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Alienware M18x-R1 Triple (3) Pipe CPU Cooler Upgrade


Brian

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So is the 3pipe better than the 1 thick pipe heatsink for the CPU?

Yes the more pipes and thinner seem to be a better design than one or even two thick pipes vs three small pipes. The R1 xm heatsink was two thick and this three pipe shows considerable improvement.

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

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Ok, so my triple piped heatsink is in.

Can't say temps are low though.

I've set my BIOS OC to 40,40,40,40, flex is 0, Pri Plane is 800 (that's the lowest i could go with pri-plane).

I tried locking CMod at 100% with throttlestop and running a bench, the cpu reaches 100c pretty fast and throttles.

The highest multi i was able to sustain a 100% load with is 37 or 38 (not sure) on all cores.

It's low, but i've never really invested time in OCing before so i need your input guys ( @Brian / @mw86 / @Mr. Fox and others :)).

Should i bother opening the laptop again and replacing the default TIM that came with the heatsink with ICD/Shin Etsu, or are those temps ok ?

BTW, laptop is on a cooler, and i further elevated it's back using rubber feet. Ambient temp is about 23-24c.

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@Michael - your ambient temps are a bit warmer than ideal for overclocking any higher than 38x to 40x. You may see some improvement from ICD, but I doubt it will be a reduction significant enough for allowing heavy CPU loads unless you have ambient temps at or below 21°C (70°F). The Dell TIM is more durable, but your temps should be equal to or less than what they currently are after applying ICD. There is always a chance that ICD will make enough of an improvement to allow you to run 40x in your current environment, so I think there is more to be gained and nothing to lose by trying.

Before you crack open your machine, are you seeing 100°C doing ordinary things like office productivity apps and gaming, or only when performing intensive CPU work or benching? If only the latter is true, then what you are seeing may be more of a reflection of the ambient temps than a cooling problem. You might be fine sticking with what you have if intensive CPU work is not typical of your use pattern. You can always set up profiles with ThrottleStop. You can boot to a profile with a more conservative multiplier for daily use and manually switch to gradually increasing multipliers with the additional 3 profiles based on what the temperature in your working environment allows. If you can run 38x4 without high temps, then make that your default profile.

For example, I set my BIOS to 48x4 with enough flex and pri plane to support it, then disable c-states in the BIOS. Using TS, you can control the multiplier and flex and re-enable c-states in any of the performance profiles that you wish to allow your CPU to idle down. The profile I use varies with the environment, but I load ThrottleStop with Windows using profile 4 as the default, with c-states and power saving options enabled in that profile. The other three profiles are for running my CPU as fast as my ambient temps allow, with c-states disabled. Once you set up hotkeys for ThrottleStop, switching is super easy. For even greater ease of use, you can set macros with your TactX keys to implement the hotkey combos you set up in ThrottleStop.

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Whether it is ultimately worth it to re-paste or not will depend on what you plan to do, and how you plan to do it. If you have overheating problems running on your current ambient temps at 38x4, you probably need to re-paste. Aggressive overclocking with the intent of getting impressive benchmark scores running on ambient temps with only fan support is not a realistic expectation. You need a cold environment or an artificial cooling medium like AC to do that. (As an example, none of the top box benchmark scores were achieved without artificial cooling. With the exception of Postal Painmaker, none of us have a natural environment cold enough to support that.)

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MrFox great post and I agree with a lot of that. For Michael's purposes he should stick to whatever overclock he can get at 0 flex. I recommend because of that a max multiplier of 42x and still not for 4core.

I would work up see how these do.

Try 80watts long and short.. I didnt find i needed over that for everday use of 42x or less as long as we aren't talking unrealistic load like prime95 and Intel Burn Test.

I would try matching a stock 2960xm then going up. Ie 34-34-36-37. Check temps maybe go up to 35-35-37-38/ 36-36-38-40 / 36-37-40-42 would actually be a pretty good range and may keep 4core temp down vs 4ghz 4core.

If you run a stock 2960xm stock amps and multis in Intel Burn Test we see the speed drops over an just a few minutes of full load to 2.7ghz which keeps it around 55watts. If you up your amps maybe 900 and 80watts you can sustain in Intel Burn Test for one hour getting to about 90c ish at 3ghz 8thread. This is on stock R1 dual pipe xm heatsink. If you do rendering or anything like it you may want to stay conservative on atleast the 4core 8thread turbo multiplier. 35-38 seems the max safest for long term thermal stability. Im using 36-38-40-42 and in games like BF3 and more I find that i am in the 38x multi a lot and it tends to be getting to low mid 90s as of last night. So i may also go to 36-37-40-42 0 flex. This way your vid shouldn't barely even touch 1.3v often. If you set up with the max flex and max speed the cpu supports its just going to add nearly 10-20c because depending on the chips efficiency it may need 14-50flex for 4.8ghz by Mr Fox's example. Hence even at idle going by mr foxs pics that it often uses max volts for our cpu... 1.52v which is to high for most everday use.

Doing the core states thing is interesting as mr fox points out. With it off and in throttle stop off... You will run max speed set all the time and the only drops you see are when the cpu surpasses the watt or amp limit and you see the speed drop to the level the cpu can handle woth those settings. Temp will make it drop and thats it unless you use profiles. Much like StamatisXs 920xm is 3.57 all the time and unless load is too great or temps it maintains that speed at idle or even low cpu load which is advantageous for the fact even under light load max turbo is used which greatly improves i/O speeds.

Anyway test a bit more, if temps aren't that bad in games after adjusting you should be fine. But if temps are still out of hand try the ICD paste. Thing is just a screw to tight can cause this too. Tightening the screws to their normal full tightness doesn't always provide best temps. You could screw three temps still good and get the fourth one tightened and temps sky rocket. You could test with case open. Reattach lcd power and video cable and power button from palm rest and power on after just lightly tightening the screws down. Test and adjust till temps look better. You could try this before removing heatsink and paste to replace with ICD.

Id have to say maybe try level 3 overclock multipliers but then change the watts back to what you want etc.

Let us know what multis you decide to start with now and post some temp pics again :)

Also to note with throttle stop. Lets say you set 36-37-40-42 and get to windows the cpu can run any of those based on amount of active cores. If you set a max overclock as target 4.8ghz in Mr Fox's example. In windows in throttle stop from that point on if you want to set another profile up the only thing throttle stop can adjust is full 4 core 8thread load multiplier. What do I mean? When you go to TRL window the four multis seen in there the one that is listened to is only the four core. You could set up a profile at 36-37-40-42 while all multis are 48 via bios (well xtu since ots a value over 45x) then under load on that profile max you will see is 36x. It wont use 1-2-3active core limits based on what you enter in TRL and that is because Throttle Stop can't adjust those due to chipset limitations of Sandybridge unlike on the fly as seen in the new Ivy Bridge chipset. So when setting TRL just go by max 4core thats your target then hit okay press down on arrow by multiplier checkbox section and press back up till you see Turbo this way it uses that max 4core multi you entered in TRL. So if you prefer to have seperate distinct function of 1/2/3 or 4 active cores then you need to have those set in the bios or the cpu wont use seperate multipliers based on 1/2/3 active cores only 4core.

If i think of more ill post it.

Waiting for thanks to be available to thank your post Mr Fox.

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

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@Michael I played for 30 min about in Crysis 2 with the config as pictured. I grabbed an extra screen shot and pasted in the TDP area of Throttle Stop to show both that and TRL. my multis are set to the same in bios. As you can see I have an uneven heatsink in this case and need to repaste and adjust to fix that. but for me i am going based on these results to 35-37-42-42 from 36-37-42-42 from above and I'll see how the temps are then. I am still on the dual pipe heatsink so keep in mind you should be able to handle this Michael and possibly go up if you find room for it. 900 in the primary plane would be just fine though vs what I have mine at. My cpu underload always says max turbo and not values in between unless it was switching to idle clocks or back to turbo clocks. thats why it helps to go from 97Amp default to atleast 108Amp or 864 primary plane.

Edit:okay here is 20min on 35-37-42-42 with all the above the same other than me changing from 36-37-42-42

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i am going to try 34-37-42-42 and see how that fairs in Crysis 2.

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Before you crack open your machine, are you seeing 100°C doing ordinary things like office productivity apps and gaming, or only when performing intensive CPU work or benching? If only the latter is true, then what you are seeing may be more of a reflection of the ambient temps than a cooling problem. You might be fine sticking with what you have if intensive CPU work is not typical of your use pattern. You can always set up profiles with ThrottleStop. You can boot to a profile with a more conservative multiplier for daily use and manually switch to gradually increasing multipliers with the additional 3 profiles based on what the temperature in your working environment allows. If you can run 38x4 without high temps, then make that your default profile.

Whether it is ultimately worth it to re-paste or not will depend on what you plan to do, and how you plan to do it. If you have overheating problems running on your current ambient temps at 38x4, you probably need to re-paste. Aggressive overclocking with the intent of getting impressive benchmark scores running on ambient temps with only fan support is not a realistic expectation. You need a cold environment or an artificial cooling medium like AC to do that. (As an example, none of the top box benchmark scores were achieved without artificial cooling. With the exception of Postal Painmaker, none of us have a natural environment cold enough to support that.)

Thank you for the detailed answer and the tips regarding TS @Mr. Fox!

I am only seeing temps reach 100°c while benching the CPU, it doesn't even get close to that during normal use. It's just that i saw you guys posting screenshots of x45 at 100% on all cores and that got me thinking that my cooling isn't fine.

What i am ultimately looking to achieve is the maximum productivity from the CPU during daily tasks (programming - building huge projects in eclipse which is pretty CPU intensive; running application servers etc and gaming). I am not into benching at all.

So i am thinking now is that i need to get to a situation where the CPU can hold a 100% load for 30-45 seconds without throttling, which is probably more than enough to simulate 99% of real life scenarios.

I am going to be aiming for that goal, which seems achievable at about x37 - x38 on all cores.

Correct me if i am wrong.

Editkay here is 20min on 35-37-42-42 with all the above the same other than me changing from 36-37-42-42

i am going to try 34-37-42-42 and see how that fairs in Crysis 2.

Ok, so i think my cooling as adequate, since i am able to sustain a higher multi than 34 on all cores for quite a long time.

Thanks for your input buddy!

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Thank you for the detailed answer and the tips regarding TS @Mr. Fox!

I am only seeing temps reach 100°c while benching the CPU, it doesn't even get close to that during normal use. It's just that i saw you guys posting screenshots of x45 at 100% on all cores and that got me thinking that my cooling isn't fine.

What i am ultimately looking to achieve is the maximum productivity from the CPU during daily tasks (programming - building huge projects in eclipse which is pretty CPU intensive; running application servers etc and gaming). I am not into benching at all.

So i am thinking now is that i need to get to a situation where the CPU can hold a 100% load for 30-45 seconds without throttling, which is probably more than enough to simulate 99% of real life scenarios.

I am going to be aiming for that goal, which seems achievable at about x37 - x38 on all cores.

Correct me if i am wrong.

Ok, so i think my cooling as adequate, since i am able to sustain a higher multi than 34 on all cores for quite a long time.

Thanks for your input buddy!

Exactly so 37x or 38x should be just fine. Add in my two hot cores and dual pipe vs your triple pipe heatsink that multiplier 38x sounds just right. So maybe try 38-40-42-42 since dual and single core tasks can really benefit from the boost. Sounds like your all set. You may need 80-85 watts and 108+amp to improve your efficiency in those tasks. If its running and not running max turbo it has to do with amp/watt limit and if volts were to high it prevents hitting as high speeds as well. Please let us know how you end up leaving it. But your using 0flex so no worry of to much voltage adding heat.

Drop to 38-39-42-42 or 37-39-42-42 if 4 or 3 core is getting too hot.

I think its important to monitor temps in game to really know whats going on. When its all clear its unnecessary but it helps to know. I use MSI Afterburner OSD plus added sensors via HWiNFO. Its easy to make a hotkey to toggle the on screen display on and off when unneeded.

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
When I ordered mine from Dell the order kept being pushed back until it was finally cancelled. Hope that doesn't happen to you.
Yeah I ordered one last week and already they have cancelled the order and made another one, don't know what's going on there but no news on the order other than that :( I suspect it's not going to end well, they are 23.50 here in australia.
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I recently ordered this heat sink from Dell for a friend and it was pushed out multiple times, but it finally (after roughly a month) shipped out. I also ordered an M18x R2 motherboard for myself at exactly the same time and after more than a month of being pushed out it was finally cancelled. :mad: I am trying to reorder the motherboard. It's very frustrating.

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I recently ordered this heat sink from Dell for a friend and it was pushed out multiple times, but it finally (after roughly a month) shipped out. I also ordered an M18x R2 motherboard for myself at exactly the same time and after more than a month of being pushed out it was finally cancelled. :mad: I am trying to reorder the motherboard. It's very frustrating.

Doesn't surprise me, Dell hasn't been keeping inventory at all lately for spare parts. I guess they really want to force people to purchase full systems rather than individual parts. I really don't like the direction they have been headed especially with regards to forcing people that buy brand new systems with defects to settle for tech repairs rather than offering system exchanges. Before you'd get an exchange + compensation for your trouble and it really made AW feel like a premium brand, now Dell is cheapening it to increase profits. They now ship it in a crappy box as well...I don't see a good future for Alienware if this continues.

If they are wondering why they continue to lose money, its because they cut corners where they should not be cut and it pisses consumers and enthusiasts off alike. Before I used to recommend Dell/AW wholeheartedly but now I have my reservations about them. I'm almost certain that Dell is probably considering selling off its consumer notebook division since they are losing money on it. I would not be surprised at all to see AW disappear altogether in a few years like HP did to Vodoo. If/when that happens, I'll jump over to Clevo or back to desktops.

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The downside to Clevo, in addition to their plastic chassis and ho-hum look, is their locked down system BIOS which doesn't allow CPU OC'ing worth a darn. They are seriously crippled as gaming machines because of that major flaw. Has svl7, The Wiz or any other BIOS modder had any luck with fully unlocking a Clevo system BIOS like they have the InsydeH20 for the M18x?

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The downside to Clevo, in addition to their plastic chassis and ho-hum look, is their locked down system BIOS which doesn't allow CPU OC'ing worth a darn. They are seriously crippled as gaming machines because of that major flaw. Has svl7, The Wiz or any other BIOS modder had any luck with fully unlocking a Clevo system BIOS like they have the InsydeH20 for the M18x?

Nope not as far as I know and it doesn't seem like Clevo will change that policy anytime soon. Unfortunately I just don't see a bright future for DTR gamers at all, not with the direction the industry is headed. All the major players are either fading out or diversifying towards other markets. I love having a smart phone but at the same time despise all this tablet craze. Anyway, going OT so I'll keep this discussion for another thread.

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  • 1 month later...

little update:

i ad ordered the heat sink with a random dell sells person. i never received a confirmation as i was supposed to..... , so i just went and tried with my dell representative at our company "we sell lots of dell laptop" . and bing bang , 2 minutes after i received confirmation, 3 day later , email saying its shipped , and today i received it!... i paid 29$ CAN for it!!!

later on i am going to install it, with Artic Silver 3 paste.

look at the size of this box!

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  • 1 month later...
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I see my m18x has a single heatsink pipe for the CPU, my CPU is a 2720 and currently running at 3.2 ghz

Would a 3pipe be over kill or would I actually see a benefit?

I don't really see how your cpu would overheat even with the heat sink you currently use. I'd say 3piped hs would be an overkill.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have just installed the tripple pipe heatsink in my m18x r1,it was quite easy actually. I decided to use the original cooling paste on the heatsink despite i had a syringe mx-4 lying around, but i saw mr.fox used the original stuff, so i did the same and my temps are great. Im running a 2960XM cpu. :)I bought mu tripple pipe on ebay and with shipment and customs i think it ended up costing me around 100-120 usd.

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I have just installed the tripple pipe heatsink in my m18x r1,it was quite easy actually. I decided to use the original cooling paste on the heatsink despite i had a syringe mx-4 lying around, but i saw mr.fox used the original stuff, so i did the same and my temps are great. Im running a 2960XM cpu. :)I bought mu tripple pipe on ebay and with shipment and customs i think it ended up costing me around 100-120 usd.

Shit man that's a rip off :uncomfortableness:

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