*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R5 Owner's Lounge

Ok I just tried prime95 (in-large fft option) with the following:

windows power plan: High performance
overclock profile 1 in ACC
fan performance in BIOS
thermal performance in ACC

All cores are normally running at 4.6GHz
When benchmark starts all cores are constantly running at 3.5GHz (not 4.6) and temps do not exceed 88 degrees.

 

Of course. + You will need to increase all power limits... Aka increase power limits and max current/ICC limits. But you will reach Thermal shutdown or as you have seen full throttling. Test with Aida64 as the guide. P95 is all too much, even for stock clocks.. and be happy you didn't test P95 with Small FFTs.

 

Jesus man, how many laptops do you have?
You must be swimming in dough.

 

OK should I just test the GPGPU benchmark without the gpu options?

 

Aida64 No need to explain it more. Just follow the guide.

 

If I had access to a 8950HK (MSI laptop, not a trash alienware with a locked down bios), I could tell you 100% exactly what's going on and tell you what "would" be possible to fix it if you could access the bios options. Even if it's impossible to access those options without bricking an Alienware. Unfortunately, I have NO access to any 8950HK system (preferably a MSI Titan because I can unlock the Bios at ease), so I can't help, even if I wanted.

If I were rich, I would actually order a MSI GT75 8950HK from @Donald@HIDevolution (no upgrades, just purely stock system, plus dead pixel warranty since I do my own repasting), and would do a full complete teardown just for everyone to know what cancer exists. Unfortunately that is a fantasy world and I can't afford to do anything like that.

 

Aida64/Stability tests, just check the GPU + FPU options for a realistic test

Because the AW17 with GSYNC does not use the Intel GPU, it all goes the external GPU (the NVidia) so during the GPU test your screen might be almost frozen.

If you have installed the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility - it is the only one I have found that can modify settings like short bursts and power limits and over/under volt-ing and speed multipliers. There are no clear options in the BIOS to do the same, only indirectly. For example you want to select "full fan" in the fan modes in the BIOS which increases the CPU power limits (and sets the fans to max screaming loud). No setting for the DRAM either, mine, from the box was running at 2400MHz and it was a 2666MHz DIMM and there were no BIOS settings. Then I changed it with XTU, reboot, XTU then complained that it could not set it, even though it had, and from then on I was unable to put it back to 2400MHz no matter how I tried.

In my case I discovered I did not need to increase any limits because the CPU was getting very hot on its own there was no room to go any higher. The fastest setting was the default, ie do not even install XTU or anything, just let it run. It will get hot and will throttle but it achieved the best scores that way. Then again I am convinced I had a crap heatsink, yours is replaced, you may be able to get better.

 

Then you would not be rich at all. If you were rich you'd buy the whole damn company and make them build a proper laptop for you with your specs for case quality, size and volume, fan loudness, panel quality etc etc.

Or you'd be busy being rich and would buy something made out of an exotic magnesium alloy because your butler would not be seen carrying around cheap plastics like the Clevos and the MSIs.

 

So what is the best way to increase power limit on CPU? Is this going to make it run all cores at 4.7GHz at the same time? I do not have much experience on benchmarks on those latest gaming laptops but after running my machine for almost three weeks now, I can see that default options are better. From a user experience point of view. What is the point of stressing CPU ang GPU if it can handle heavy games with ease? What is the point of increasing the power limit? Just make it shut down or to see when it is going to? If my machine now reaches 95 maximum for a few secs only during extreme benchmarks/stress tests then I would say this would be fine. I will run more stress tests later (including AIDA64)

Regarding DDR4 memory, I found from my experience that there are RAM memories stated at 2666MHz but start running from 2400 going to 2666MHz only if XMP is enabled in BIOS. On Alienware 17 (and I believe most if not all laptops) XMP cannot be enabled on BIOS. So the DDR4 memory starts and stays at initial speed. So you have to get a memory that starts running at 2666MHz without need for XMP.

 

I just run the AIDA64 stability test as per guide for about 30 minutes.

Temps hardly went to 98 for one of the cores which had an average of 91 (the highest average seen on this test). The average temps are real stressing average tests because I started hwinfo 3 secs or so after having started the stability test so it does not include idle or not heavy load temps. And again temps went down so fast after stopping the test.If you ask me they dont look so bad. https://imgur.com/a/VYH4h8N

I also sent the AIDA64 and prime95 logs to the Dell tech dealing with my case. Waiting for his reply.

 

Not so bad?
The results is awful. The new unlocked i9-8950Hk mobile chips can barely run above base clocks (2.9GHz) in the test.

 

Ok Mr Genius. I have dealt with this a lot. What I see is what I feel and what I feel is a solid machine. I leave the benchmark for your geniusness. Ignore my poor spirit but I think you have no idea how the new mobile CPUs work probably. And if two cores do not show maximum during benchmark (actually not all running at maximum at the same time) because they were just downclocked after benchmark, because of power limit or whatever, it may simply be because they will never need to run all together at maximum at the same time. I care for real life. I now remember why I did not visit this forum for ages. And the big truth when testing benchmarks is that what you check is logs and not screenshots. Screenshots only show the current state at the time of screenshot. And those new CPUS run up and down all the time.

By the way here is the reply from Dell tech:


temps definitely looks better and same with the stable frequency of CPU, I did not noticed any throttling in the log but that 4% value may be nothing to worry about anyway as it can count any drop in frequency as throttling but in the log frequencies were stable almost all the time and in case it dropped, it was just few mhz and not by 1 - 2 ghz like with old heatsink and thermal paste.

Your CPU base frequency is 2.9ghz and max turbo is 4.8 (not for all cores) thats official intel specification. So any frequency above 2.9 ghz is not throttling and in the logs I can see that CPU runs stable at 3.4 - 3.7 ghz with all six cores + temps averaging below 90c so it is definitely better and at this moment nothing to worry about from my point of view.

Regarding AIDA / overheating report, the application have some static values set, for example if CPU temp reaches 90c then it reports overheating for any CPU basically, however some CPUs (especially intel 7th and 8th series) are running almost all the time at around 90-95 under load) and thats considered as normal for this series.

Feel free to test the system a bit but it looks okay, regarding the warranty You have 1 year of on site premium support but you have also 1 more year of legal warranty which we can repair your PC for free during this period so basically you have warranty until 17th of April 2020. After 1 year premium support expires, you can either pay for on site engineer visit (one time payment of 29GBP - thats current price but may change) or we can repair the PC in our service center completely for free. (of course any physical or liquid damage is excluded) but still the system is covered while you are in country of purchase - United Kingdom.

Please let me know in case of any questions and have a good day!

Best regards,

 

So it seems to me they have now got a new heatsink for the R5! Very good news.

The question is, if you order now, what heatsink are you going to get? The "old" one or the improved version?? I will be calling Dell sales!

Do I take it correctly you are in the UK and were serviced by UK techs ? I am also in the UK.

 

Yes I live in UK. But I have the impression that service/troubleshooting is covered by US Dell techs because when you press service it redirects you to the US website. But this is no problem as everything is done via chat and emails with the specified Dell Tech. And service was arranged 1 day and completed the next day (or probably when you are available)! Service was done from a UK tech yes as Dell UK deals with UK techs for faster service.

 

Unfortunately, it only has solid build quality, but not the cooling system for these internals and wattage. Probably liquid metal repaste might help with the temperatures. Currently, my 4 core 7820HK will be performing with the same efficiency or even a bit better at @4.6-4.7GHz all cores than your 6 core 8950HK, which is a shame (for Dellienware)

You believe him, seriously? That's not really the best source of trustworthy information. He lied several times in his message, i.e. CPU runs stable at 3.4 - 3.7 ghz with all six cores - what?!, ... 90-95 under load) and thats considered as normal for this series - it's really not normal for any series, the whole mobo is frying because of these CPU temperatures.

 

Yes I believe him simply because you are talking about a mobile CPU running at 4.7 GHz (without overclock) with the cooling system available in laptops. If you find any laptop with this CPU not running over 90 under benchmark load let me know to buy it. Thanks. If you want a 5 or more GHz machine running lower than 90 (under stressing benchmarks) buy a high end desktop with liquid nitrogen.lool

And I have seen the logs myself in detail. Spikes of 98 degrees are only spikes and to be honest they were 2 out of the 563 readings in the log. And so comes the average of 90 (for the highest). So a benchmark log is the reality and not screenshots. And as long as frequencies do not go lower than the basic 2.9GHz there is no throttling (I have seen people reporting 790MHz which even as a screenshot shows throttle, this is not happening to me, at least not any more). And probably when one core reaches a high temp it may reduce the frequency and increase the frequency on another. So the final performance is stable as long as the frequencies do not drop lower than 2.9GHz. This CPU is set to run from 2.9 to 4.7GHz for all the cores (seems like not all at maximum at the same time but not even probably needed to keep power/performance balance) without overclock.

Liquid metal is conductive and can cause serious harm. I can already see the benefits of the kryonaut thermal paste. I am not sure if the new heatsink is any different.

 

In my case - yes, it's OCed and I'm using harmful LM on both CPU & GPU for more than a year. Not as harmful as it depicted..

 

Well, even if it harmful to have spikes (again average temps are good even under such stressful benchmarks) I have two years warranty. The heating issue was reported/repaired (I can see it myself that frequencies-temps do not cause any throttling) and if it dies because of that I also have the official Dell answer to use as a cover. If it does not die within one year (with the dust that may increase temps, even though I plan to remove the dust when I see it) then it will never do.

By the way. The i9 8950HK specs

https://ark.intel.com/products/134903/Intel-Core-i9-8950HK-Processor-12M-Cache-up-to-4_60-GHz

T juction=100C

 

If you're OK with this, then good for you Hope it will last for a long time.

Yeah, I know its specs. T juction=100C - It's the same as having your body temperature at 39.9C all the time. Interesting, by how much the life expectancy of a person decreases under such conditions

 

I’m sure I can a bit about processors. Mobile or desktop models. What model, doesn’t matter.

Yeah, from Intel’s own TDP specs, yees. But I call it throttling. The chips is unlocked... See, you can have unlimited power limits. Aka below boost clocks. Take s search into this and other forums and you know what I mean.

stock default clocks for mobile i9-8950hk is 4.7/4.8Ghz depending on Thermal Velocity Bost can kick in... On 1 single core. 4.3GHz on all 6 cores. Not as you stated 4.7GHz.

And I can read Hwinfo information. Could you as well post Hwinfo logs? Because what Dell’s tech support said is wrong. Barely base clock frequency.

 

Well if Intel makes the CPU then I believe Intel and it is not Alienware/Dell problem even if it is throttle (you say) to run at 2.9GHz or not. Again what I care for is real life performance and not try make the laptop die/shutdown from 100% stressful benchmarks. What you seem to forget (probably confused with desktop processors is that on mobile version Intel and every manufacturer is trying to keep a power/performance balance aka use power when needed without exceeding the every laptop's specs).

defaults clocks are 2.9GHz-4.7(or 4.6) GHZ (without overclocking)

I am not even sure if those benchmarks are handling the new i9s properly though. This is from reporting throttle, overheating or stressing all cores at the same time. Logs attached.

Everyone wants to run all cores at 10GHz at 50C (thats a joke) but there are limits. It is only called alienware (alien technology no yet embedded in laptops). Finally, is it performing well in games. Yes then fine. No then there is a problem.

 

With all due respect, you've been proven more than a few times that your laptop is having subpar performance, yet you keep arguing.

An average of 90s is a terrible terrible temperature (you would want it to max at 80-85 in a perfect situation) The fact that you back your argument with "Anything Under 100 is fine according to intel" kind of tell us that you may be a bit of the track.

Sure, in real life world you may not see the same loads that a benchmark will put on your system, but still, with benchmark, you're kind of preparing for the worse.

If you're alright with paying premium price for a laptop with not premium performance, it's your call.

We're simply trying to tell you that your laptop is having problems and that those said problems may come back to bite you in the ass.

 

Regarding the T juction and the high spikes (I will always call them spikes and not temps because temps are the average for me). The life expectancy is obviously reduced with higher (average not spikes) temps. No need for me to say. I will answer with a question. Do you by a gaming laptop to keep it for ever? Or are you going to buy another one with new specs because it is going to run new games with higher specs? If you want something forever buy a normal laptop which may die anyways. I had to replace the CPU on my old Alienware M17X R2 even though it hardly reached over 85C even under load. And I still have it after 9 years running flawlessly. Well you never know.

 

The laptop has premium performance. I never said everything under 100 is good. I am not fool. As long as average are lower than 90 (that is the critical point) I am personally happy with it especially when we are talking about such a CPU in a mobile chassis/heatsink. 80-85 is not nice. Maximum of 70 would be good. lool.
My laptop had occasional throttle during benchmarks before the thermal paste/heatsink replacement. You are probably still referring to that.
Well if you listen to fans spinning during gaming then you know that real life reaches benchmark and you know it is heating. If not then you know that benchmarks are not even preparing, they are tests for the hall of fame.

 

When you invest between 2000-4000$ in a gaming laptop, unless you have alot of money of your hands, you try to extend its life expectancy.

Even more if I invest in a sport car (gaming laptop) I will take care of it and make sure that it stays functional and that when it work, it's under the best conditions.

Again, if you have money to blow and don't care if your laptop may die prematurely, just go ahead.

 

You are absolutely right. Just think about it. As I said, I still use my old Alienware M17X R2 (with AMD 8970 GPU). Check the release date and how many years I have it. Was using it daily (even for gaming) until I bought 17 R5 because the CPU (causing lag and other issues to the laptop) needed to be replaced. Now I fixed it and using it again. But, you can see how many years I kept it for. For the same reasons (price/design) I wanted to keep it and I still love it. I still love it more than 17 R5 but this may change But the heatsink/cooling system on M17X R2 was unimaginable! But it was using much lower frequency CPU (I7 920XM). So, I should be the first to say that when buy an expensive laptop I want to keep it as long as possible.

So what are you trying to do now then? Expecting such a CPU in a mobile chassis/heatsink to run at 85 maximum during stressful benchmarks? I would love that too. Or to change my question. Which laptop's heatsink would be able to do that?

To make myself clear. I personally believe that Alienware quality has gone down since combined with Dell. I remember even the packaging/leather manuals etc. The heatsink on M17X R2 was much better too. But as long as CPU frequencies rise, I would expect a rise in temps because I do not know what technology could deal with that (liquid nitrogen in laptops?). I am dissapointed that spikes reach 98 degrees and average temps reach 90 or 91 under 100% stressful benchmarks. But, this is a price to pay trying to reach extreme performance using benchmarks in a laptop with such specs. Normal temps should not be so high and I am ok (not happy) with it especially when talking about a CPU reaching 4.9GHz (with OC).

 

Honestly, you should look into MSI.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...eview-by-phoenix.816385/page-26#post-10729048

Sure, it has alot of modifications, yes, he did apply liquid metal to get the best possible temps but the base heatsink is better.

AND, if you order from HIDevolution, you can get a discount since you'rea member of this forum. Also, they can apply the liquid metal for you so you don't have to do it.

To give you an idea, I have a Clevo with a 8700k and a 1080 and after @woodzstack applied liquid metal in my machine, my laptop barely break the 70s for the CPU AND GPU.

The problem with Alienware is that they are hit and miss. Either you get a good working product or a pile of crap.

Yes, Dell after sales services is really great, the problem comes from the tech they use for onsite service. Either they are good and fix your problems or they are bad and break even more stuff.

Again, it's your call, your money, we are just trying to get you the best possible machine for your hard earned money.

 

Sorry to ask. What is the maximum frequency of 8700K? 4.7GHZ? and those 70s are under what frequency? OC and benchmarks? I remember looking at their prices and was a no go.
But anyways, when I try to compare I try to compare similar things.
If they release 8950HK I will be really interested to see their temps under same benchmarks, frequencies etc.

GPU temps are not a problem on my machine at all

You are absolutely right about Dell techs. I was even thinking about doing the thermal paste myself but I did not want to open my new laptop. My machine is working well now after the thermal paste replacement (again I do not think the heatsink is any different) but I still think it could be better if I had done it.

I will be honest. I bought alienware because of the perfect memories with my M17X R2. Now, it looks like they are trying to deal with new CPUs and heatsinks. I will consider more in the future. I am OK with the design/quality of my new AW now and having the Dell Support as a backup.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the M17X R2 was made before Dell purchased Alienware, back when Alienware was just a bunch of guys really caring for their products, but I may be wrong.

Anyway, my 8700k is overclocked to 4.6 on all core with 1.2v for the vCore.

Those temps are Under benchmarks(AIDA64) 30 mins.

I will admit that yes, HID prices are a bit above average, HOWEVER, you will get a monster machine that you won't have anything to worry about except plug and play, you get the custom bios from @Prema.

 

Yes, you are right. It was the old good times! When Alienware guys produced their products themselves and this is when they started to cooperate with Dell only for distribution reasons. M17X R2 is like a treasure for me. I still have its box and manuals. Quality at its best.
I will live with my new AW for now and may check MSI in the future (I wonder how their support is like outside US). After all, if their flag machine melts (which I doubt) AW/Dell is going to pay the price. I believe the current design of Alienware is strongly influenced by Dell which is not a good sign by its own. Looks like things moving to the production and not quality. But again, still happy with my new AW after heatsink/thermal paste replacement.

 

In the past Alienwares where producted by Clevo, they never produced it "themselves". They still make the designs just as they did back in the days. Now it is Compal manufacturings the machines though.

 

Thank you, because of you TIL!

 

Well it is too late, he has not returned his machine, he cannot have a refund and has to stick with it, so you guys telling him to go buy an MSI, and where from, is not terribly constructive.

Also I have noticed a lot of anger and vile against Dell, vitriolic comments, I am not sure where it stems from, but just in case, we are on the Dell Alienware forum. I could also go over to MSI and start blasting the MSIs too, plenty of people with problems there too and they also overheat. My Clevo is a pile of cheap plastic compared to the Dell and to the Apple. I am sure not going to go to the Clevo forums and start thrashing Clevos. The MacBook Pro and the Dell XPS 15 are the sleekest machines I have ever seen - Dell XPS 15 with 4K touch screen, amazing, but again I will not go to other forums blasting their crappy screens and yards of plastic.

As a suggestion, an idea I have had for a while, a desktop monitor at 19"-24" sits 15cm over the desk, and that would be a perfect "height" for a desktop inside a mini-ITX case with full length GTX 1080 and would be perfect solution for portability, heat, noise and performance. Big laptops weigh around 4kg-5kg plus an external adapter at 500g or more. I think some clever enterpreneur should come up with a small mini-ITX case fitted with a folding screen like a laptop, basically get a 22"-24" and stick a hinge at the bottom! And there you have a "portable" if not "laptop" that beats the cr*p out of any laptop. All you need is a slim and modded mini-ITX case with a large hinge to take a standard 24" monitor (throw the monitor base out). I am not sure of the exact dimensions but if it fits inside cabin luggage you are laughing. And it should cost 1/2 the price of any laptop.

 

Papusan I am still waiting for your review of the logs. Are you going to give me one?

Doofus it looks more or less like an advertisement. If MSIs are so good or not I cannot tell. And I do not blame them for blaming Dell. They are full of scrap. While I was within the 14 days, the same Dell tech said that my machine is ok. After 14 days he realised I should replace the heatsink and pay for better thermal paste. But if the problem still exists I will go on fighting.

 

Too late now, I know, but I would not pay so much credence to what a technician has to say. In my case the team offered me a replacement heatsink/cooling solution and they were 100% confident it would fix the issue. I declined. Then they offered me a full replacement laptop which they ordered for me. I would be able to keep both laptops until a moment of my choosing and then I'd call them to come collect the old one. I would not even have to leave my front door! This is service. I then changed my mind and cancelled the new order because I wanted a straight refund within the 14-days. Finally, I called them today and wasted 30 minutes being pushed from person to person with a simple question, have you improved the heatsink and if I order today, what heatsink will I get, because I definitely want Aristotelhs2060's heatsink (ok, I did not say the last bit). After 30 minutes they verified that the heatsink part number of my original order is the same as the heatsink part number of a new order, in other words the heatsink has not changed. From that I deduce they may have had a batch of badly made heatsinks but the part number has not changed or they may have had assembly problems at the factory and whoever was responsible has been sacked (or put to death as is common in some countries).

 

I honestly don't know what you're trying to stir with your post, we perfectly know we're on the Alienware forum, the name of the thread is even called Alienware.

Why are we suggesting MSI? BECAUSE HE ASKED FOR AN ALTERNATIVE.

Now, regarding the why Alienware/Dell receive alot of hate; because it's well known and documented that the QC of Dell and Alienware is mediocre at best. Alienware also get alot of heat because their heatsink design has been problematic in the 17R4 and 15R3 series yet, they didn't really change anything and used the same not so good design on a more powerful CPU. Hell, even my 2018 15 R3 had heatsink/uneven core problem

You could also go over to MSI and Clevo forum and claim that the products are not so great and you would be right because most laptops that come straight out of factory Dell/MSI/Asus etc have problems. I had to pay 140$ on top of the 4k I had already paid to get my Clevo in a good working order.

Nobody here is blasting Alienware, but denying that there's problems by claiming other companies also have problems is fallacious and there's nothing wrong with pointing out problems.

 

Doofus, I do not think the heatsink is any different. I never said it has a different part number or anything. In fact I am almost sure it is exactly the same. Just new.

 

I dont want to get involved with the whole MSI vs Dell arguement but what I will say regarding the heat sink (and i read it somewhere on this board) was there were minor differences where there wasnt adequate contact allowing for the heat be transferred from CPU/GPU. Obviously the tripod design has been criticised but @doofus99 ... Im sure there are some issues with ordering and parts seeing as im in the UK too and when my Black chassis 15R4 arrived and I called them they did say that it was meant to be silver as black is only available in the US. I kept it anyway.... until i returned it because of temps

im typing this on my XPS from 2012 which is still is still going strong on its 2nd gen i7 and ddr3 ram. Dell do have good customer service in the UK. The US is a different market because it seems theres much more variety and brand customer support.

Either way - i'll probably order my laptop again as discussed before and just wait until a few things settle down. Spending that much money on a laptop (as mentioned in this thread) - it should work right straight out of the box. Thats what made me return mine but dell customer support have been really good dealing with everything.

These processors do spike and run hotter - higher temps are going to be there - it just seems alienware are a little higher than others (the MSI reviews on youtube seem to hit high 80's and low 90's instead of around 100). That being said - theyre going to put the i9 in the new XPS which has fewer heat pipes and is a lot thinner!

With regards to the temp - even if just for a second and within normal limits - components adjacent to the CPU and GPU must recieve some thermal influence which would be concerning. (thats an uneducated assumption). I hope it works out tho. Im tired of running games at 720p and wanted the alienware as a treat - guess i'll wait a bit longer.

 

From Clevo P870Tm. Not even fixed thermals. Aka stock. Cpu heatsink remove 143w Cpu package Power.

You could push +100w from oc'd Mobile i7-920xm if you had the correct notebook chassis and firmware.

The M17x was introduced as the first Alienware/Dell branded system. This launch also expanded Alienware’s global reach from 6 to 35 countries while supporting 17 different languages.

See post above.

Put it this way... I didn't like what I saw. More below 3.0GHz than above. Even if you increased the power limits and still run stock clocks, all you will get is same results. Thermals will still stop you from running higher clocks.

Edit. As you can see from this Aw17 R5 review. You can see cpu can at least hold 3.98GHz. It's clearly that yours run much hotter and with much lower clocks.

 

Just order my 17x r5 for My Birthday, from hidevolution. I wanted to get the best paste and pads to avoid this heat issue that I have been seeing.

I will post pics of my temps when I get it!

 

Thanks for the mention, but if I could weigh in here, Alienware's are great, but thier quality straight from the factory is the worst possible pasting jobs, it's purely stock without any customization or 1 on 1 hands on tweaking. So course the thermals are always an issue, but if taken carefully they can be improved by 20-30C degrees just like other laptops and desktops too. This of course translates into more performance etc...

 

Papusan if you manage to try temps etc on a 8950HK on a laptop get back to me. comparing with other CPUs is a dead end.

Hi11zone. It will be interesting. Let us know. I doubt the Dell tech applied the thermal paste properly anyway. It seems I cannot avoid doing it myself.

Which ones are:
1) best thermal paste
2) best thermal pads (different sizes)?

Is liquid metal appropriate for 17 R5 heatsinks? both CPU and GPU?

 

I think it is more important to make sure that the heatsinks are making perfect contact without any surrounding pads or thermal grease. Then look at the AW 15 topic, a user there found that the pre-installed thermal pads are too thick in places and are pushing the heatsinks up and away... There are photos you can see.

I would remove the heatsink, remove all thermal pads and have it cleaned, attach it and make sure it contacts the CPU and GPU perfectly. Then I would add the thermal pads for the surrounding ICs, one at a time to make sure I am not pushing the heatsink off. Laborious process depending on how many thermal pads are there. I would need a stock of thermal pads at hand. On my Clevo there is also a bunch of surrounding thermal pads but (1) the CPU and GPU heatsinks are independent and one does not affect the other (2) there are 4 very strong screws on the Nvidia GPU there is no chance of a miss-fit. I cannot remember thermal pads around the CPU which uses springs on the screws and therefore not a lot of tension.

 

It seems I am not the only one with the "portable" PC or as they were called sometime ago, "luggable".




When you think you pay £3,500 for a VERY loud and overheating laptop, that weighs 4.5Kg-6Kg with PSU, it might make some sense to look into other solutions.

 

Just to let you know, I noticed very high/constant temps while running Facry 5 (the game that AW offers for free for tobii eye testing). So high, that I started to escalate again. I ll keep you updated. This is just to show that I am not one-sided reviewer...

 

You can use the same measurements as the stock pads but buy very soft pads (not fujopoly!) buy for example Gelid pads, they can go from 1mm to 0.6mm with ease. This will ensure perfect contact and pressure.

 

Where can someone find those thick thermal pads? I mean those sized about 1cm or something

 

1cm thick thermal pads???? I never saw those. the thickest I saw was 1.5mm

 

I already posted results who showed better results from equal model. Re-read post.

Just as expected. The log you posted as I analyzed showed just this. What Dell's tech team says should you take with a pinch of salt. They have no desire to do anything before you experience BSOD, clocks below 2.9GHz or average temp above 93C. RMA cost money.

3mm as max for Gelid (you can probably get thicker from other brands). And I'm quite sure @Aristotelhs2060 posted wrong specs.

 

Well Papusan. There are two solution:

1) even repaste it myself using liquid metal and not thermal paste (which I doubt has been applied well either)
2) already asked for refund and waiting for approval from the Dell tech superiors. I did not let them any choice by posting the Farcry 5 temps. The problem is now obvious. Even benchmarks do not show the real reality.

I even suspect that hwinfo is under reporting the cpu temps. I run OCCT and Hwinfo at the same time and maximum temps were not the same.

Regarding the thermal pads, how many and what sizes I will need for 17 R5 with GTX1080? And which ones are better? Fujipoly or gelid? Is R4 using the same heatsink with R5? If yes I can follow iunlock guide for GTX1080?

It is sad because, GTX1080 temps are really nice. I have not seen anything over 83. CPU is the problem