either green and red if you want to cool HDD and mobo, or just green for the HDD.



afterwards, you can throw away the plastic sheet you removed. you won't need it anymore.

Step 4: Reassemble your laptop

easiest step of them all. place your newly-modified service cover on your laptop, and screw in all the screws. here's the "map" again:



...aaand we're finished! enjoy your new, cooler laptop, and don't forget to comment if the mod has worked for you or not.

 

Does it work? Your temps have decreased by how much?

 

Alright you caught me Its not that bad but does get "hot".

Nice guide, I've been wondering the same thing on my NP8660 too but its beneath my heatsink. Is the black sheet there for some reason? If yes, what is it?

 

That's what I was thinking. Is to limit dust intake as Whizzo suggests?

 

i don't think so. if you look at this pic:



you see that while the plastic does block dust, there's a perfectly un-blocked vent right underneath, so it wouldn't make any sense for it's main purpose to be keeping out dust. maybe the plastic is anti-static or something to protect the HDD?

 

I always thought it was to keep the color uniformly black on the back cover, never really asked though...

On a purely heat-related standpoint, this reminds me of older ALX desktops on which we asked customers to yank the plastic part out in the back to allow for more airflow.

Only Im not entirely sure that this will make a great difference temperature wise in this case, but itd be interesting to bench and compare... nice thread and pics.

+1

 

I did that a few weeks ago, I noticed that the temps stay about 2-5C cooler than with the panel, my guess you would see better results if you have a cooler blowing air on it.

 

Hey, nice job whizzo!

 

that's what i believe too. can you perhaps post your exact HDD temps? or anybody else, for that matter - how's this mod working for you guys?

 

I'll give it a try and let you know my results!

 

hey otaku, how's the mod worked out for you?

 

no issues at least seems like the palmrest on the right hand side stays cooler but this is just my feeling (literally) thats a good difference. Course I also went back to a 179.48 driver (those 185 were a pain) and am back to an older bios

 

This is the one thing i would like some clarification on before modding... it looks like they went out of their way to actually add that part to the bottom...this is a superfluous addition that took time and money to do... why would they do that?

so... i think there might be a reason its there... no?

to add to this, has anyone considered drilling extra holes in the bottom cover where the gpu or cpu heat sink is? theoretically its the same thing, right? more ventilation, more cooling. would it even matter, as hot air rises (w/out laptop cooler)?

 

that mod will work quite well .... i believe some one here did it wit their m17


bw when you drill those hole conver it with a thin mesh not to thick though then it would defeat the purpose .....the mesh is to keep the dust out that way u dont have to clean all the time

 

i'm not really sure why the plastic sheet is there. i can only think of two things:

1) aesthetics, to maintain a uniform black color even if you lift the front of the notebook a bit.

2) electro-magnetic shielding for the HDD.

 

2) - which we know is false since the only magnet that could screw up a hard drive would be a MASSIVE magnet placed directly on the hard drive, or an electro magnet .

I'm going to do this mod, as my 7,200rpm 320gig seagate hard drive is quite hot. (quite hot as in 42c O_O)

 

whizzo lets go Schwinging (i unno how to spell it)

 

I think the mesh is there to keep the vent the same color as the back panel. What you could try is instead of removing the mesh, replacing it with one that has more holes to promote airflow. That way you could keep dust from getting in as well.

Duane

 

did you perchance watch "Dhani Tackles the Globe" on the Travel Channel?

and yes you spelled it correctly.

 

is there maybe a way to make a GPU ventilation mod??? My max gpu tempertaure when gaming is 92C but when I tried running it again with the bottom cover removed, my temperature drops to 77C. This is with a laptop cooler btw. So I've come to the conclusion that if someone can in some way fashion some cool new vents where the gpu heatsink is, we can drastically cool our GPUS!

I would do it myself by I am not a very good hands on kind of guy. Maybe some of you guys have tried it before?

 

well you temps dropped because you have more air carrying away the heat from the GPU ... you could try removing the dust cover form the GPU