Did I get a faulty 15r3/1070gtx/7820HK?

So Ive been a couple of months with this new 15r3/1070/7820HK and the stuterring I was suffering from very demanding games was from overheating.

Anyways, after tinkering with it I got it undervolt to -0.130v (and lifting a bit the back end) which after heavy gaming my temps are around 82º aprox (the GPU stays around 75º).

So, is this a lemmon or should I just try to repaste it myself?

Edit - Before the tinkering temps went above 90º, thus the random freezes/stuttering

 

I repaste everything I get on principle, a bad paste job can make or break operation of a laptop

 

Lol, everybody knows alienware overheats like hell!! Use gelid gc extreme(temp drops around 3c) and use a better cooling pad(iwould suggest tarkan). It will reduce temps greatly, and also cpu in alienware are over clocked to 4.1ghz, try reducing them to 3.5-3.8ghz.

 

Things like this make me wonder anyone bothers with the HK chip for some reason the 7820HK just seems like a heat beast

 

You can tame the 7820hk, you just have to be willing to do the work yourself or pay a boutique shop to do it for you.

If your laptop is overheating very rarely will a cooling pad just resolve it for you. Bad contact and/or heatsoak cant be resolved with an over the counter cooling pad.

 

How much does a decent repaste could lower the temps?

 

Its circumstantial.

If your paste is dried, quite a bit. I would venture in the 5c-20c.

If your paste is not uniform, it will lower temp variance.

If your heatsink has bad contact, probably nothing.

Because the newer alienwares are thinner (but have more surface area) your options are limited to enhancing efficiency (which when boiled down is every laptop).

I would recommend a repaste, I use NTH1 because its not bad and pretty cheap generally but there are better brands for what is now considered "Standard paste". Then there is also Liquid metal, I recommend it as a solution if thermal paste doesnt resolve your temperature issues. I used it so far on a y510p and my Alienware 17 which has a bit of a malformed plate so the contact isnt great. At 3.7Ghz 1.00v I get about 70/72C max load with a bad fan curve. Max fan would yield probably -4c/-8C based on testing with my y510p modded fan.

Do your temps shoot up to 82ish or does it steadily climb to that level? If its instant then it means there is bad contact with the heatsink and needs more pressure. If not, then its possible you just need to repaste.

 

I goes fairly quickly to mid/upper 70s then slowly climbs to mid 80s. Usually stays there. I wished Dell had a better customer service, but ive heard many times they just do things worst.

 

You might want to look over "iunlock" and his tweaks for his AW17 R4

 

Already saw his repasting guide, will try it out this holidays Living in Mexico right now, and seeing how things work here, im not confortable letting my laptop on their hands.

 

Im not comfortable letting anyone handle my machines unless its something I absolutely cant do on my own.

Unless repasting voids your warranty. I dont buy new laptops ever so I wouldnt know, if its something your concerned about then I would check it out first.

 

7820HK is trash tier binned 7700 (non K) or trash tier binned 7700K. Best 7820HK's will usually reach same levels as the worst 7700K's. Besides heatsinks manufactured on Friday Afternoons (or Monday Mornings), default VID directly dictates otherwise (in a properly thermally prepped system) how hot the CPU will run. A 7820HK with a VID of 1.1v at 4.2 ghz will run 15-20C+ cooler than a 7820HK with a VID of 1.3v at 4.2 ghz.

The *ONLY* way to know the exact default VID for a CPU at a clock speed is to use adaptive voltage (manual will adjust the VID signal), and set IA AC DC loadline to 1, 0.01 or the lowest non zero value that is not Auto. The auto setting does "VID Boosting" in the background to ensure stabililty. Unfortunately, setting IA AC DC loadline to 1 can cause instability on any otherwise stable overclock, so you then have to use manual voltage offsets until you find the point where you are stable. Even here, there is STILL no way to measure vdroop, so the VID you see, if you make the 'voltage target' accurate, is BEFORE vdroop. IA AC DC loadline set at higher levels does not remove vdroop; rather it raises the VID based on load, which is a VERY inaccurate, bastardized (caveman) way of loadline calibration.

The auto setting is designed for adaptive automatic voltages on laptops, and is not designed for manual vcores. The Intel reference setting for kaby lake is between 1.80 to 2.10 mOhms. Using this rating with manual voltage overrides causes power and current to shoot through the roof (using 1 is best for override voltages, 25 if you want some compensation for vdroop if you get BSOD at high temps).

I find it incredible that no one has ever even discussed this besides me. Even the great iunlock hasn't mentioned this.

If your VID jumps around like crazy at full idle (by as much as 100mv, with power draw not changing at all), then it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to know precisely what VID is currently going to the chip, without an unlocked Bios (this would at most only give you accurate VID), or voltage measuring equipment to find the actual vcore (good luck even finding or even accessing the read points on a laptop in use).

 

80 on cpu while gaming is normal dude! chillax.