Does the m14x have temperature issues?

I was looking into the Alienware m14x, and it seems that a fair bit of users appear to be having overheating issues with the laptop.
Can anyone confirm this?
Oh yeah, it's the newer models, with the sandy bridge processors and geforce 555m graphic cards.
Thanks.

 

It depend on users, some does some doesnt. As for me, yes, I do have the overheating issue. Sometime on the CPU and sometime on the GPU, only recent I got many GPU overheating issue due to the newest NVIDIA Beta driver, but when I revert the the older one, the problem's gone for now.

 

Mine doesn't and it's very new.

 

I wouldn't say an overheating issue, but an excessive heating issue. I can play Skyrim at about max settings and my CPU can get up to around 85C. You don't really have to worry about temps till high 90's, these processors were built to handle temps up too 100C.

 

Oh, so it's most likely a driver or VBIOS related issue?
Thanks for your input !

Would you mind sharing your CPU/GPU temperatures under load?
Thanks.

Ah. Because my friend has a m14x, and it goes up to 95C during heavy gaming. Would that be considered normal? His laptop is fairly new, maybe ~1 month old. Do you think those kinds of temperatures could become severe in the long run? And can it be prevented through certain VBIOS/drivers, and repasting/dusting the laptop?
Thanks.

 

I got my laptop as an Xmas gift this year, so it's pretty new...

First thing I did was run FurMark for about half hour straight (using the stock drivers), and temps stayed in the 73-75 degree Celsius range, and never went above 76 degrees. Not bad at all.

Today I installed the new NVIDIA 290.53 beta driver, and then ran FurMark again... Same exact temps, but I got an average of about one frame higher.

My machine is not overclocked. Yet.

 

Joobles, the problem isnt when you run only furmark or prime 95 (cpu), its when both the cpu and gpu are active the temperatures rise extremely

 

Exactly what I was thinking. Furmark only stresses the GPU's, correct? And I know the the GPU's often stay below 80C, it's the CPU that goes up to 96C in some cases.

 

Oh sorry- my bad.

Any tests I could run for you?

 

Would it be possible to run Furmark along with say.. Prime95? Or would that be possible? If it worked, it would stress both the GPU and CPU simutaneously, correct? If you could do that it would be wonderful, as it would let us all know the "hot spot" for the laptop.

 

Sure! I'll run FurMark 1.9.1, and Prime95 26.6 for an hour(?) and I'll post back results.

Results: (I let it sit on my desk)

Ambient room: 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit)
Processor: ~88 degrees Celsius (190 degrees Fahrenheit) [Averaged from all 4 cores]
Graphics card: 77 degrees Celsius (171 degrees Fahrenheit)

Very stable temperatures... The graphics processor never went over 77, and the processor never went over 91. The only complaint I have is that the right region of the keyboard is fairly warm. 88 degrees seems a little hot- I'm doubting those are the actual temperatures.

 

Try checking this thread here. There's some very comprehensive information regarding m14x temperature related issues.

 

Thanks for wasting an hour of your time for my sake
Your CPU temperatures seem to be around 6-10C lower than a lot of m14x owners' temperatures o_o. Did you put in your own thermal paste or open it up and clean it at all? Or is it just running great out of the box?
Anyways, thanks again for testing it for me, I really appreciate it.

 

Gaming for an hour with some web browsers in the background CPU is 66 and GPU 59. This is without turbo boost.

WITH turbo boost its much higher the cpu gets to high 70's.

 

No problem! Yeah, that was out of the box- no repasting or anything!
Temps on average (if I recall correctly) are for the GPU about 120 Fahrenheit, and CPU 150 Fahrenheit for normal usage.

Are you planning on buying one anytime soon?

 

couple of ways you can keep the temps down.

cooling pad, it works.

thermal repaste ~ works even better

new bios update.

 

But what game?
I'm sure anyone would be happy if the CPU only reached the high 70's with turbo boost enabled, while under full load

Nice nice, guess you're one of the lucky ones that get a cooler one out of the box!
And those are some really low averages, naise naise

I'm thinking whether or not I should wait for a newer model to come out, or get an m17x or get the current m14x.
Any suggestions?

Cooling pad, as in a laptop cooler?
Yeah thermal repaste will almost always help heh. Any idea which thermal paste is the best(in terms of keeping temperatures low)
And yeah, I heard certain bios updates help a lot with cooling.

 

Haha I guess so!

I know there's a thread on here that has a release date, or at least an idea of when the newer model will come out... IMO, if the release date is close enough, and you can wait long enough, then try for the new model. I was hesitant to buy the M17x because of it's size- the M14x is absolutely perfect for the portability that I need. But if you like a bigger screen, go for the M17x.

...There's hundreds of reasons to get one over the other.

 

Care to link me?
And yeah haha, I the m17x is quite massive indeed. I'm just thinking that if I were to buy the m14x, my friend who also has a m14x might think i'm copying him(yes, we like to have nothing alike )
Also, there was a thread in the m17x with this guy doing paintjobs on his m17x and it looked wonderful. I think if I were to buy the m14x, I would want to paint it white hehe.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/611752-m14x-r2-expected-release-date.html
...I thought this thread had a better idea than I'm seeing now. Then again, I only skimmed it before. I bet the new M14x is probably at least a half a year away.

 

Ah. So I should probably get the current m14x then haha.. Now I gotta figure out how to paint it white!

 

Good luck!

 

Actually black is the best color for removing heat (look up black body radiation). It is the most efficient for absorbing and re-radiating heat (which is why you used to paint your car's valve covers in crinkle black). Thus it will pick up the heat from the computer case/frame and re-radiate it. The downside is that the case will be warmer. White reflects heat so painting it white would keep it cooler if it is out in the sun but normally will just reflect the heat from inside back into the computer which is what you don't want. It will feel cooler on the outside but will actually be warmer on the inside.

 

Ahhh. Blackbody radiation, I forgot everything about it, haha. But would that still be the case if I were to just paint the outside chassis? I don't plan on painting the inside, or the parts that will be facing the motherboard, heatsinks, fans, and etc.

 

Thanks haha. Hope I don't mess up

 

Incorrect. I'm not personally getting mad at you, I am getting mad at how one person says something and all the sheep follow.

The Sandy Bridge processors, as advised by their creators at Intel (not dell, not asus, not anywhere else, INTEL!) are built to handle temperatures UP TO 130 DEGREES CELSIUS.

Is this particularly healthy? no.
Do i advise disabling things to set this as your TJD? no.

Dell set 100 celsius as the TJD so they wouldn't have to send out new systems / perform repairs / install new parts because people are overheating their systems.. It is purely a business matter.

Throttling occurs in the CPU when approaching the 100 C mark, and this throttling keeps your CPU cool by decreasing power output. It is extremely high tech if you think about it, and kudos to Intel for their amazing creativity and ingenuity.

How this applies to us? Well I have heard (first-hand from a RELIABLE SOURCE) that these CPUs have such advanced throttling that they can perform for 3 hours at 99C on all cores and stay balanced. Now this isn't the same in all cases. Sometimes the balance gets offset because of a warm ambient temperature (your room or office) and a BSOD occurs so Dell doesn't need to worry about a replacement to your CPU.

These Sandy Bridge processors naturally run really hot, and Intel understood that when they started production. If you do not feel comfortable with the temperatures, there are multiple things you can do:

1. Turn up the AC / turn down the heat in your room or office. Ambient temperatures drastically modify the temperature of your components.
2. Buy a cooling pad, and set the fans under the m14x's fans. This will provide more airflow and more heat disposal.
3. (If you know how to) repaste your CPU with thermal compound. This can see a change in temperatures anywhere between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius.
4. Turn off Turbo Boost. This forces your CPU to run at 20x multiplier versus the turbo of 28x multiplier (if you have i7 26xx ) This is basically forced throttling in a sense.

Heat may effect longevity of a product. These CPUs are made for high temperatures, but depending on your interpretation of what is hot and what is not, you can either accept the CPU as it is or perform the changes i mentioned above

 

Alright. Thanks for the detailed responses

 

I remember this was asked alot before, but I didnt pay much attention and wish I had so I didnt have to ask now. Would removing the DVD drive, not replacing but just taking it out, help airflow at all? I think I remember the answer was no, but may as well ask. Im sending my computer in for a motherboard problem and getting a whole new heatsink and cooling system (just asked for a repaste but ok lol) and was thinking of taking it out when I get back. Maximum cooling!!

 

I have to agree with this but it's subjective:

Yeah your CPU is runing 5-10°C higher than it was expected, your CPU will work 45 years instead of 50 years
Damn ! ^^
Besides a manufacturing defect, we use even not a quarter of the lifetime of our CPU.

But I must admit that I also tried to decrease my temperature but dont let this become an obsession (their is so many thread...)

 

The main reason the SR-71 Blackbird was painted black was to absorb and radiate off the heat from friction caused by the aircraft flying at mach-3+. Keep in mind that the paint is the same color on the inside (touching the frame) as the outside. So the black paint will absorb the heat on the inside of the paint (touching the frame) and radiate it outside (which is the cooler side). White paint will tend to reflect the heat, inside to inside, outside to outside. There was actually an engineering reason for making this computer black other than just to look spacey cool.

 

I've tried removing the dvd drive before and did full load test on the m14x.

Frankly it didn't make any difference at all.

You will only see a difference when the dvd drive is loaded with a disc.

So a dvd drive without a disc will help.

 

I don't think this whole case being black is a big deal, it's a laptop, not a plane... And also, I am just making a guess but I would say a MAXIMUM decrease of 3 degrees Celsius with a black case. We could get a poll and find average temperatures between those with red chassis and those with black chassis. Does whoever was going to paint it planning on doing the keys? I think the rest would be easy, since all the palm rests and stuff is easy to take off.

 

You're probably exactly right. This thread got a little offtrack, just meant to point out that painting it white is not the right answer.

 

What if I turn the lights blue? Will that make it cooler? Red makes it hotter right