Second Alienware 17r4 - Thermals

Actually I just sold my RBP Kaby Lake version. And now am deciding if I want to keep my AW 13 r3 Oled or sell and get the Zephyrs or 17 r4...


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I love the aw13r3. However not being 120hz for mainly a mobile gaming device is a deal breaker for me. However the machine is perfect. I found the 17r4 to be nice just tons of issues. Three replacement systems and dell support tech fried my 960 m.2 on a motherboard swap. So not happy with them at this point.


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Zephyrus with Max-Q crippled, laughable battery life, overpriced, you will not have any future proofing with it.

 

What was wrong with your 17" Razerbook ? Too big? 17R4 ain't a smaller, slimmer and thinner machine as this is what you wanted.

 

Nice machine just making some changes to net some positive cash flow and one good gaming machine.


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And you are sure it wasn't flaws you finally could see ? Because some of us other could see it.

 

Yes I'm sure. I also like the 120hz screen on the AW and deep down I'm more of an Alienware fanboy than a Razer, lol. I mean I wear alienware polo shirts to work 2-3 times a week .


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I don't think he ever suggested that there was something wrong with raising the back. The problem is that it seems to be necessary. If it is necessary, it should be mechanical behavior of the laptop.

 

That's just it tho, in Intel and Alienware's eyes (And other manufacturers for that matter) It's not necessary. Intel will tell you that you can run 85 - 95C safely on there CPU and that's what it's designed for.

Now do I agree we should be running them that hot ? No, I don't! heat kills and those temps over the course of a few years will kill that laptop. It is what it is tho, the laptop in Intel's eyes would be consider running within specs.

 

Intel might prefer it that way because when cpu is poof, end user will buy a new PC anyway.

 

It looks like I'm having the same issue. When I first got my 17R4 with 7820HK and GTX 1080 (outlet purchase), it would crash within 15 minutes of playing Prey. Temps were 96c+.

I thought repaste/repad will solve it, but since I'm overseas I had to wait 3 weeks to get them. Now, running at stock clocks, best I can do is 88c/86c on CPU/GPU under Aida64, which also crashed last time I ran it.

I have a call with a dell technician in 2 days, let's see what they can do. I'm past the 30 day window unfortunately.

edit: i forgot to mention, lifting the back of the laptop lowers temps by 15c on CPU and 20c on GPU.

 

I have an alienware 15 r2 4k with gtx970m 256gb ssd skylake i7 and playing gtav on ultra at 1080p according to hwinfo, my cpu temps are around 56-67c and my gpu temps are steady 60°C. Yeah i wish my 970 had a few more gigs but i can live with 60fps on very high or ultra at 1080. Are these temps normal? Just bought this new for 950 on newegg and this is my first gaming laptop. Im learning so much about computers from this site.

 

The temp is very good, this is when Alienware still use the proper 4-point mounting solution compared to the (now retarded) 3-point tripod heatsink.

Imo 950 is pretty steep for a laptop of that spec as of now, probably can return and get a 1060 laptop?

 

All good

 

You mean to dell or where i bought?

 

I heard lifting only the back of the laptop is what causes the stuttering issues.
It is very very strange indeed but if you are going to lift the laptop I'd try just making it leveled.

 

Where you buy.

 

How do you figure? I have mine on a cooling pad that raises the back and it doesn't stutter.

 

Stuttering is from the vrm not make proper contact.
I had that with one of my 3 replacements.


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That's gotta be coincidental BS

Unless it's the HDD getting affected by the angle, which is highly unlikely, there is nothing else in the laptop that will "read" the tilt angle and cause stuttering

Lifting the back of the laptop to create an angle is basic thermal conduction through air convection. You need that tilt to create the air flow.

It's ok to tilt your laptop, unless it's built into a custom Pinball case equipped with a "Tilt-Sensor".

 

Maybe it's a rare problem with the freefall sensor that Alienwares come with. A guy using the older Maxwell-era 17R3 reported problems with the Kionix sensor delaying boot or whatnot.


That said, it's highly unlikely for that sensor to fail.






I would guess that because of convection and hot air, there would be more thermal buildup near the end of the laptop (also near the mostfet/VRM).

 

I've never personally seen a HDD sensor fail in such a way, although I've certainly had HDD's go off-line for unknown reasons, but there was no "stutter" in use before the failure.

There's certainly not enough of a possibility for HDD "failure" causing "stutter" to make a general recommendation against tilting the back end up to improve thermal transfer through air convection.

HDD induced "stutter" is from the head parking during idle and restarting when called on for data access, there are solutions for that problem (besides replacing it with an SSD):

quietHDD
https://sites.google.com/site/quiethdd/

If you have in game stutter from running games from an HDD, use quietHDD or CrystalDiskMark/Info or another tool that lets you disable APM/AMM, or get a SSHD or SSD, or even an Intel Optane M.2 Memory Cache for your boot drive (HDD) to stop or reduce in game stutter caused by HDD.

The heat-pipes and heat exchangers are already concentrating the heat at the back of the laptop.

Tilting the back up higher than the front of the laptop increases the air flow increasing the air movement and therefore heat transfer into the open air, reducing the temperature of the back of the laptop, along with the rest of the laptop too.

Go ahead and prop up the rear of the laptop higher than the front to start air thermal heat convection and cool down your CPU / GPU, we've all been doing it for many years without incident.

 

If yoo lifting up the back of the laptop and create more air aka your hardware will run cooler, throttle less, maybe the VRM's will run hotter due this But yeah, lifting up the back of the laptop normally is the best way to lower temp.

 

Why do you think the VRM's are going to be *hotter*?

If you are allowing the laptop to expel more heat, and all that heat is contained in the heat exchangers (the finned boxes the fans blow through), then the VRM's are far and away from that heat and won't get hotter, they should get cooler from the air at the front of the laptop being sucked up through the heat convection generated by tilting the laptop rear up higher than the front of the laptop.

Tilting the laptop increases the cool air intake and cool air flowing around the outside of the laptop - cool air, not hot air, the components in the path between the front of the laptop intakes and the rear are all low heat generators, the high heat generators are at the back of the laptop.

There isn't any downside to tilting your laptop rear higher than the front

 

Throttling due heat on cpu/gpu will decrease the wattage, aka lower clocks = less performance. And WRM's don't need run fully bore (high power loads-overloaded and maybe Dell opted for more fragile VRM system due decrease the costs). The opposite if the hardware can run fully tilt due less overheated hardware. Aka WRMs have to run harder. (Dell opt for fragile VRM system due costs) Speculation though

 

That's a different kind of "tilt"

 

I must improve my English, Bruh

 

English is full of those, sorry about my multiple uses too, it can be confusing

 

The damn Y(Fully tilt) ruined everything Near, but not near enough