How to FIX AW17R4/15R3/13R3 CPU Core Temperature Differential Issue

you are on to something here. if you can get more pictures here im sure a lot of forum victims will thank you for it.

 

If this actually works and you refine it, you should make multiples for other users and sell them for $5-10. Dell is not going to help any time soon..

 

Even with as basic as this piece is going to be, I'm sure it'll still take a few prototypes.

I found this on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Mou..._1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1529382542&sr=1


Might be worth checking out.

 

@iunlock HI I have the Alienware 13 R3, shipped late March 2017 and have a lot of crashes on the GPU, so I repasted it. And the Temps got worse on the GPU. I changed the paste to Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, and switched all the thermal pads to phobya green 7w/k.

Do you have a guide on how to respaste this correctly?

Also could this be because of the thickness on the pads, where could I get 0.1mm pads or should I use tape?

Do you know if there are different revisions/brand of heatsink, as all I can find is for the Aw 15 and 17. CCI rev 2 and Sunon? Do you know possible part numbers?

Thanks a lot for this thread

 

It has been discussed to eath on this forum, but if your temps are higher, your thermal pads might be too thick/hard. Try softer pads suchs as the Arctic 0.5mm or Gelid 0.5mm ones.

 

Thanks for your kind reply on the artic pads.

I do not agree with my questions being argued to death. There is talk of 0.1mm pads, but nowhere is a link for them. Nowhere is a 13 R3 heatsink type and revisions discussed.
Thats why asked as I don't care for 15r3 or 17r3 heatsink when I don't own one but this thread is about all three types.

 

There is only one revision for the AW13, those havent been changed and the 0.1mm termal pads are only on the CPU side and those can only be replaced with 0.5mm pads since 0.1mm pads arent available for normal end users like us. To bridge the gap you need to use a copper shim of about 0.3mm to get the best out of it or really work your heatsink.

 

If you go to the 13 R3 lounge you will find a thorough guide on pads and sizes recommended, I know, because I used the same insights on my own 13 R3.

The only thing beyond that is you may need to take off the heatsink and twist a bit just to create more pressure on the weakest link which is the CPU die coverage, but I havent done that personally.

 

Thanks for your reply, I just ordered, 0.1mm pads from a supplier in Poland, took me awhile to find them. Got some Gelid and Arctic too, 0.5mm, while at it.

 

Thanks a lot for your insight I'll go find this guide.

My problem is on the GPU, I have solid Temps on the CPU though...

 

@c69k can you help him with correct thermal pad sizes?

 

Of course @Vasudev.

@Torben Sloth Thomsen

I used (Edit: Gelid pads) 1mm on GPU and 0.5 mm on CPU.

 

There is actually 3 different 13 r3 heatsink revisions. I've talked about this before.

 

@propeldragon, thanks for replying that, can you point me towards the information i need on the heatsinks. for the 13 R3, and do you know of any part numbers and which one is best?

Also for all others to have I found this nice guide on reddit, with size and location of the different size thermal pads, https://i.imgur.com/KDY0Emb.jpg
and the following post, link after the text.

Basically X-red = 1mm pad and O-blue = 0.5mm pad and White pads on the right lower side of photo is 0.1mm these can be bought from https://www.aab.com.pl/ . but not with a revolutionary conductivity, you could possibly just use a firm viscosity paste here. or re-use the old ones, i might try kryonaut here.

I am going to try repasting again with kryonaut instead of Noctua NT-H1, and 0.1mm pads, ill post results. before and after.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/...thermal_pads_should_i_use_while_i_repaste_my/

 

They all have the same part number......sourced from 2 manufacturers and multiple versions depending on which GPU you get. But not like an actual improvement of design like the AW15R3/AW17R4.

 

Careful, with Dell stock pads, on my machine the 0-blue 0.5 were making absolutely no contact with heat-sink. So instead, I used Gelid pads 1 mm there too, and made them about 0.7 mm by compression with glass plate pressure.

Dell is using the pad thickness as in the 'O' and 'X' picture, but it could be very 13 R3 laptop specific if they actually make contact at all with heat-sink.

Good luck with your re-paste !!!

 

OK I was curious if there was a point in possibly changing to the better one of them. I have a i7 7700HQ.

Thanks mate

Good stuff to know, I think I'm pretty well stocked now, and possibly bought to much thermal pads and compound.

This time around I'll try dry testing everything a couple times to be sure everything has contact.

 

If you got the 1060GTX and the 7700HQ config you already got the biggest heatsink for your system. They ship the crappy ones with the 1050, core i5 systems. Parts of the heatsink are shaped and soldered by hand so there is quite some variety between heatsinks still.

 

Well 5.1cfm to 7.4cfm is a big improvement to me.

Heatsink can be not labeled, s-j-1, and s-j-2.

 

@c69k @rinneh @Vasudev @propeldragon

First of all thanks for being helpfull guys, it seems a thourough repaste did the job and made my system stable again, and you guys comments helped me the right direction.

As paste I used Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, on CPU and GPU, I used the X method as described by Thermal Grizzly.

I Used a combination of 1mm Phobya Thermal pads (carefull these are more rigid) And 0.5mm Gelid (these are soft indeed) and 0.1mm Pads from AAB in poland not very high Conductivity but they did the job.

As described earlier, the Heatsinks are semi handmade and not 2 are like so I took quite sometime to make the thermal pads fit, by doing dryruns, and using an old cheap paste to guide me so i got an even spread on the CPU and GPU, checking for a fit of all the pads and spread of paste, and NOT following Alienwares standard pattern, of where to place 1mm and 0.5mm, actually at one point i had to stack 2 Gelid 0.5mm because the Phobya 1mm was a bit rigid and didn't quite fit.

Anyways system is stable and below are results on CPU GPU and PCH, notice that when you undervolt the system and overall temps drop, the temperature on my PCH drops too. after 2 and 1/2 hours of playing Sea of Thieves.

But im still planning on doing a PGS heatpipe to the Heatsink for more stable temperature on the PCH, as it keeps climbing towards 90+ during gaming.

No undervolt
https://imgur.com/ZQUpqdJ

With undervolt 0.130 and using MSI afterburner on GPU
https://imgur.com/CRMp2zj

 

what is the best heat sink part number or version for the 15r3 with 1070, is the 1080 heat sink different?
i currently have AT1JM005ZC0 85w-nv-e1-g2

Ive gone through 3 mainboard replacements plus repad and different paste and can never get the temps to be decent or within a close range with each other.

please let me know if there is a better version that I should search for. I just want to stop overheating while i wait for the new ryzen laptops to come.

Thanks in advance!!