Thermal Paste

Hey guys,

Ever since I got my R2 back in May, even my idle temps are around 50-60C (currently 65 as of writing this). Gaming usually gets it up to 80-88C. Just want to make sure that replacing the thermal paste (and cleaning out the fan) is probably a good idea?

If so, what paste should I use?

 

if your under warranty some would suggest have Dell deal with it.

if it were me id open it up myself and re-paste. ive used Arctic Silver 5 & Arctic Ceramic (and a few others). IMO Artic Cermaic is the most stable paste ive ever used. it doesn't need "burn in"time or anything like that and seems to keep a consistent temp even after a few yrs. AS5 seems to be a tad better if your dealing with higher temps (> 65c) but needs to break in and sometimes depending on the method use to apply it may not thin out allowing the metal to contact as much as possible for some time. nothing against AS5, i just like the consistency of applications i get from AC.

i mostly use AC for stuff like laptops that im not planing on re-pasting for a long time. or stuff that doesn't get too hot like water blocks.

ill use AS5 for stuff that gets really hot, thats not a pain to re-paste like air cooled desktop GFX cards or air cooled desktop CPUs.

 

Arctic silver is pretty good, I used it when i reflowed my ps3 and It worked great, the temps went down and the fan was quieter than ever.

 

I haven't needed to repaste my M11x yet but I use Arcitc Cooling MX-4 on my M17x and it works a treat.

 

So in your guy's expertise, should I have Dell warranty deal with it? If it makes any difference, my screen hasn't been replaced (though it still seems to be working fine) and one of my speakers is slightly distorted.

Thanks so much for the input!

 

As long as you doing a clean job and disassemble/re-assemble properly you will be fine. Luckily, Alienware makes it really easy for you to do this. Also, if you can find OCZ Freeze anywhere, I really love it because it doesn't require a "burn-in" period to get the best temperatures, it works great as soon as you apply it!

 

the problem is if you call dell over, the tech will replace the grey goop that's on there right now with the same grey goop. I can't even call it thermal paste cause it isn't formulated for max performance, but for max longevity. it is assumed that most people will never open up and do a repaste. So the stock stuff doesn't perform all that well. You temps will still be high.

I repasted with Prolimatech PK-1 and my temps dropped 15c. When i opened my laptop up, i was disgusted with the stock paste job. The tech just slopped paste everywhere. They put so much on, it was all over the CPU, off the sides etc...

You can refer to this guide for a list of the best thermal paste today (2011). Look at the moderate contact for what you can expect to see in a laptop

2011 Thermal Compound Roundup – Results Compilation | Skinnee Labs

 

i tried OCZ Freeze Extreme on my GPU. Worked really good. Even skinnee over at Skinneelabs rates the stuff highly. I've since repasted with the PK-1 and I saw another 1-2c drop in furmark

 

Hmm, might have to pick up some of that PK-1. However, I do admire the fact the Freeze uses no conductive elements. Even though a sloppy job is all that really causes issues, I just like the idea of security.

With that said, I used Freeze and Danger Den thermal pads on a GTX 280 (desktop card) and it idled at 32C and got to 52C overclocked on the stock cooler. And since the previous owner thought it was dead, I bought it for only $75 , then sold it for $225.

 

good reviews on IC Diamond 7 as well.

 

Ha! Now that's an investment.

 

I see. I guess what I meant was, should I have the tech come out to fix my screen and speaker, see if the new goop is any better, and if it isn't, then replace it myself?

 

if the tech is coming over anyways, then ya, ask him to repaste it. I have read how some people even buy some thermal paste and ask the tech to use the good stuff.

 

Freeze works great. It was just buggin me that the PK-1 was slightly better, ever so slightly so i had to repaste

 

FahrenheitGTI; could you please post links to exactly which thermal pads you used/purchased? I am interested in picking some up.

 

thermal paste > thermal pad pretty much in every case i know of...

I am using arctic cooling mx-4 btw, keeps it at steady low 70's with both GPU and CPU fairly busy. Non conductive as well.

 

oh yes, i know that paste is better. However there are some chips that you must use a pad with as they come no-where close to the heat sink. (mainly the memory for the graphics processor). I really hate thermal pads, but in this case you either continue using the ones that are on there, or you must replace them.

This is why I was hoping I could get FahrenheitGTI to post a linky to the pads he purchased so I could get the right ones. - Just in case I need to replace them when I eventually replace the thermal paste.

 

well theres lots of those on ebay, but i am not sure about them. I don't think they use them on m11x though.

But from my experience they are rubbish, on my Asus 1000H, cooling is basically shield between keyboard and motherboard, and there were some of those silicone pads on CPU (atom) not it wouldn't really get too hot (mid 70's) with the pads, but after i took em off and replaced them with thermal paste(cheap chinese one) even without fan(which don't do much anyway) it don't even hit 60 on stress tests without fan (was 57 degrees while room temp was ~20 for the whole day)

Now i am not comparing it with a performance laptop/desktop but fact is thermal pads are crap compared to thermal paste. I just go a bit macgyver on some stuff and use thermal paste... Just works better

 

it is not possible to macguyver the part I am talking about. Here is a pic to show you what I mean. M11x heat sink showing Thermal Pad Link

See the thick white pads off to the sides of where the cpu and gpu paste is at? Those white pads contact the GPU memory chips. These are seperate from the CPU and GPU and do not come anywhere near close enough to the heat sink to allow you to use thermal paste. It is a physical impossibility.

So you Must use either a thermal pad, or a metal shim to fill up the space between them so the heat sink can draw the heat away from those chips.

Here is a link to a teardown which may help you understand what I am talking about. (note: it is in chinese!) http://tech.163.com/digi/10/0309/06/61AIAUF00016192R_5.html But you should be able to see what I mean from the pictures. See the 4 little black chips off to the side of the NVIDIA graphics processor? Those are the video ram. They are not tall enough on their own to touch the heat sink, and there is too much space to use thermal paste. So its a pad, a shim, or nothing. There are no other choices.

Shims are nice, assuming they do not slip out when you move the computer around... I had this happen to a friend. After about a year or so his shims shifted and he started getting all sorts of errors as the heat built up and the metal shims touched things they were not supposed to. The safest option are thermal pads. Not having anything in there is tatamount to disaster as you pretty much guarantee you will fry the components if they have no way to dissipate heat.

Of Course I will use paste for the graphics processor and central processing units (GPU and CPU respectively), but for the video ram that is not possible due to the shape and size of the heat sink and the placement of the memory on the mainboard.

 

Well thanks everyone so much for all your input. I think I'll go with the PK-1, and see if the tech can apply it when I get my screen and speaker replaced. Also, I saw that someone on NBR got their keyboard replaced. Is that something that warranty covers, and if so, does it have to be in bad condition to warrant a replacement?

 

I see what you mean, but since you don't really need a lot of cooling for them (none most of the time that i seen) i'd say just use one of those from ebay, theres a lot of low price ones and i doubt they will perform very well anyways