mikecacho

Looks solid, personally I would of just used some 2-part adhesive or super glue to mount new plastic brackets instead of drilling into the fan-shroud, great job overall!

The fan is rated at 5v, for the CFM, I can not seem to find specific specs on it, so 10.3 was possibly measured using a personnel air sensor tool, but if the exhaust port is actually smaller in size then that would explain the perception.

My biggest concern is will the system recognize the fan, that is a really great idea if it works. The last thing you want is to run a manual switch off the fan just to operate it, keep us posted.

I am curious as to the release note, all i can guess is this A09 is more for the Windows 8 software, if anything.

Honestly they should think about doing a fan based design, everyone who is interested could submit what they think the next alienware should look like and we all could vote on it...

Uhhh, stop now please... (making no sense OP)

I've already flashed using svl7 guide, but i can see how it can confuse the novice.

Unless there was a tweak recently added to A08 that we have not heard of yet... Making it a great candidate for R4... Or simply a misconfiguration bios wise, very plausible.

It's all about preventing the CPU from throttling down due to heat over long periods of time, i mean as in maybe 100-200Mhz throttling down. At a certain point even with the greatest heat transfering paste/pads, the Heatsink will end up being the bottle neck, there is a good possibility that the ICD has reached the pipes transfer limits as i believe it has been reached, but i want to be wrong on this because we all know watercooling for notebooks is still about 3-5 years out (hopefully at the most 5 years!). With that being said i had the access panel off my system and wanted to guage the temps of the GPU pipes and CPU pipes and i was surprised. As i touched the CPU pipes and the GPU pipes at the same time over the base of the chips the heat was noticeably higher on the GPU pipes, but the CPU temps read about 15C higher with HWinfo. Now i'm thinking of taking measurements with a meter directly on the pipes to see the actual temp transfer difference.

Now when you say capability, do you mean lifespan under heavy load/integrity or a possible -3+ temp drop over ICD or both? Our thoughts are backed with proof, correct? as a grain of salt lays claim to theory. Either way as of right now ICD is one of the best pastes and i would love to see something better if possible, i'm all for the Indium, and would test this product in a heart beat to compare results on a unlocked non XM chip.

Gotta in the difference in heatsinks, as with models that run the XM 3920-3940 have the three pipe setup (m18x) as with the R4 running a 2pipe setup, so even if i had the 3920XM the results would not be comparable other than with that specific revision. As i'm sure you know the 3pipe heatsink is superior over the 2pipe with cooling. This test should be used to measure against all chipsets for unlocked CPUs that can hold a heavy OC to measure against other thermal pastes/pads, only makes sense to me. As in longevity of the product thats a whole other story, as some of us repaste for the sport of repasting

As posted in another thread, i have tested ICD against MX-4 on my CPU when OCed using Vantage as the benchmark for temps the IC Diamond even tho it is not as conductive as MX-4 at MAX load the temps for me averaged 3C cooler with the IC Diamond as can be seen in the link posted below (yes multiple tests were run, GPU is not a concern BTW since it is always ice cold). Also why do you need to be a XM owner to test this... Reguardless it will sell to all CPU types if it is a solid product. http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/686358-m17x-r4-heat-reduction-mod.html

After revewing the link i see this second and scratch my head PROs: High thermal conductivity - 87w m/k. 19 times higher than ICD. 10 times higher than MX-4. 10 times better than AS-5 (AS-5 is 8.7w m/k????? better than ICD and equal to MX-4????) I have done comparsions on my machine with OCing, IC Diamond vs MX-4, reguardless of the conductivity, the IC is able to perform better at MAX load than MX-4 (since i can't upload the image even though it is .jpg) view pic in this link below. If this stuff is good tho, yes ill try it for comparison. http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/686358-m17x-r4-heat-reduction-mod.html

Really, ill have to look into that

Be the first one to get a card higher than a GTX 280m to work with M17x R1.

For the best paste (and i think we all.. or most can agree on this) is IC Diamond (pricey) results are second to none. I recommend soaking the tube of paste in very hot water for about 5min before pasting because its such a thick texture. -Mike

Well the R2 MOBO has already been proven to even run the latest of GPU's so i don't see why it would not work. I believe the board is slightly different in design if i remember reading correctly from a post that tried to plug a R2 board in an R1 case. I would of loved seeing the R1 (original MOBO) with a breath of new life. [Guide] Installing AMD Radeon Mobility 6970 / 6990 in your M17x R2 (Single GPU and CrossfireX)

I Live in the Glendale area out here in Phoenix, even tho it has been a hot year thus far we have recieved great rain fall throughout the valley which has been long awaited for the past couple of years.

No trade, the R2 has been proven to run the latest Video cards... i see no gain only a loss IMO.

Just wanted to post my benchmark from 3DMark11 (GPU 1000/1600) (CPU 40,39,38,38) AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3720QM Processor,Alienware M17xR4 score: P6879 3DMarks Score P6879 3DMarks Graphics Score 6603 Physics Score 8672 Combined Score 6907 Since there is no R4 thread for benchmark, move as needed

Solidstate, Dell always sells their items individually for full market price regardless of age. When i wanted to get a QX9300 (about 8-10 months ago) for my R1 dell quoted 1K... i laughed and searched ebay for a week or so for one, ended up winning the bid for a new OEM one for $265.00!

I'm confused, i never stated i was tryin to use a Vbios to flash the system Bios... i think you are confusing yourself on my situation.

Yes, it was used to flash system Bios, if i decided to try and flash it again with the Unlocked A05 bios again or any future bios, ill pull GPU and see what happens, again if there are other potentials causing this issue please list them with known facts if possible, as this helps me go about a flash with all bases covered, thanks for the input. -Mike

Long2905, i understand that, that is why i am trying to cancel out any other potentials. If it is a possibility for a modded Vbios to cause a Bios flash to go sour, i want to make sure its clarified.

svl7, i would place a warning for those who have Modded Vbios, that it potentially causes the Bios flash to brick. I have your modded Vbios (900/1300/1.075V) followed your README and my bios bricked. When it automatically restarted fans were at fullspeed with constant beeps for around 10min with LEDS all lit up... Correct me if i'm wrong on this tho, thanks. I'm thinking i might have to pull the GPU before flash... I recovered using the M17R4.hrd file FYI. -Mike