high cpu temp, dell replacing

Just got this system from the outlet 2 days ago. I first noticed something may be up playing Lotro as it would drop frames every so often once it got hot with the fan blowing full blast. Then with Dragon Age I checked my CPU temp after 5 minutes of playing and it was mid 90s. So I researched what others were reporting. It seems users normally idle around 45-50c and load around 75-85c with some reports of 90s at times.

So I got HWInfo64, Prime95, and Furmark to repro and see if I matched others. Running both tools at the same time to stress everything always puts my CPU to mid-90s where HWInfo reports thermal events and throttling. The throttling rolls temps to 85ish where they climb right back up and repeat.

I called Alienware today and the tech remoted my machine. He ran Prime95 and Furmark at the same time (on his own) and commented that my temps seem high. He scheduled a motherboard swap / Paste reapply.

I have a couple questions for opinions here:
1. Does this sound like there is a legit problem? I do not want to have it torn apart if not. I was clear on the phone with the tech when I asked if he could run the same tests on another m14x when he said yes mine is hot.

2. This system is under 21 days from the refurb shop at $830 shipped with the 2ghz i7. I am tempted to just return it and buy a new one with the i5 2.4 at $1100. Is the i7 chip worth rolling the dice and servicing this one? That and saving $300. I could get the promo on a new 11x w/i7 ULV at $799 but perf would suffer on the GPU and CPU.

 

High temps on a m14x, or most sandy bridge cpu's, are common. I think its a design flaw, certainly on the threshold of damaging the cpu. With any sandy bridge cpu you get, the temps would be higher than normal. My m14x is hot when gaming, and overly warm when watching videos. Even the ulv sandy bridge i5 in my macbook air gets hot, fans on max when watching youtube videos. I say if you really hate the heat, return it and wait for ivy bridge. If you want to keep it, you just have to work around the heat, i.e. get a cooler.
IMO they didn't account correctly for the heat increase from the dynamic boost feature.

 

Mine routinely got up to 98c when playing BFBC2 when I first got it, now it tops aroudn 92-93c, I assume as stuff has cured a bit. It ran flawlessly at either temperature, so I'm not too worried. 85c, 95c - I'm not keeping it on my lap either way!

 

So the opinion here is this laptop's temps are in spec and I shouldn't send it in for service?

I figured if thermal throttling is what's keeping it under 100c and melting something was wrong.

It's easy enough to repro if you want to be nice and try for me: Prime95 + Furmark at the same time and watch hwinfo64 to see if it's throttling. Takes about 5 minutes.

 

I just found this in another thread here so I am thinking I am in spec:

Now 1 or 2 others agree I am going to cancel the service and keep it.

 

Yeah, to my understanding, most sandy bridge cpu's has heat problems. Just get a cooler for when you game or when you have high cpu usage. I heard they drop temps 10 degrees. I'm sure the dynamic boost has a huge part to do with the heat because when I monitored the boost, it always boosts for almost anything, it only stays idle when you're idle. So maybe turned it off through the bios would help, but would cut back severely on performance.

 

just be careful because the high temps can and will damage your battery over time, id suggest you remove the battery during long periods of gaming like 45min to a couple hours, its been one month for me and my battery has a 2% wear level but other then that the heat isint such an issue, in battlefeild 3 and crysis 2 ive hit around 90 - 93 degrees and everything was stable, minus the burning legs, and i idle around 46-50, id say the laptop can handle the heat well

 

I found a great review here that even mentions the thermal throttling: Review Alienware M14x Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews


The reviewer states throttling after hours when I hit it in minutes but I suspect he just didn't notice it at first. I'm surprised the Dell tech submitted the replacement. From my research the temps are normal.

 

I too am having high temps with my i7 2720QM M14x. Under normal use, ie surfing I'm getting temps of around 60-74C, under load i've seen it as high as 98C. The fan is on all the time, even sitting idle after turning it on the fan starts. I had a M14x previously with a 2630QM CPU and it was silent unless I was gaming or similar, but this one with the 2720 is noisy when doing nothing. I'm going to contact support as I think something is not right with it.

 

I found an old thread here that stated:

My Prime95 (full heat mode) temps after twenty minutes bounce between 87C and 89C as the turbo mode is moved from 2.2 and 2.1.

Due to these findings I am going to go ahead and send it out to dell tomorrow and I will report back when it's back.