m17 running too hot?

Hello,
I have a 3 or 4 week old m17 with dual 4850's and I'm worried that the gpus are running too hot. They both idle at 60-70c and during games have hit as high as 109c... I took the cloth off the bottom of the laptop, raised it up(on erasers), and even reapplied the thermal paste, and the temps have dropped maybe 5c from what they used to be (yeah, they hit 114c before )...

Anyone with a similar system have any temps to compare, or does anybody know if this is bad?

 

hi bud well i got the cards seperatley but im running 82c during games and at the moment ive got

62 and 60 c thats each card idle

p.s i gt black sponge deliverd with the cards i havent used it where does it go.

also

looks like your not opstructing airflow

2 how hot is your house is it a warm enviroment you live in.

3 what drivers are you using bud.


does seem too hot tho, see if anybody else has any ideas as i would have done what you did.

maybe the black sponge that i never fitted is hindering you

 

I'm in a college dorm but its actually about 70F in here so not hot, and I'm using the 9.8 Hotfix drivers on Windows 7 Enterprise x64

 

same here but not windows 7

youve only had it about 3 weeks so the vents shouldnt be blocked, the fan on the back is it always running high noisey when idle? and same question when playing games ect.

 

I'd say redo your thermal paste; use a credit card to get a paperthin, minutely thin layer, thats all you need; these cards run bloody hot though. Consider buying a laptop cooler for long term temps, my Cryo dropped mine from about 100 degrees load to low 90s; the antec 200 cooler also looks like a good bet though.
Would consider trying Tuniq TX-3/2 or OCZ freeze instead of AS5, they're a little easier to use, and dont have the same cure in time of AS5


Also Kcuk, those black pads go UNDERNEATH the 4850s.

Imagine a sandwich, your black pads cover the memory cards on the bottom of the card like the bottom slice of bread, the memory chips/graphics board is the filling, and you have the thermal pads being crammed onto the memory chips on the top side of the cards by the big heatsink assembly

Hope that makes sense! Effectively they're just larger thermal pads because you dont have the heatsink on the bottom of the card; just the top!

 

Yeah kcuk the fans rev really high when in games, idle not so much...

And Alex I am thinking about getting a cryo but I just want to make sure I dont have defective cards.... I did the credit card trick too but I'm pretty sure the thermal paste I have is junk... I'm gonna pick up some better stuff and reapply

 

what temp is your CPU running?

 

Cpu seems fine... idles at 50-55c and max is 73c

 

Re-applied thermal paste, and down to 104c max now... a little better, anyone know where the thermal thottling temp is on these cards?

 

not be bud sorry...

are you using everest as that mesures 3 different temps on each card

 

Yeah using everest ultimate and got the 3 diff temps for both cards, im giving the highest one

 

take the black cloth off the service panel

 

Hey Moo,
Already took the cloth off in the beginning

 

i know you have done this now a cple of times but i still think their not sitting right on the heatsink or somethings happend to your thermal paste.

ive gone back to using my finger to spread the paste i seem to have the best results.

 

rifle shot what game is giving you such high temps? Sometimes it depends on the game.

Asassins creed I don't hit past 94C
COD4 I don't hit past 92C

overlord 2 I hit 104C,

all those temps are after playing for at least 30 mins so they're accurate, it really depends on the game


vsync helps reduce temps btw because the cards don't have to work as hard to put out 60fps when they can do like 150 on full load, plus 60fps will look better b/c it will eliminate tearing

 

I agree it does depend on the game maximus, Some games like Fallout 3 I never go past the low 90's, whereas in games like crysis and some others I am hitting 104-109c

 

Kcuk, I reapplied the thermal paste again and used my finger(in a plastic bag of course) to spread the thermal paste... still no difference in temps, and I made sure that the heatsink was pressed down firmly and screwed in tightly. Looks like these cards may just run really hot?

 

Honestly rifle shot, I've found taht there are only 3 real things you can do to help lower temps:

1. apply AS5 which you've already done
2. Get a Cryo LX, I was skeptical, especially because the thing costs 80 bucks, but it lowered my temps about 6-8C so it was worth it in my mind
3. get some copper heatsinks to put on the gpu. use these http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320408892263&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT I ordered them a while back but they still haven't arrived yet, I got the link from another m17 post though so I think they should work no problem, they should lower temps about 3-5C also

All of those things combined should keep your temps below 90C for most games and probably max out at like 96-97C on extremely gpu intensive games

That's just my 2 cents after browsing these forums for the last two months or so looking for an answer to the heat problem of the m17

Good luck! let me know how it turns out

 

yep id agree must bee the cards as when i had 3870s in the fan only really kicked in when playing games,

now it dosent turn off.

with back of and laptop cooler on it still hit 54 idle with fan on and 78 during games.... so when these come out for others i wouldnt try to overclock em!

 

heh makes alienware seem a little more cautious all the while they were saying they ran very hot in the whitebook...

 

you're lucky, most of us have like 60C idle and anywhere from 88C - 96C during games

78C is not bad at ALL

 

Hey everyone good news.

I replaced the crap thermal paste that I was using and got some arctic silver ceramique and put it on. I followed the guide for it on arctic silvers website
http://www.arcticsilver.com/ins_route_step2intelcmq.html
especially the step where you put some on the heatsink to fill in the cracks and then wipe off the excess, which I think made a big difference b/c alienware seems to have put alot of scratches on the heatsink in some attempt to sand it.

Anyways sorry for the rant, but my max temp after an hour of Crysis: warhead, which used to be 109c, is now 98c, and all the other games barely get past the low 90's. And btw this is with the bottom on, and level on the desk. I can imagine it would go lower if I got a cryo LX for it.

so anyways, solution: Arctic Silver Ceramique

 

good one bud keep going lower lower lower lower

 

When I get the nice new m17 coming I am going to be trying a mod I wanted to do foe a while now ... I just need another service panel ..... Any one got one ?