Razer Blade 14 (7700HQ/1060) beatdown log

Well, I repasted with thermal grizz on the CPU and IC Diamond on the GPU. So far i feel like i've gotten worse results on the repaste lol. The cpu gaming im maxing around 78 but intel XTU shows me throttling @ 74ish? Why is this? Max i'm reaching on GPU is 83 in msi afterburner. Something doesnt seem right. I went heavy on GPU as mophius suggested and put about two pea size or a little larger on. For the grizzly i followed the directions and applied a thin layer.

Vistar shoot me your email in a PM and ill send you measurements and pics of the thermal pads.

 

so this is 2017? Do you have a good quality picture with heatsink removed? Of particular interest is right below gpu, and above cpu in cpu vcore buck converter area. would be awesome to see what they have going on there. it looks different. Actually a full view of the board in HD would be great too. Some other stuff looks to be changed here.

 

@pbhenry3, he did post more pictures later in the thread, removal of heatsink and repaste with LM.
If I ever have issues with my blade, I will definitely send it to you for repair.

 

Hey I saw you on louis rossman

Spoiler

I think I have more but haven't uploaded yet, will check later.

 

as expected they added a 4th phase into cpu vcore buck converter. Probably because of the newer cpu. The whole board layout is changed a good bit. I wonder if for better or worse. I see vbios is still under heatsink though

 

So after about 24 hours heres what my results are. I'm not sure if i had the issues i stated above in the quote was because I was running games and test about 20 minutes after the initial re paste. Maybe since things have cured and setup now its getting better??? I was initially pretty scared as to why my machine was running hotter at first. I give credit to vistashook on helping me out via private messages and instilling some confidence on waiting for the paste to cure up and would get better as the days went out. This morning i booted up the laptop and just let it idle and CPU temps were at 33-34. Opening web browser the temps were hovering around 40.

 

Really boggles my mind why manufacturers do this.

 

I can't think of any reason except for wanting it to fail prematurely. Razer is the only company that I know of that does that. Their manufacture company is "Build your Dreams Limited" right out of Shenzhen china. I wonder who's idea it was exactly to put it there though, would be interesting to know.

 

Well, the 2017 notebooks are the first to be handled by Razer's new team in Taiwan, but the details of component selection, layout and placement are still up to BYD.
BYD is a big manufacturer in China making automobiles and major home appliances, but is relatively new to consumer electronics. I believe the Razer notebooks are the only laptops they have ever made.
I know some people think Razer has designed these to fail so you have to buy a new one sooner, but that is a zero sum game. I'm pretty sure the problem is due to inexperience of BYD, and lack of oversight and testing by Razer.

 

the thing is that any engineer should know not to put it there. Interestingly they only began putting it under the heatsink starting in the 2014 model. It may be possible they are trying to improve though. They did correct the failing MOSFETs starting with the 2015 model...but that one still had other issues. It will be interesting to see what will be new in the late 2017/2018 model.

 

At this point it's just better to add the vbios chip under the windows key so the user can hammer it while in use.

 

A coworker of mine bought the blade 14 here in switzerland. I have to say it's an eye candy and feels great to handle, but I somewhat expected it to fail soon with all the known issues. Not to mention that he already asked me to improve temps before he returned it for an Asus notebook.

Did anyone experience the very high fan speed during light browsing in chrome? His fans where blasting with just 3 yt tabs open.

Edit: Grammar

 

which year is it? 2017?

 

For my 2017 Kabylake model, the fan remained OFF until the CPU or GPU crosses 55c.

Too conservative of a passive fan curve?

 

Probably because the cooling ain't adequate for handling load without use of the fans.

 

It was the opposite case for me. Fans stay off most of the time.

 

It's the i7 7700HQ, GTX1060, QHD, 256GB SSD, 16GB model. Most recent one with a SSD swap on his end.

I only had my hands on it for 30min (during our lunch brake), and nothing except chrome, Skype and wlan was running on it (on user installed software). He basically had it for 1 1/2 days till it tilted him.

 

Perhaps the heat transfer from die to heatsink is better due you use Liquid metal? Colder Cpu wouldn't trigger the fans.

 

Stock paste.
Same goes for liquid metal, fans trigger at 55-60c cpu.

 

My guess at the time was that the heatsink didn't make good contact, was warped or too much TIM. I didn't want to offer him a Kryonaut-repaste since Razer uses magical unicorn jizz which is the best TIM in this quadrant of the galaxy and i'm not really ready to take responsibility if something goes wrong with that highly engineered heatsink.

 

Lololol quality

 

A question regarding the gpu cooling: could a large headspread between gpu and the direct touch heatpipes help dissipate heat from the gpu?

Other than a even shim, a spreader (maybe a thin vapor champer) that extends and enlarges the surface area for the pipes could boost the heat transfer of said pipes.

Like this



Thinks you think about while pooping...

 

That would surely void your warranty. I got in 20 boards from razers manufacture in china, BYD, that were brand new but came out defective, DOA for various reasons. Most of them once repaired even though brand new were running at 96-97C on the cpu under intel XTU stress test. A repaste at least brings most down to 90, but there is nothing special about the thermal paste they use. Even brand new from factory, it is already all dried out. Very cheap In my opinion. If you go through with the repaste, please be sure to cut and remove the portion of thermal pad that is covering the ROM chip.

 

@pbhenry, that is impressive that you managed to get motherboards directly from BYD...did you manage to get replacement fans and batteries as well? The newer models also?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

I have over 50 replacement fans in stock, right from foxcon all brand new. Batteries is something i've been working on making, but ran into a couple minor issues in the process, one being cost to produce them, and it just might not be something I can provide as soon as I wanted. I have some originals here though.
All DOA boards I got in were the 2015 touchscreen edition boards, no newer models than that, but I am working on trying to get ahold of some more dead ones from BYD, they aren't easy to get.

Stay tuned though, I know a lot of people from this forum have been messaging me about fans and some other parts, and they will be available on my site in about a week, as well as some motherboards.

 

Which portion of the thermal pad is it?

The rom chip on the back is covered by a plastic film.

 

Once the heatsink is removed, look below the gpu. You will see a chip labeled "winbond 25x20......" it typically has a dot of paint on the chip to identify its a ROM. You can see the exact chip in my newest video. By default there is a thermal pad covering this chip, but its a good idea to remove the portion of thermal pad from it becuase we do not want it to have contact with the heatsink.

 

10/10 design

I'll take a note of that, my friend is buying a blade 14 and wants a thermal rework

 

What are you saying? min-liang tan, first of his name, father of engineering and King of the 7 fandoms sayd it's special tp (unicorn jizz).

Jokes aside, my coworker doesn't have it anymore. I'd never touch a blade for repaste, since I don't want to be responsible for a dead machine. It's really a shame, since I like the super clean design and I do like the idea oh controlling your laptop through the same software you controlle your peripherals with, if you use razer products that is.

That aside, don't they test ready to deploy boards before shipping them out??

 

Software also consumes a lot of idle power. Not recommended to keep it running in the background if you want maximum battery life.

 

That's true, but also a reason for me to like synapse 2.0 if i would ride the razer train. I for an instance have god knows how many applications in the background to use all my stuff, can't immagine the battery drain on a notebook with all my stuff running. Having just one software to controlle my gear instead of 3 or 4 now, would be something to wish for. Shame that i don't want to try out the razer gear. Had enough issues with my naga epic chroma, but since there isn't a better option, wills tick with it for now.

 

Shim sandwich on the GPU wont make a difference. You are still limited by the TIM<>Heat Pipe heat exchange, "gained" surface area to GPU from shim wont change that. They should have a copper block welded/brazed to the pipes that contacts the GPU die same as they fixed on the CPU. It is mind boggling that they fixed one and not the other. I had a 2015 RB and really liked it except for the cooling. Ultimately that ruined the laptop for me and it got replaced by my AW 15 that is a little better on thermals but I have not monkeyed around with it much yet out of laziness. The heatsink contact leaves something to be desired here as well, what the hell is it with 3 point designs for cooling - do they WANT uneven pressure?! It is also interesting that despite the more poor contact with the GPU, the CPU is more likely to exceed its thermal allowance. Noticed this trend on a few laptops - not like the W/mm^2 ratio is radically different between the 2 parts - they are actually dam near the same for my 6820HK and GTX 1070.

The Blade and my Alienware both made me miss my old M17x and M18x, the cooling on those things was superb in comparison (of course they also needed a trailer behind my car for road trips due to the size...). Seems like too much compromise is taking place for "thin" these days

Just some ramblings after reading this whole thread to see if the Blade was viable yet. Sometimes my AW 15 feels a little husky as I look over and see the wife using the (neutered) 2015 Blade.

 

That's what i actually meant to say. Weld stuff to the heatpipes to have a bigger and better spread. Don't forget to use the magical unicorn jizz for best heat exchange!

I believe iUnlock had a talk with alienware about the 3 point design. I would look in to that for more informations.

 

It's called TRIPOD. And a lots of thin and flimsy use this new modern HS design. Smaller PCB aka MB means less space for put on needed screws @hmscott

 

I am sure that is their justification - it is just a weak one they could absolutely design around if they cared. Based on other things we see, it seems they just don't

 

I believe the tripod design was certified by intel and is used in nearly every somewhat expensive laptop. I would guess most issues come from oversights and not tight enough tolerances. I mean a little to thick thermal pad caused big issues fpr the alienware laptops. Looking at razers heatsink design... well, it speaks for itself what they think of their customers when it comes to design, implementation and qc.

 

I think Razer will opt for Ryzen 7 1800X or 1700 for upcoming line-ups and project valerie just to overcome the HSF design. Atleast it will have thick chassis that eats MBP and rMBP for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

Any updates about the RB?

 

welding chopper shim on hdt heat sink is that bad idea?

 

not really

but more difficult

 

I always wanted to do this, but was too afraid the heatpipes would blow up. Maybe I give it a try with that low melting point solder.

 

Let me know how it goes, if you do end up trying. It would certainly make me more comfortable with applying LM on the GPU side, I am just not convinced yet with the rtv silicone to protect the aluminum yet.

 

Hi I'm new here. Just found this nice thread, not yet read all of them because my bad english though. Anyway I'm not trying to kill my Blade 14, but I'm pushing it almost every days in gaming, not opened it yet but did Bios Flashing to unlock ASPM options to increase GPU performance under instruction from one member here, with NVIDIA experience installed i get 9600 FS overall score which is nice. I play always in low synapse profile to reduce Fan Noise, even maybe made the machine hot and lower the FPS, but i didn't notice big FPS difference, CPU thermal still max 82 (till last month was 81), so maybe if it reach 90 in normal gaming usage I will try to open it, and figure with repaste or anything you guys do here.

 

@Joikansai did you buy your Blade from an EU retailer? Did you get a 1 or a 2 year warranty for it?

Im still interested in a Blade 14 even though it's not exactly a wise buy regarding how big of a chance it is to get a lemon or QC issues down the road. Dunno when the "new" FHD pro model is up for sale in Europe, that might intrest me aswell.

I can live with the machine even tho it's not as fast as rivaling 1060 laptops, it still crushes 1080p gaming.
Undervolt, GPU voltage controll / limit fps and repaste....and hope it works

 

No i bought from Razer Store and here they have to give us 2 years guarantee. From Amazon CS i heard it comes also with 2 years guarantee, but from other retailers notebook.de I just heard Blade from them comes with 1 years manufacturers (Razer) guarantee, like Apple products here.

 

Allright, I was eyeing notebook.de and I think Amazon.de Razer blades were also supplied by the same firm.
So I guess it's 1 year warranty for me, and the hassle of sending it over to Germany if problems arise.

Thanks for the info,

 

No resellers here are Amazon and notebook.de, in Amazon and eBay they're (notebook.de) also offering Razer Products with around €50 more expensive price but from Amazon the price is sometimes higher and lower than Razer store. But notebook de provide sometimes sales with their even like gamescom recently, having work together on Razer booth there they offered 10% razer system discount at that time. I think they are avoiding longer warranty with the meaning 2 years "Gewährleistung" and 1 years manufactur guarantee which confused most costumers like me. I had asked Amazon CS and Razer CS about the guarantee and they said 2 years, i have Mail proof from them (Razer) so i am not afraid pushing it every day for gaming at least for 2 years

 

I don't have to repaste, GPU voltage control? (I think it's only on Blade Pro with gtx1080) and limiting FPS (for some games I play around with vsync setting to solve tearing issues), just undervolting and unlock ASPM off through Bios moding. Max temp 82, max Fan noise 52dB, no red value throttling things on HDWinfo and no crashes since April only one freezes when I tried -0.135uVolting. After disabling ASPM, in benchmarks it starts to beat other 1060 laptops score, it's depends on GPU lottery though, but in real gaming experience without moding bios even benchmarks score are lower I saw recently review that Blade 14 scores better FPS than Aero 15.

 

Allright, maybe I'll drop a mail to Razer EU asking whats the warranty case for Finnish customers.
There is so much negativity surrounding Razer products that I've been hesitant to pull the trigger.
2 year warranty might sway me, aswell as other ppl's good experiences using the machine.

I've had mac laptops and gotten to really like their solid build quality. Also had a Clevo running desktop parts, but now that I'm older I value different things than just all out performance. Portability, batterylife & build quality to name a few.

There was a thread where somebody suggested that you limit the GPU voltage to a certain point with MSI afterburner --> reducing heat output. But if all is well after an undervolt and fiddling with the ASPM thingy it might not be needed.

 

Yes it does help a bit, not as much as on laptops with a more powerful card though because the lowest setting is 800mV and the gtx1060 tends to stay below that on average. This however is almost mandatory with the RB Pro, where it tends to draw more power than the PSU can provide. Another option is to limit frame rates or if you don't mind having geforce experience installed using whisper mode to limit FPS.