Razer Blade 14 (7700HQ/1060) beatdown log

Looks like the thread is not much populated now... I have a blade 14 2017.
I'm going to repaste for the second time with kryonaut thermal paste from thermal grizzly, I used standard artic paste. The pads as I remember looked not all the same thickness (the memory gpu ones with other pads installed), I'm going to measure as soon as the paste arrives and then decide if I will change them. For the vrms I found a strange thermal paste, but I guess nobody will now exactly... But if it wasn't a 2000€ like (yeah I'm Italian and here is even more exotic), I would guess and try a dense thermal paste, like the one a guy used in a yt video on his blade (even on gpu memory chips, that I wouldn't, to keep the internals clean)
I will update this, and I could take some shots for the community if it would help others...

The first pads I'm going to replace are gpu's memory pads, because is overclocked, and now knowing is samsung (don't know if could be even micron or not), that I can overclock it more than the 500Mhz I'm running now (4500Mhzx2, like 9gbps special 1060s).

I have also done undervolting by unlocking bios setting (cleaner than xtu) and disabled ASPM in bios, which bumped firestrike score well beyond 10600+, good for a laptop this small and similar to a 1070 max-q performance.

 

Thank your so much for all the info. Hope you'll get your thermal paste very soon!
I would also like to mod my bios, but unless i updated it to the newest spectre version I guess it will be to difficult to mod it.

 

I don't know what spectre version does mean, do you refer to the intel security leak? What laptop model do yo have? I've modded latest bios avaiable on razer download page, the process is the same as older ones. In reality it only unlocked some functionalities that were already in bios.
Maybe ram could be overclocked but I don't think I would gain much over 2400mhz ddr4 stock speed.

If you have never replaced the thermal coumpound I would suggest to do it, no more throttling even with low end compound. Razer made a bad application in mine, in particular on the cpu side.

 

Yes, I'm using the newest BIOS Version, referring to intel's security leak. I have the 7700HQ 2017 Razer Blade. Would be cool if you could help me flashing/modding the Bios!

Yes, I really need to change the thermal paste and pads.

Thanks for your help!

 

For the bios mod all the merit goes to Fernando Geraci, razer insider member that made a video on yotube that you could follow.



The process is simply reading your bios, changing hidden menus and re-flashing it. The tools are provided under yt links, uploaded directly by him. Of course be aware that the laptop should not power off during this operation, as you will already now for sure (so remove undervoltings and things that coud hurt system's stability)

IMPORTANT NOTE: in the video, he does not check the first option to show the overclock menu (it only shows the sub menues, of course you should check it in order to open the menu un bios.

The setting in >advanced folder (click on advanced folder, not open sub-folder) and enable USER for Overclocking Performance menu.

If you watch the video you'll figure it out

Thermal paste should arrive tomorrow! I will measure and decide about the thermal pads on the go.

 

Thanks a lot for the Link and your little tipp, concerning the overclocking menu. Everything worked perfectly!

 

No, unfortunately 1070 max q Laptop still by far better, on Blade 15 1070 maxq i can even get similar performance with full 1070 on Zephyrus, Witcher 3 performs even better than Zephyrus FPS same setting. Though if you can achieve 10600 it’s great compared to other 1060 laptops, and better than my Blade 14 that i had.
Here’s my setting comparison:
Blade 14 2017
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/20820726
Blade 15 2018
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/27184597

 

Did you manage measuring them by now?

 

Well, I measured them myself. I have 0,5 mm, 1 mm and 2 mm. So there will be three different thermal pads, you have to replace.

 

Hi Everyone, picked up a RB 14 7700hq with UHD today. It should get here in a few days. With a past RB I used LM on the CPU and GPU. The CPU with the repaste and undervolt was in the high 60s rarely going into the 70s but the GPU would still hit 80. Not bad thermals but the fans would kick in around 74. Never really felt comfortable with LM on the GPU because of the heat sink’s gaps so I ultimately removed it for traditional paste.

I saw Coolabortory LiquidMetal Pads and thought this might be a solution to the heat sink not having a traditional flat surface. The LM Pads are suppose to melt into the heat sink and is noted as being safe for aluminum.

Any thoughts would be great.

 

The RB with the 7700HQ has a flat copper shim for the GPU on the heatsink. The direct to heatpipe is only on the CPU. The LiquidMetal Pads are not that as good as expected, unfortunately.

 

Ok. Are you sure about the placement of the cpu and GPU? This dissemble guide and my past experience suggest the GPU is sitting directly on heatpipes.

https://www.laptopmain.com/razer-blade-14-2017-disassembly/

 

EDIT: I made a mistake. Indeed you are correct. Sorry about that.

 

Must have changed in from the 2016 (6700HQ) to the 2017 (7700HQ) if you're sure. Interesting. The disassembly guide that @votehart linked is like mine (7700HQ model). Clearly saw "Nvidia" on my chip last night that's represented here in blue, which is the only one with heat-pipe direct contact.

 

Don't know what I thinking, I was probably out of it when I answered incorrectly. Indeed the GPU is the direct to heat pipe. Sorry for that.

 

Oh no sweat dude. I see all good the stuff you post in here all the time, so it wasn't until my second time opening mine up, I was like -- oh crap -- the direct pipe side says Nvidia on it!

Without going the liquid metal route, and just trying to get temps down a bit-- I still haven't gotten my typical awesome re-pasting results. All within 1-2C of stock stress testing. Sometimes higher, sometimes lower. Does the unicorn myth live on?

One time, I got temps on the GPU down 2C with my idea here (photo) to dab some spots so it could spread on each of the 3 pipes. Again though, not very impressive. Tried Grizzly Kyronaut and ICD so far. Better result with ICD on the CPU and better results with Grizzly on GPU. Cleaning up meticulously with Articlean each time. Replaced all the pads with FujiPoly that I had. Also found that one of my VRAMs was missing a pad during assembly. That was nice.

 

Alright, yeehaw. On the 6th time I got something I really liked. I had tried getting fancy with placing dots and also with spreading it thinly to see what worked. Ultimately, the best run and the one I'm keeping because this one drops it by 8-9C on the GPU and about 4-5C on the CPU:

• Grizzly Kryo on both CPU/GPU
• Spread out evenly with their spreader, but I was close to 0.5mm thick (don't skimp, especially on GPU!)
• And something I did on the last try I had not yet done -- might be the most important part:
  Before you screw everything down, press hard with your finger right on the CPU & GPU. Make that motherboard flex!
  Maybe this finally got the TIM to spread evenly and was what was missing.

UPDATE: More testing to follow, but man -- after a little over a day, maybe after the Grizzly settled in and dried/tightened up a bit-- I'm back to the exact same stock temps within 1-2C again! Yes, this means I still cannot really make a significant improvement over the stock TIM without going liquid metal like others in this thread. What they put in there might not be from a unicorn, but it isn't a clear slam dunk to change it to something else that isn't liquid metal from my testing.

 

Hey guys, I know they are not exactly the same laptop but I'd like to repast my blade late 2016 and to replace the thermal pads at the same time.
I'm sure the cooling was barely updated from the late 2016 and 2017 blades. Do you guys know what is the thickness of the pads ?

Any advices on what pads to buy? (Don't have the budget for Fujipoly extreme based on the 50 € price tag asked on the only place I could find them where I live)

 

I don't think Fujipoly is worth it. Arctic pads are fine. If you want something better but not as expensive as Fujipoly, you can try Gelid Pads. Thickness I don't remember exactly, 1mm for sure, and maybe some 1.5mm and 0.5mmm, not sure. Some places they used thermal paste.

 

Hello everyone,

one week ago I got the chance to buy the 14 Blade 7700 with the 4K Display for a special price, thanks to black friday.
I have the problem that when surfing with firefox, browsing or watching YouTube videos the machine goes hot very quickly, in the 60s° C, so that the fans start to spin every 1-2 minutes, again and again.

I remember not having this problem, before I installed all the apps I want/have to use for working with this laptop. I already undervolted the system and set the clock frequency to 2700Mhz. But still it's idling in the 60s° C.
I did a clean and fresh install, only using the newest drivers and Bios Firmware. On load in Games the cpu hits 86 Celsius and the GPU is in the lower 80s. So Nothing special here.

On idle I always have 5% usage on cpu by the system process. I already disabled turbo boost, concerning the 99% maximum Power state.

Are there any known apps or issues in general, which could cause this problem?

Edit: Even posting this thread is getting the fans to spin...

Thanks in advance!
Gebirgskuchen

 

Blade 2017 cpu fan was quite pasive when I had that, first week owning it due windows update and hardware optimization I think I experienced similar things, though I only concentrated at max cpu temperature value which is similar with yours, max around mid 80. I think Rubino from windows central mentioned about this at that time we compared with cpu fan on skylake late 2016 (in here or Razer forum, forgot where but I think the Artikel it self still on their website) which is more aggressive. He mentioned it’s not necessary should be low. I noticed also fan is kicking on idle often but after several weeks rarely noticed that.

 

I recently picked up a used 2017 Razer Blade with a 7th gen 7700hq processor. It seems to be working well but I noticed that I can not get the processor to idle below 1100mhz and typically it is at 1500mhz. Is this normal? I thought that idle clock speed for the 7700hq should be 800mhz.

I asked this on reddit and didn't get any responses.

 

Letting it idle over night it CAN reach 55-57° Celsius.

But now again - without any tasks running - it's idling between 63-65° Celsius, which shouldn't ne normal.
Even simply opening one tab in Firefox gets the fans to kick in...
One thing that bothers me as well is the power consumption between 12-15 Watts on IDLE!

 

I think I answered you in Razer forum

 

Doesn't help me much.

 

If you have max screen brightness on, using a performance powerprofile, using firefox on your Nvidia gpu instead of intel gpu than all that is normal.

 

I have max brightness on, yes.

BUT: I'm running on the Windows Balanced Mode, without Turbo Boost (90%),
I use Firefox with the Intel 630 HD. I checked the nVidia Control Panel, saying that ONLY the Intel 630 HD is used for everything/every program (checked in global settings).
And I also undervolted the CPU by 130mV.
I even uninstalled Razer Synapse.

 

What apps are running in the background? But yeah max brightness does use quite a bit. See what happens if you use powersaving mode.

 

Powersaving-Mode seems to help a bit, because there are less heat spikes ramping up the fans. On the other side, the performance is much worse/slower now.
I screenshotted everything running in the backround.

 

The rest.

 

Try lowering resolution to 1080p, pushing more pixels may also causing higher cpu temperatures than FHD.

 

Limiting processors state to 90 won’t bring idle thermal improvement, since it won’t use maybe even 50% or boosting on idle. From idle usage there’s also no anything intensively, so Synapse isn’t also the culprit. What made you thinking that 60 on idle is bad, don’t compare it to ultrabook cpu temperature or desktop it’s other type cpu, and intel letting it up to 100 actually.

 

Hmm 22% resource isage when idling is quite a bit. I would look into that.

 

Strange. I thought 20-30% of RAM usage should be normal!?

 

30% ram usage is pretty usual on idle (some Firefox tabs opened, playing YouTube to me included on idle )
I don’t have 2017 Blade anymore but here’s some references power usage, had yesterday issue with synapse 3 for Blade 15 and installed original factory Synapse without updating. Battery life a bit worse since it’s non optimized Synapse 3 version, should be better usually, discharge rate is also 13 watt, usually 10 or lower, temperature 40ish, kabylake may higher than 8th gen but if it’s still 60 I cannot say is an issue.

 

I ment CPU on idle.

 

CPU is 4% on attachment that i saw, it is ram memory usage that showed 22% it’s in german.

 

From my point of view it's just a bad thermal design or a bad paste job in my case.
I never found anyone complaining about high idle temperatures on his 2017 Blade model.
It cannot be normal, that the idle temp is targeting 60° Celcius on idle in power-saving mode!

I guess, now it's time to call Razer's support.

 

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