Second fan connector (m14xr1) ??

I disassembled my alienware to re-paste the cpu and gpu and after I assemble it I saw a plug near the battery plug that have nothing connected to it. It looks like a fan plug. Anyone knows what is this plug used for ?

 

Pretty sure that's the debug port. No use for customers.

 

According to one of the alienware technicians it is a fan connector and it might be fully functional. I was wondering the same thing some time ago, here is the link for the thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-14-m14x/715352-second-fan-connector.html#post9157877 . If you can find out if it is fully functional your will be the best :thumbsup:

 

100% sure its a fan connector. The solder pads are pressent on the r2 models also, but there is no connector on it like the r1 models... so it cant be a debug port.

I think the m14x original design called for 2 fans, then something happened last minute and it was changed.

 

but where would they put the 2nd fan? There's almost no room

 

Exactly!! maybe thats why they decide to dont use it. Maybe they design the motherboard first for 2 fans then when they where designing the chassis they figure out that there was no room for the 2 fan so they use the already designed mother board but just using1 fan. Would this connector run at the same speed as the 1 fan?

 

probably on the place of the optical drive.
I was thinking on doing the m14x heatsink mod ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-14-m14x/702068-m14x-heatsink-mod.html) and put a fan on the place of my optical drive, since I really dont use it.

 

The way it looks from the overal design, there should be a fan where the ram is currently located. the intake for the other fan is present on the underside of the laptop, but the output is not on the rest of the chassis. Not sure they just ran out of space, or what happened.

I would think they could of moved the ram to under the keyboard, then installed the gpu heatpipe into that area for a better cooling design.

 

but the optical drive only 2.5mm depth, you think its possible?

 

I think the optical drive have at least 10mm depth since the place where it goes have 12~13mm of height.

This fan probably would fit: 1 Pcs Brushless DC Cooling Radial Blower Fan 5010 12V | eBay
or this http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-SEI-T56...?pt=US_Computer_Case_Fans&hash=item5d3b27f92a

 

Adding another Fan would just keep the hot air inside, circling around. The actual design is better as it is.
The room is also a problem.

 

I wonder if there is any quiet 7000 rpm fans could replace current m14x's fan :/

 

I just connected an Alienware m18 fan I have around to the second fan connector and it is working, the computer is working properly actually Im writing this with the second fan connected. It does not change speed as the normal one does, I imagine that it is not programmed in the bios so the plug is just supplying 5volts with no PWM signal or anything else. The cd drive space in the chassis is around 11mm+-1mm. The m18 fan is about 12mm +-1mm so it barely fits inside the m14 cd drive space. I have an extra m14 fan I can measure but my preliminary guess is that they are the same thickness. In the pic you can even see the fan spinning. Looks like it might be possible to put a fan in the cd drive space blowing trough the RAMs and using the second grill as an exhaust, of course you have to cut an intake in the bottom cover for the fan. Now it will be interesting to see how much difference in temperatures and performance can be obtained.

 

I think that just a second fan will not make big drops on the temps.
But a second fan with the heatsink mod should make a big difference.

 

Some updates:

















just waiting for these parts arrive to finish the project
-fan: Laptop CPU Cooler Fan AB7205HX GC1 for HP DV4 CQ45 CQ40 CQ41 Intel Only | eBay
it have 10mm of height.

-3m thermal tape

 

cool , let us know the temp.

 

excellent work!! let us know the results :thumbsup:

 

epic.

nice to see some others thinking out side the box.

 

the 3m thermal tape finally arrived, now I'm just waiting for the fan.

I already done some tests with the heatsinks on their place and using my homemade cooling pad, here are some pics:








and the temps after ~30min of battlefield 3 medium graphics, turbo boost disabled:

 

Looks very nice. How much was the max temp your cpu and gpu usually ran during high gaming and how much is the room temperature? Comparing at mine with repasted cpu and gpu I can occasionally see max temp peaks of ~95 for the cpu and ~75 for the gpu. But where I live is pretty hot, now the room temperature is about 85+fahrenheit.

 

I don't know the room temps because I dont have how to measure it but it is pretty hot here, outside the house on the day that I posted the picture with the laptop temperatures it was 90~95 fahrenheit.