[Alienware 17R4 / 15R3] - Disassembly + Repaste Guide + Results

Thanks for replying, I really appreciate it.
Unfortunately, I am not from US but Philippines (South-East Asia).
If I am not going to OC but rely with the stock speed of the OCable CPU, would the laptop still survive if I play games, especially those intensive-CPU games @1440p max settings such as Battlefield 1?

 

Yes, buy an OC'able CPU it would be far more future proof than locked one. You can follow @iunlock guide for repasting.

 

Thank you so much for the response. I contacted the store that is related to Dell US when you want to order one to them. And it turns out that, that particular store checks whether the unit suffers from high temps. If so, they repaste it with IC Diamond.
By the way, how good is IC Diamond?

 

IC diamond is good

 

I heard that IC Diamond damage the die? Is it safe?

 

I would not use ICD. Here is some info from the OP.

Below are the conductivity numbers for the top Liquid Metals and Traditional Paste:
(As we know the numbers don't mean everything, however, from all my tests done so far, Grizzly Conductonaut has always topped CLLU by an average of ~3C. Results may vary. However, because I am repasting, every drop in C's count. It could make all the difference in some scenarios. To each his own...)

-

Liquid Metals:
Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut - 73 W/mk
Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra - 38.4 W/mk
Coollaboratory Liquid Pro - 32.6 W/mk

Traditional Paste:
Grizzly Kyronaut: 12.5 W/mk
Gelid GC Extreme: 8.5 W/mk
ICD: 4.5 W/mk

-


Again, numbers don't mean everything, but there are better options out there, which I've along with others have personally tested numerous times.

I would select from the pastes in the order that they are listed above.

 

Thanks! I'll look into it.

 

Hey guys, since I got a newer model on the way , is it still beneficial to change the thermal pads?

Also i assume 1.0 gram of conductonaut should be sufficient correct?

 

Yup. Well worth the time and effort.

 

Quick question about the 15 R3 - is repasting of the newer 7820HK / GTX 1070 like the older ones where you don't have to flip out the motherboard, or will it be exactly like in this guide?

 

Nice breakdown, the new R4 looks promising.

 

Thanks.

Yea it's been pretty fun pushing the 7820HK and being able to achieve the scores/marks/OC's that I was once working on with the 6700K. It's a pretty big leap from the 6820HK for sure. The new 17R4 Kaby's are much stronger too, integrity wise.

So far with my 17R4 Kaby, I've beat all the personal records I've set with the msi and asus. Heck even the P775DM3. The MSI still has the strongest gpu among all the laptops so far. But overall score wise, the 17R4 tops the charts in the 3DMark and OC categories for air cooled.

 

Yes pads are 100% worth it, stick to the guide exactly in this thread. My experience posted and linked in my signature has some additional tips and guidance worth reading also. 1g of conductonaut is plenty for one and will probably do 3 repastes of both CPU and GPU and their heatsinks if done properly with minimal waste but at least twice no problem

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So here are results for almost an hour of OCCT running in a room ~80F after repaste with kryonaut. (Stock settings Level 3 OC used, fans on performance)

 

Oh dear, better do it again then and properly balance the CPU this time using pressure paper is advised. Did you replace the pads?

You have the classic signs of uneven pressure on the heatsink. Cores 0 and 2 are the two quadrants on the top of the CPU and your results show conclusively that the heatsink isn't balanced right. I.E. Not touching and is lifted on the top part of the CPU hence those cores are not being cooled properly. Also don't use overclocking levels in BIOS. They are cancer, use BIOS and XTU to unlock power limits and OC with Throttlestop.

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Yea when I first did it I had replaced all the pads as well but the pressure was even worse. I noticed that the 1mm pads you see me circle in a previous post are now 0.1mm so I replaced them back with those. I already bent the tension arm. I know the cores are uneven but at least the temps are lower now. Unfortunately it is very difficult for me to repaste because I can not fully remove the cover due to a stripped screw that holds in one of the led sides. The screw was way overly tightened by the factory and as a result I got to have a second person hold the cover and move it around as I replace the heatsink...

Does anyone have a link to replacement screws? Maybe if I got one I could cut the old screw head off and replace it but it would be very difficult. Also short of trying to bend the tension arm even more I am not sure what else I could effectively do to increase the tension.

 

Thanks for the reply, ordering the materials now. The conductonaut should be fine for someone who always travels flat for work provided it is done in th method posted right? Pct mod worth it as well? The heatsink with small dabs of glue at the corner strong enough to stay on?

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Hey everyone. I'm new to these boards.

I got my Alienware 17 R4 a few weeks ago and everything seemed great. Ran VR so easily and the less graphic intense games ran perfectly. The problem happened when I installed Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Wildlands on Ultra settings or if I run a CPU benchmark. My CPU get's into the 90's within the first 5-10 minutes.

Alienware tech support did some remote desktop stress testing and they want to replace the heatsync and repaste next week. I asked if they could use thermal paste and materials I provided and they said that is fine.

Should I order this stuff and ask the tech to do it? Should I attempt to do it myself? Or should I just return the thing....

Pics of HWinfo screenshots here -> http://imgur.com/a/nure5

Specs:
17.3 inch QHD (2560 x 1440) 120Hz TN+WVA Anti-Glare 400-nits Display with Tobii IR Eye-tracking
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1080 with 8GB GDDR5X
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7820HK (Quad-Core, 8MB Cache, Overclocking up to 4.4GHz)
32GB DDR4-2400MHz
Samsung 960 EVO 256GB PCIe SSD (Windows)
512GB PCIe SSD (Program Files)
500GB Kingston SSD (Storage)
Killer 1535 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1

 

To be honest, I think if I used laptops again, and was on the road, I would want this laptop. Even if it is BGA and not upgradeable like my Clevo's or has as much GPU power as them. I just want something small and quick with medium power sometimes. This or the Sky MX5R2 would be my contenders for that. But always had a softspot for Alienware's.

 

The new Kaby Lake AW 17R4 sits already at the top of its Class for Overall All Around Best Laptop...in my opinion speaking from owning all of the major contenders.

If there was something better, as someone who is extremely OCD and a perfectionist, I would be using it.

GPU wise, it's no slouch and it performs up there with even the heavier weight class. The truth is, the gaming experience is the same on a bga or a mxm regardless (ever since Pascal)...and as you know, it takes a lot to achieve a little in fps with an OC, then comes the trade off of battling with heat and thermal throttling.

What wins it for the AW 17R4 Kaby is the excellent cooling system. It is better than the ASUS, MSI and even CLEVO. At my 4.7GHz OC the system is able to cool better than even the beefier Clevo 775 with the 6700K at 4.6Ghz. Those other systems use a go big or go home approach, but it lacks engineering so in ratio the efficiency is not there and not even close to matching up with the 17R4's cooling system.



As for the GPU, when kept at stock clocks it never passes 58C on stock fans and this is with the 200W TDP on the GTX 1080.

Even with a healthy OC on the GPU the temps only dance around 60C-61C.

Whereas on a DTR, the GTX 1080 is in the 70C-80C's and at those temps after factoring in thermal throttling etc... this is when the ratio comes into play of the cooler running GPU on the 17R4 being right up there in class, if not better in real world experience.



There are many on here who have LM'ed as well to support the winning cooling system of the 17R4 Kaby.

The current dtr's have one heck of a time keeping the system cool, both with the CPU and GPU. So in ratio, when it comes to efficiency, the 17R4 Kaby wins hands down.

As for being able to upgrade, it is a nice feature to have on a dtr and I'm all for the lga machines, but the future of that is even questionable as to how many generations can be squeezed out of a dtr with the uncertainty of the mxm cards and heat issues even with the current CPU's?

I hope that the design and build quality improves on the dtr's, because we want to keep them alive since the mainstream ODM's have scrapped the projects.

Anyhow, as for practicality, the same experience can be had on the 17R4 as on any DTR, and in most cases even better. That gap that once used to exist is no longer there thanks to Pascal and now Kaby lake.

 

Could you fire up P95 and Aida64 as tested with P775DM3-G so we can see how much better the cooling is? Of course max oc'd. Would be nice if you as well tested Aida64 with only stress FPU and Graphics checked. Uncheck all other boxes. Thanks

 

Sure thing. It's also important to factor in the different ranges of Temps:

+ Normal operating range within normal operating Temps. (practical data)

+ Extreme range, after normal operating Temps. (impractical data if not running those high clocks daily.)

There seems to be a breaking point on all laptops after thermal saturation of the given heat sink / pipe.

The next factor is the size of the heat fins and the ability of the fans to disapate the heat. If the rate of flow is not high enough, there will be a thermal back up like on some thin laptops.

Testing the Temps at 47x or any OC would be more sensible under real world conditions. Rendering, gaming, etc...

Unrealistic benches have no practicality to the real world.


::iunlock::

 

Pete, did you use pressure paper as well? If yes, where did you get it in the UK?

 

Hi, have you tried an elastic band between the screw head and screwdriver? That can work. Also bending the heatsink on the pipes can fix it so it mates flush with the CPU and GPU. Also I'd focus on doing screws up in order around the CPU first to get it balanced correctly before focusing on the GPU...

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Get kyronaut and fujipoly pads...

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Actually I didn't because I'm lazy and I winged it! If I was to do it again I definitely would though (before I pout the paste on of course! )

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Yeah, I understand you Anyway you have great temps while OC, so you've a decent and even heatsink.

 

I love having the Alienware sponsored posts come up on Facebook, they never cease to humor me. All the time you see people posting "don't buy Alienware, its just a name"... "Alienware is sht you can get better for the same money". Obviously we as users know that that isn't the case. And it's very easy to get a Alienware cheaper than any other brand. But the info you bring not only disproves those people all the time and shows THEY in fact wasted THEIR money, but it assures that we have made good decisions.

 

I should draw up a visual tree of, "If this... Then that.." you know... One of those tree flow charts.

The flow chart today will look very different than a few years ago when there was indeed a huge gap between desktops, dtr's, and gaming laptops.

With Pascal and kaby Lake, the playing fields have leveled.

Synthetic benches are for fun and is just a tool to have something to measure with of the chips capability ... Kind of like a car a dyno. It's not perfect since there's no wind resistance, road variables etc... But it gives us a good number to base comparisons on...

So at the end of the day, when tallying up all the things that really matter, the 17r4 kaby is the most well rounded gaming laptop IMO.

It games just as well as any dtr or even desktop. Same same.

It completes my rendering, encoding etc... Just the same experience as I would have on a dtr or desktop...

All the while with a uniform design that is practical to travel with, let alone the best build quality in its class (and above), good cooling system and finally a motherboard / chips on the new kaby unit that's worthy with good integrity.

To be clear, I would never pay more for any system than its worth. Ex. I would never pay close to $4k for the aw 17r4 when one can opt for a dtr for less, if needing a desktop portable unit.

It all boils down to practicality and going with a system that checks all the boxes (most boxes) for ones needs.

There will always be compromises with any system...

And the truth is, most people can get by gaming on something much less and often times over buys more than they really need.

Dtr's are great desktop companions and a bench tool. A power house that is still the best for hardware for the money, but at the cost of major heat, form and build quality.

Gaming laptops can serve multiple purposes and are more versatile with a wider selection from low end to high end machines.

I have personally recommended dtr's to a lot of people over any of the mainstream gaming laptops due them being stationary and truly needing the power.

But again... For the games that I play and the work that I do, I can technically achieve all of this even on something like a msi gs63 which I like a lot, less the paper machete build quality.

Next up from that I have to jump up a few classes and on my radar the 17r4 kaby fits the bill overall vs any other laptop out there.

As always, to each his own....

.





::iunlock::

 

No and I will try that too; however, when I first noticed that the screw could not turn I immediately switched to a flathead that fit in there and that thing would not turn, it actually broke the flathead literally bent the bit. I then tried a few other bits with the same results they either stripped it more or the bit would bend. From what I can see the screw is way over tightened from the factory.

 

Yeah I agree with all that. But many people flood Alienware sponsored posts with hatred and besides them just having better/comparable build quality... its cheaper if you do a bit of searching. Like you can save about 35% of the cost of a new laptop by using gift-card reselling sites, finding a Dell brand ambassador and using cashback sites. The same can't be said for a MSI website, or BB, Amazon, etc. Their gift cards don't have good sales, idk of any brand ambassadors for them offering discounts like Dell though, and cashback sites don't give you sht for those big companies like BB, amazon, costco, whatever. I'm not sure what makes a place give 10% cashback from Dell's website but I ain't complaining haha

 

So, after three attempts to improve CPU temps I've managed to OC my 7820HK to 47, though it throttles back to 44 during loads.. What else it can be, apart insufficient amount of LM? Laptop sitting on 1" legs, so ventilation should be fine.


Edit: that must be due to TDP limit, though I'm not sure how to tweak it properly...

 

Soon to be a (hopefully) proud owner of a Kaby Lake 17R4 with GTX 1080 and 3k screen. If I decide to keep it I will be repasting it with this guide.

The guide seems clear (and easy) enough. The PCB mod is a little unclear (how high is that heatsink, and what material).

But I just have a question about the thermal pads.

It's near impossible to get the Fujipoly thermal pads here in The Netherlands (no store sells them). But I can get Gelid Solutions Extreme thermal pads. Link here:
http://gelidsolutions.com/thermal-solutions/accessories-gp-extreme/

It has 1mm and 0.5mm pads (as suggested by the guide), just different dimensions.

Is this an upgrade of stock pads? Or should I just either leave the stock pads or really get the Fujipoly pads?

 

For PCB mod - iunlock suggested aluminium heatsink with dimensions 20mm x 20mm x 6mm, though the height should be reduced a bit, I made it ~4mm instead of 6.

I also couldn't find Fujipoly thermal pads and used Alphacool Eisschicht 14W/mK thermal pads, and they perform very well, and I believe Gelid Solutions Extreme should work great too. And you definitely need to remove stock pads (it should be mentioned in the guide, read carefully and check the notes on the images), except 0.1mm ones.

 

I used gelid extreme and it seems to have worked a treat. I can't get a hold of fuji here in the UK either. Definitely replace those thermal pads though. They're garbage. On the little 1mm squares make sure and peel off the thin layer of plastic that I found the old pads leave behind. Easy to miss.

One thing I will say about the Gelid stuff is... Buy a little extra. It's a little tricky to work with. Mainly the 0.5mm and I tore one or two pieces taking the plastic off. Easy enough though!

 

I do not understand one thing. In the PCB mod @iunlock uses coppers hs + fujipoly pads, with the aluminum also uses fujipoly pads under the HS too?
And use duct tape to fix the heatsink?

 

You ever get it to run at x47? I am also having similar results when trying to push it to x47 and its not heat related since my temps are nice and cool.

 

Check this out, an updated version of mod. First you put a 33+ tape around the chip, then clean up both surfaces (chip & HS) as usual. After you need to apply a bit of thermal paste on the chip and then put the HS the same way as in photo. To keep HS in place, iunlock used Loctite Ultra Gel Super Glue. Though I've used Thermal Conductive Heatsink Plaster instead just in case (but it dries much longer than Loctite Glue, so I had to left it for 4 hours).

 

Nope, I wasn't able to reach 47. I've stopped at 45 with a quite high voltage ~1.35mV and temps (high 80s due to voltage).. Either I'm doing something wrong, or just my lottery wasn't that lucky Anyway even if I could, I don't wish to push the CPU that far, even 44 is enough for me (but not really required). I believe that for heavy tasks you need a good rig with more cores.

 

For average daily usage I wouldn't push the CPU more than 1.3V. Above that for the odd benchmark is fine. The key is to find the best frequency with decent temps (<80C recommended) and less than 1.3V. For me on the 6820HK that's 4.0GHz which is more than enough for current and future gaming.

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Buddy those voltages through those cores are REALLY high! I definitely wouldn't recommend you stick with that. You're well beyond the Intel recommended max voltages per core and will likely do some permanent damage. A good daily core voltage is <1.3V if the temps are ideally sub 80.

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Yep, I know this, Pete. Just was trying to get its maximums Anyway I don't run it with OC daily, as I'm not doing any video encoding\rendering on this laptop often. It's mainly for coding\gaming and other not very heavy stuff.

 

Hi guys.

About month ago I ordered AW 15 r3. I've read this thread before ordering laptop, and should say honestly, if not main post from iunlock I'm not sure that I would buy this thing at all

Wanted to share with you my results.
Maybe it will help someone
So I bought version with i7 7820HK & GTX1070 & GSYNC panel. And on the same day I ordered SSD from Samsung (the one which can be ordered from Dell are ridicules for the money), liquid metal from Grizzly Conductonaut and t-pads from Gelid Extreme (12 W/mK).
First two weeks I used out-of-the-box laptop to verify if I want to deal with it at all. Then before re-pasting I wanted to make some temperature measurements with help of OCCT. But I think that smth is different in my version, because "Large data set" doesn't use full speed of the CPU (btw it's also mentioned in description of modes). But I was able to get smth like 90 deg mid and difference in core temps more than 10 deg
Also I used HwInfo to record temps during a normal working day (I'm a software developer). And max temp were about 85 (hell, how??)
In most demanding game which I have (Witcher 3) I got around 85 deg during a game.
And the last thing - "medium" & "small" dataset modes in OCCT failed in 25-30 seconds after start because one of cores got 95 degrees Celsius
And all this with OC LVL 1.
Then, when 14 days passed I decided to do re-paste. Don't believe that it takes couple of hours if you are doing it for 1st time!! It takes whole day because of thermal pads! I spent 3 hours cutting correct pieces for each small part of the heat sink LM was pretty unusual and easy. BTW, here is a photo of pasting in model which was made sometime in Feb - https://www.flickr.com/photos/150517976@N05/shares/r343J1
So Dell have fixed nothing since November '16...
Unfortunately I didn't save results before re-paste (changed SSD and wiped HDD after upgrade).
So.. after re-paste and 2 more weeks of usage here are some screenshots with new BIOS (1.0.9K, where K stands for 7th gen of CPU - Kaby lake):
this is OC lvl 4 (yes, custom lvl: 44, 43, 42, 42 multipliers)
Here is that "small data set" mode which default laptop couldn't pass even with OC lvl1
http://take.ms/2FpVp and temps of hottest core - http://take.ms/EKH1y
I think it's a win
Here is "large data set" mode:
Freqs: http://take.ms/I0zcs and temps of hottest core: http://take.ms/sPY8J
You see? OCCT can't reach max freqs ..
but Linpack can - http://take.ms/xkzrM here are temps of hottest core - http://take.ms/Rur7b4
Also you can note how fast tems are getting down when load reduces - it's a evidence of good heat sink in the laptop.

What else? Without OC fans don't spin at all Under "benchmark" test in Intel's XTU they reached 2000 RPM .. I was shocked And now during working day max temps from HwInfo are 65C

BTW don't use Intel's XTU for overclocking on this machine - you'll get "Power throttling" and it will be end of the story Use BIOS only.

So in result I got what I wanted - beast with good battery life and perfect keyboard.

Thanks to iunlock for so detailed guide!

 

Does anyone know where I can pick up some small heat sinks locally in SoCal? I found a 14mmx14mmx8mm I can shave down with my dremel at Microcenter.

Also, would copper shim work better than a heatsink?

 

The aluminium does not use thermal pads underneath, although you could. I would recommend using thermal paste for the aluminium heat sink.

This is the revised and updated PCH Mod.

No. The aluminium works better.

 

What size did you use. I see amazon has 20mmx20mmx6mm and 14mmx14mmx6mm

 

Copper is better at heat transfer and aluminum is better at heat dissipation. If you use copper... Where shall the heat be transferred?

 

True. If you use copper, it turns into a ball of plasma that super charges your OC.

* At first I was going to connect the copper to the HS, but due to the PCH running cooler with the nearest heat plate (gpu side), it wouldn't do it much justice since the heat from the GPU would just heat up the PCH due to thermal properties.

Therefore, aluminium is the better way to go since it can dissipate heat faster, indeed.

 

Looking at the PCH mod - what about something like Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive to just epoxy it on?
Saw it on Amazon while looking for a heat sink. Trying to find the 1 piece option. Don't need 9 more heat sinks that I won't use.