DaneGRClose

Updated the post with a few pics I forgot, oops, it's amazing what you forget when typing a guide at 1:30am lol.

Thanks Brian, you bet, luckily your 6970m that's on the way doesn't have vram on the back side of the board, Joebarchuck at the "place which won't be named" verified that last night. I'd imagine that Vram on the back of the board is going to limit my overclock which is frustrating to say the least.

Ok guys at the request of a few people I'm doing a guide with pics on how to repaste your R3 and the results I got from doing so. First off keep in mind a few things: -Repasting is risky, if you don't know what you're doing you could harm your components which invalidates your warranty. Now as long as you have some technical skill and go slow you should be fine but as always I take NO RESPONSIBILITY if you damage your hardware. If you have a question ask it before proceeding to prevent damage. -Some of the steps below may be slightly different depending on what GPU you have, all of the CPU's will be the same however. -The temps I was getting and that most have reported with the Nvidia GTX 460m are very good even with stock paste, if you're not going to be benchmarking or applying heavy overclocks you don't need to do this unless you have experience and want the lower temps. Now that that's out of the way let's get on to the fun stuff Here are the items you'll need: -Paste: I recommend MX-4, TX-4, or OCZ Freeze. I used MX-4 in this guide. -Pads: The pads I used are Fujipoly Premium 0.5mm pads that I purchased from frozencpu.com. Depending on if you want to replace all the pads or not you may also need 1.0mm and 2.0mm pads(see below). -Either Arctic Clean -OR- Alcohol(not the drinking kind lol): I used Arctic Clean here but honestly after using both the Arctic Clean is no better and is more expensive than good high purity rubbing alcohol. If you use alcohol get 90% or higher as it cleans better and leaves less residue. -Cotton Swabs and Lint Free Cloth: The cotton swabs need to be quality tightly wound swabs or they'll leave cotton residue, also a good quality lint free cloth that hasn't been used on anything else to prevent residue. -Precision Screwdrivers: I can't stress how important it is to have a good set of precision screwdrivers, a bad set of screwdrivers or using non-precision size screwdrivers can easily strip screws and/or cause damage. If you don't have any you can pick them up at Radio Shack, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. Temps with Stock Paste: Below you can see the temps are very good for stock paste, but good is never enough and the temps could always be better. After running Prime 95 and Furmark at the same time the max CPU temps were 84 degrees and the max GPU temp was 75 degrees. These were at stock clocks on the GPU and a 100.0 BCLK on the CPU. I didn't take idle temps as idle temps are nice to compare, but really they don't matter on a gaming rig. Battery and Bottom Panel: First remove your battery, under it there will be two small screws that need to be removed to slide the bottom panel off. Once the screws are removed slide the panel toward the back of the computer(toward the heatsinks). Now you'll have a view of the internals of the laptop, the CPU and it's heatsink/fan are in yellow, the GPU and it's heatsink/fan are in green. GPU: First remove the screws highlighted in yellow on the fan, also disconnect the fan cable highlighted in green. Once those are disconnected remove the fan by lifting it on the end where the purple arrow is pointing then sliding it out. Once the fan is out you can remove the heatsink, the screws for the heatsink are circled in red. By each screw there will be a number, it's important to remove the screws in this order 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 by backing them out in small increments(1/4-1/2 turn) then moving to the next until they are all the way out to prevent bending/warping the heatsink. Once you have done this lift the heatsink on the same end as the fan carefully and pull the heatsink out. Once you get the heatsink off you'll see a bunch of funky colored pads on the heatsink, and a whole ton of gray molasses looking junk that Dell calls thermal paste on the heatsink and GPU core You'll need to remove the "paste" by placing a few drops of either alcohol or step 1 of the Arctic Clean on the paste on the heatsink and gpu core, be careful to get it on only the old paste as making a huge mess of the paste or cleaner can cause problems also avoid getting any on the pads as well. Allow the cleaner to soak for a minute or two then use the cotton swabs to wipe it off carefully, you'll likely have to repeat this multiple times until the swabs no longer have any gray/black color to them. If you are using Arctic Clean once you have a clean surface apply step 2, let it soak and wipe it clean. Once cleaned your gpu core and heatsink should look something like this: Now you'll need to cut and replace the pads, I used only .5mm pads and all of them will go directly on the heatsink and are gray colored in the picture. The only pad I didn't remove from the heatsink is the purple one outlined in the picture because it's in the 2-3mm thick range and seems to work just fine based on the results. Now the one thing that threw me for a loop were the pads on the backside of the card, yes underneath it. The pads underneath work just fine as I reused them so unless you're more experienced you can skip to the next step. There is a large, approximately 2mm thick pad that has a rubbery texture between the mobo and one bank of the Vram, there is also pads between part of the backing plate and the other bank of Vram. I really have to wonder what on earth Dell was thinking here especially on the Vram under the backing plate. Feel free to replace them if you want, I just left them there not wanting to mess with the backing plate and not having 2mm pads. Now that everything is cleaned and in place you need to apply the thermal paste to the GPU core. I used slightly more than a half of a grain of rice worth of paste right in the center of the core, once the heatsink is reapplied give it a slight(a few degrees is all you need) rotation and screw the heatsink down in the reverse method as you used to remove it. Then install the fan again and the GPU is done! :D CPU: Again the first step is to remove the fan by removing the screws in yellow. Then pull the cable in green and lift the fan on the end near the purple arrow to slide it out. Once the fan is out loosen the screws in red in the 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 order(1/4-1/2 turn each at a time) and lift the heatsink on the end near the arrow to slide the heatsink up and out. The pictures of the heatsink and CPU show more of what kind of mess you're in for that our good friends Dell have left behind. Apply the thermal material cleaner, let it soak, and wipe it off with the swabs. Repeat if necessary until the swabs are no longer gray/black. Again if you're using Arctic Clean apply step 2 now, let it soak, then wipe it clean. Once you're finished it will look something like this: Now that it's all clean you'll need to apply your thermal paste to the CPU. I used a line slightly thinner than a grain of rice, in the center of the CPU about 1/3-1/2 the length of the CPU. Once your paste is applied put the heatsink back on, give it a very very slight turn(again a few degrees), and retighten the screws in the opposite direction as what you took them off. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 in very small increments(1/4-1/2 turn each) until tightened again. With the CPU try to have it as level as possible as if it's not flush with the CPU you may have to try again to achieve improved temps. Once you're done with that re-install the CPU fan, bottom panel, and battery and you're done. Here are my temps after repasting with both Furmark and Prime95 running simultaneously for 33 mins. You'll see the max temp of the CPU dropped to 74 degrees, an improvement of 10 degrees. The max temps of the GPU dropped to 67 degrees, an improvement of 8 degrees. As always if you have any questions or want to see anything else like: guides, synthetic or game benchmarks, etc just shoot me a PM or post something and I'll get it up.

Good to see you too Infernia, I see this machine is actually working for you Nope couldn't stay away now that there's one I can actually travel with. And yes it's the one and only Joker

LOL I don't even know of a 14" rig with a numpad. Do you know of any? I'm very excited for this rig, as long as it comes with good specs and can run at full speed(GPU/CPU) on battery I'll be picking one up to go along side the R3.

LOL, I can almost guarantee that at stock he's probably a minimum of 1-2k higher gpu score alone. Not bad for a 460m, but nothing in comparison to a 6970m or 485m.

I can post mine up if/when a thread is created, some of them are already in the R3 benchmarking thread Good idea though and I remember you posting about this a few times and getting silenced

Here's a couple of my most recent benches with my R3, not too bad for the base CPU and a 460m IMO: 3DMark Vantage: P10,276 GPU: 9,012 CPU: 17,744 3DMark 06: 16,348 SM2.0: 6,691.0 SM3.0: 7,061.0 CPU: 5,118.0 More to come later!

I'm actually looking at doing the 485m, if I can't get it to work then yeah I may take a look at going the 6970m route.

3DMark 06: 16,272 SM2.0: 6648 SM3.0: 7014 CPU: 5135 3DMark Vantage: P10,075 GPU: 8817 CPU: 17,616 3DMark 11: P2177 Graphics: 1957 Physics: 6306 Combined: 1914

Thanks StamatisX, will be posting some initial benches soon.

Is this enough to feed your M18x rumors guys? Actual screenshot with the link to go with it: Documentation

No love for the R3 huh?

I'm guessing here but is the Alienware Karet text the symbols AW writes the nameplates in?

True, the reason why no one mentioned it is 99.9% of users don't have any need for more than 4-8gb right now. The real max on RAM is actually technically 32gb with 16gb doable for very cheap.

Yes it's similar but not the same, I don't think it feels rubbery per say, but it does have a softer feel to it. As for the "rut-roh" part I've personally seen one user who has sent their R3 back due to peeling coating, and was told of another user who had the same thing start so the coating will be something to keep an eye on. I too would have preferred a powerder coated type of solution to the chassis as even if the ST coat holds up it's still not as tough as powder coated metal. The 2 hours you get would be enough for most people, I am frequently in situations where I need more though so that was huge for me. The weight isn't so much of an issue, the R2 was manageable by all means but it's nice to have a bit less weight in the bag. The GPU's is something that I think AW has to release a stronger Nvidia offering if they want to do very well with the 3D, the 3D was one of their main selling points so I see that happening and possibly others. The throttling is a major concern but the R2 had it up until 6 months ago as well, the good thing is the only situation I've seen it throttle is under major stress for long periods of time so it's not something most users will see often. I agree 100% on the screen, at the very least they could have offered something better but then again there may not be anything currently made with 3D+RGB/B+RG. I still think the 1 major thing AW did wrong was to name this in succession to the R2, a new line or at least name should have been started to indicate that it was a different market, hell even something along the lines of M17x-3D would have been better than naming it the R3 after what they've shown the R1->R2->Etc path has been. And yeah the picture is friggin awesome Asus can burn after what they did to me last year, low class garbage machines.

This is awesome, an open forum that as long as it stays civil anything is game I can't argue a single point that was made by Brian and think they're spot on. The two systems are VERY VERY different markets even though the names don't look like it. As someone who has owned both I chose the R3 because I wanted something more portable, don't like dealing with some of the problems dual GPU systems can bring, and needed battery life measurable in hours not minutes. If someone is out for all out power, the R2 especially right now, is the winner. If you want a rig that is more portable, higher battery life(by quite a bit with the right config), and will still do very well in gaming and productivity the R3 may be the best fit. The main points I see on the R3 are: -SB CPU's -More updates left -Battery/portability -3D screen(if you like 3D) -Throttling CPU after high stress for long periods The R2 main points are: -Has the fastest CPU(for now) -Dual GPU's(mainly benchmarking and a small amount of games) -RGB LED screen -Heavy as sin (although the R3 isn't a LOT lighter) -Probably nearly done with available upgrades, even with help from people like Wiz