XPS 17 Heat management

How does this machine handle gaming for long periods of time?

Nothing too demanding. I'm talking about WoW, SC2, League of Legends.. stuff like that.

I ask because I've configured one with better specs than the M14x Alienware I was planning on purchasing for cheaper.

 

heat-wise? it's fine... mine's overclocked and still doesn't require any external cooling

have played rift/crysis2 for periods of 2hours+ and haven't seen the temps rise above the 75degree mark, the 9cell battery raises the laptop off the surface at an angle and improves cooling... the palm rest did get quite warm during summer when me and a friend were gaming in the same room and I was sitting by the vent of his desktop pc, but even then the internal temp was only about 4degrees more.

In short, temps are fine... just remember to hoover it out occasionally :-D

 

Good to hear but I was thinking more like 6 hours+, not 2.

How do you think it would be if you had Rift up for 6 hours a day?

I should add that I plan on using a good laptop cooler with fans and I won't be playing on my lap or bed or the carpet or something. This is a desktop replacement for me so it won't really leave my desk except for an annual vacation or something, but because of this it needs to be able to stay on and handle a lot of game time.

 

There should be no problems at all. The cooling system by itself is good, so using an extra cooling pad should be more than enough to keep your laptop cool. After I applied new thermal paste my GPU (overclocked or not) does not exceed 'sweet' 75c degrees, and its 85c for CPU. It can drop even more if only I could find the cooler I want.

And should to mention about pretty HOT palm rest while playing 'heavy' games, so I am just putting some material under my left hand wrist and it solves the problem easily.

 

I put one of these under mine. It's keeping my CPU and GPU about 5-10 degrees cooler.



Don't bother with the pads that have multiple tiny fans, they don't blow much air and most of it misses the hot spot. Having one big-A** fan (brute force) seems to work quite well.

I also just ordered one of these and will see if I can fit it on the XPS17 vent.



Both fans cost me just over twenty bucks AUD.

The XPS17 with 9 cell battery and it's tilt already provides some natural cooling and the space underneath allows your laptop fans to suck in more air.

 

The cooling is fine on this system. And 2 hours versus 6 hours of gaming will make zero difference in temps. After 2 hours of full-out gaming, temps will be at steady-state long before that. 6 hours will be the same mark. Yes, the palm rest can get a bit hot on the left, as that is where the GPU/CPU sit, but it's not scalding-hot-gonna-burn-you hot. Just a bit on the warm side, I don't really notice it when gaming.