Dell M6800: How Hot is Too Hot?

I have a penchant for amateur PC building and modding, however this is my first time really performing major upgrades on a laptop.

That said, I've gone and upgraded my Dell M6800 a bunch in the last month. The current specs are as follows:

- CPU: i7 4910MQ
- GPU: Quadro K5100M
- 24gb RAM
- 1080P Touchscreen (Dell OEM assembly)

When I did both the GPU and CPU, I was careful to use the right thickness thermal pads where needed, and was very generous with the thermal paste on the GPU chip and CPU. Everything runs fine from what I can tell. The computer does get very warm under heavy load, but thats to be expected. I am concerned however by the temps shown in CPUID's HWMonitor: under light load, i.e. Netflix or surfing the net, I'm seeing temperatures averaging mid to high 50s and low 60s, but it will instantly spike up to high 80s and then instantly cool back to 50s and 60s. I'm lead to believe that this is just an error in the readings, but not sure. The fans don't run crazy under light load, only treally during heavy use.

What would a reasonable average and maximum temperature range be on the machine setup like this? What would be the suggested actions to get the CPU and GPU even cooler?

Thoughts?

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If it don't shut off, its fine. Simple!

 

Throw thermal paste on it, fans are loud, if the noise is an issue m6600 fans fit nicely with mods to wires. Switch to firepro m6100 and play with different drivers. Im steady temp you should be as well, the nvidia cards like that run hot.

 

The fans don't run loud at all, my concerns are purely from the temp data in HWMonitor. Also I ditched a Firepro M6100 for the Quadro K5100, and don't have any interest in going back. The primary purpose of this machine is for CAD and 3D modeling work, for which the Nvidia card is better suited. If they're known to run hotter no big deal.

I did go back in, clean up, and reapply the thermal paste in a slightly less generous portion, which did actually improve the temps a bit. I also swapped a couple thermal pads on the gpu heatsink that didn't seem to be making contact with the chips, and that also seems to make a difference as well.

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You would be amazed what happens with things like that. Once you get it at max power im sure you will enjoy it. It still has alot to offer. Mine gets warm while gaming i use rainmeter to keep things monitored and have something cool to look at.

 

The FurnacePro M6100 isn't terrible but it could have been a faster card had there been a full 896sp version with 4gb vram without gimping the clocks. Due to the power density it is a hot running card especially at idle compared to nvidia so the thermals are always going to end up being very similar to the higher end Quadros as a result acting like a 100w card vs the 75w tdp. All in all the thermals you are seeing are in the normal range though less desirable in hot climates but still a lot better than the saltine crackers that pass for modern laptops these days.