1645 Heat testing.

Ok so I did some testing with the vents blocked and cleared. When I say blocked I mean the dust filters they block the vents with. Great for keeping dust out, but bad for a high powered laptop like this. All in all took less then 2 mins total to remove the vent filters and all I needed was a philips head screw driver to remove the bottom panel. Temps, as I assumed would, improved a little. All in all well worth the time. I will post temps on a cooler maybe, but as of now my portable cooler is busted and the NZXT is being used on the dell vostro server. I have to admit after reading about how hot these rigs get I am surprised to see it run as cool as it has.

Ambient room temp is 80f on the thermostat 15ft away (I assume its a few degrees warmer at my desk due to all the hardware I have running. Both tests were done in the same place doing the same tasks.

First pic attached is multitasking and gaming simultaneously with vent filters in place.

Second pic attached is multitasking and gaming simultaneously with vent filters removed.

 

Wow, that's a pretty big improvement, although both have very cool GPU temps (must be due to the 5xxx series).

Silly question maybe, but can you burn yourself if you touch the stuff under the vent under heavy load? It looks like it's metal and would be hot. Occasionally I use the laptop on my lap (for like 5-7 minutes) under heavy load.

 

That is a pretty damn big improvement if you asked me..... I will definitely be doing this : )

 

I wouldnt say burn, but the spot right in the center an inch or 2 from the battery release gets uncomfortably hot. But this is during a time when you would NEVER want to use it on your lap unless you want to sweat ALOT.

Easy as pie I say. Takes no time at all, and you can probably put them back on pretty easy too with a small amount of glue. Before you do it blow through the vents with the filters on then without. For me the difference was scary and it took alot of control not to throw away the screens.

 

Glue? Are we talking about the same part? If you just take off the thing over the vent it will go back but it's a tight fit. It's frustrating but after 10 or so tries it will lock right back in place.

 

Lol I am talking about the plastic vent covers/filters. The adhesive should still work if you want to put them back on, but a dab of glue or sliver of double sided tape would do too. They peel off like stickers BTW.

 

Alright, that makes sense to me now.

But as much as I love peeling stuff and as impressive as the temperature change is, I'm going to leave it alone, especially now that the 84C GPU limit is removed.

 

Can you also test whether the screen lid blocking the vents affecting the temps in any way?

 

Wow those are really nice temps...ATI 5730 = less heat generation
What game were you playing?
I've got a bad 1645 that's being replaced due to heat and throttling, I've seen GPU temps from 80-101C, with the ATI 4670, playing Left 4 Dead (1)

 

While Im sure that the screen being where it does effect the fans being able to evacuate air. But I dont think its as much of a concern.

Im playing WoW at 1920x1080 maxed out, while doing my normal work stuff (VMs, RDP, etc).

 

The temp looks awesome.
I would need some information from you.

I needed the part# for The M/B and Heatsink.
This is what I have:
Y517R : ASSY,BASE,DISCRT,M96,1645
RVK8X : ASSY,HTSNK,NBK,DISCRT,1645x

Thanx

 

Now that it has been a month, how is your laptop doing in terms of heat? Is there any sign of increased heat due to internal dust build-up?

If your temps are still as good, it seems as though removing the vent covers should be towards the top (if not at the top) of the list of things to do to make the XPS 16 run cooler based on your results (since it's easy, fast, free, and effective), but yet this is the only discussion on the topic.

 

I see your temps and I am surprised. Usually such low temps are not reported (since you were playing WoW) for an i7 (with cover on).

If you just game for a couple hours, then take mid-game temps, how high will the CPU and GPU go? My i7 and Nvidia GT 240M have reached a max of 97C and 87C, so looking at these low 70s max temps is very comforting (environment temp here is about the same as yours or ~2C higher).

My lowest idle temps are 41C on a very cool, rainy, gloomy day (rare), but usually idle temps are 54C-57C, web browsing / normal stuff = 60-70+, so yeah, those would be gaming temps for others...

I am looking into buying the XPS 16 but with so much talk of overheating and the screen blocking the vent I am quite concerned.

Hope you can enlighten me and the rest of us here. Thanks.