Alienware 17 - R4 - I'm amazed

you may have seen in my other threads I recently acquired a 17 R4

Late 2016 model
6820hk
gtx 1070
4k screen

as this was a used laptop it had temperature issues I'm guessing the normal alienware buyer does not care much for temperatures as long as it plays the games they want.

I did a little reading in the iunlock thread & everything seemed straight forward, I mean I've taken apart a fair few alienware laptops mostly the older ones and this was one of the easiest to do, M14x r2 was a pain.

I must say though the screws that hold the heatsink in place felt like they was welded in, I have a huge fear of rounding screws from past experience and these required me to put so much downward and turning force just to make them move, thankfully all came out nicely in the end.

my temperatures before hand while running heaven benchmark & running Asus realbench H.264 simultaneously after only 2 minutes was a max of 97c on the CPU & 77c on the GPU, I instantly stopped - don't like fried hardware.

so I got my tools ready & thermal paste / pads ready.

I did not feel like using Liquid metal as I prefer a fit & forget kind of approach when on something like a laptop.

- Gelid extreme 12 W/m K thermal pads
- Cooler master mastergel nano paste
- Arctic thermal paste remover & surface purifier
- WD40 Fast Drying Contact Cleaner

here are some photos, to my surprise inside the fans had caked on thick dust which I also think contributed to the high temperatures













gave it a good clean, small spare brush that comes with shaving kits, first let arctic thermal paste remover soak in then use the brush, wiped most off then used WD40 contact cleaner to clean the rest off.







crazy amount of dust stuck in both fans!




so time for the results

before the paste 97c CPU 77c GPU in less than 2 minutes

after the paste / pads / clean 81c CPU 70c GPU after about 10 minutes

I thought what a great difference then I thought there must be a way to make the temperatures even better so I ordered a AmazonBasic mesh laptop stand, first time trying primeNow so I thought why not - it came 4 hours later

just what I expected the stand made a great difference in temperatures dropped both the CPU & GPU by 10c

here is the link to the same stand if your interested
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasi...1518565349&sr=1-1&keywords=basic+laptop+stand

so after all these things done, the max I was seeing was 71c CPU 60c CPU, I've got the bug now so I started thinking I need a laptop cooler with some high end PC fans similar to the ones I have in my PC after much searching I found this youtube video.



surely it could knock maybe even 5c? if only 5c imo it would be well worth it.

so I come from custom watercooling & any degree I can shave matters which got me thinking

how much could I gain in lowering temps if I had the updated heatsink + CLU + the modded Noctua laptop cooler - anything over 10c would be worth it for me as 10c drop in a laptop is HUGE.

this is something I want to think about doing if I keep this laptop as a desktop replacement ^.

OK so your probably wondering ok you changed the paste & pads now your amazed ?

no not really this is not the reason, the reason is this is the first time actually using a laptop as a true desktop replacement for gaming & other things.

WOW.. I connected this laptop to my 3440 x 1440 Acer X34A G - Sync monitor and started out playing Rocket League .. yes Rocket League lol.. ok I was just testing it out & it did a fine job.

ok now I started playing BF1, I started in full res with High settings & it amazed me wow it kept FPS high & was butter smooth.. I changed the settings to Ultra because thats what im used to thinking it can't be good after Ultra settings & while it did in some scenarios drop to 65ish FPS most of the FPS was in the 75-90 which combined with G- sync turned out to be a very very pleasant experience..

I've had a 1070/1080/1080ti/titan X/Titan Xp... all watercooled & this laptop was giving me the same experience which truly amazed me, also a really odd thing was I remember having the 1070 at release & selling it after 1 week because it was so weak & laggy in BF4.. yet this 1070 in a laptop seems much better than I ever experienced. (yes I know laptop 1070 has more cores but still my desktop 1070 was @ 2150)

THE ONLY REASON..

the only reason I may end up getting rid of this laptop is the noise.. I can't handle noise well at all.. even with fully closed back headphones I can still hear it.. this is another reason for my quest to get even lower temperatures to have less noise.

apart from the noise this is one kick ass gaming laptop which has me amazed at how well it played BF1 3440x1440 maxed out also playing on the 4k IGZO screen medium settings gave me a great experience in BF1 without any faults and staying at around the 50fps mark it felt like the screen had g sync which it doesn't.

ok for now that's my thoughts on this amazing machine if only it was little more quiet, for example my custom watercooled PC you can barely hear it even with your ear to the side of it & it doesn't change even if your on the desktop doing nothing or have been playing crysis 3 for hours on end.

also like to add the 4k IGZO 300 nit display is a joy to game on I thought a 1070 with a 4k screen would be useless but drop the settings down to medium & you barely notice the difference in graphics from medium to ultra im guessing that's what you get when you combine a 4k screen on a 17'' laptop.

 

@allienhead191 Good job. How is the paste CM Maker Gel Nano, I loved upon my first usage. Does a great job on passive cooling as well. A bit of undervolting and ThrottleStop you can reduce temps by 5-10C and 10-20% performance uplift using Speedshift.

 

My fans also had so much dust build up in it that i asked for a replacement fan+heatsink from dell. So far liking my temps. I am not really confident in prying/opening up tech thats why i asked for an on site technician . IMHO i think there is a design flaw in the bottom of the laptop. Our laptop builds dust up in no time. Used mine less than 10 months but the dust was crazy even more than my 3 year old ge60 2012 that i sold a couple of years back.

 

Gaming laptops with high air flow are going to build up dust....not sure how that can be considered a design flaw? Also some areas and homes have more dirt and dust then others. For example I live in a very dusty city in Canada and EVERY laptop I open up has horrible dust build up, not just Alienware, Dell,MSI etc.....

 

well thats my opinion on the product. Not hating(as you can see in my sig ive owned a few alienwares and love all of them except for the 15 r1) I generally take care of my stuff and travel not that much anymore since owning this alienware also. I DO hope I am wrong though but my opinion wont change unless my newly replaced fans+heatsinks wont get full of dust in the months to come.