Michael

I've decided that it's time to open my beast after i've noticed that one of my 4870's memory climbed above 93 degrees while playing Mass Effect. The idea behind photographing the process is to allow a better perspective than what the service manual gives. What was done? Cleaning the fins on both video cards heatsinks with compressed air Replacing thermal paste on both GPUs and the CPU to Shin Etsu G751 Replacing memory thermal pads on both GPUs from crappy stock ones to those Modding the retention clip as described here. All Credit goes to Ashtefere please rep him for that, he deserves it! Tools used small Phillips screwdriver - it matches all the screws inside your Alienware can of compressed air a small plastic prying tool that Dell once sent me, i used it to pry open the center control cover. Materials used Shin Etsu G751 thermal paste - i bought mine on eBay, but there are a lot of places that sell it. The reason i used it is because according to a lot of reviews this is one of the best performing pastes, only problem is that it's a pain to apply (there are guides for that too ) Thermal pads Step by step (More or less) Ok, here we go. Try to remember the sizes of the screws you are pulling out, and store them somewhere so they don't get lost (i use a vodka shot glass ) Removing the Center control cover i started with placing a towel on my working area to make sure i do not scratch the laptop while i work on it and removed the charger and battery. Unscrew two screws as shown to remove the compartment door. Unscrew the two screws located on both sides of CPU Fan, they are marked as M2.5XL17. Now turn the laptop around and open the screen as far as possible. using the pry tool, or a flat screwdriver, gently pry the control cover up. I found that in my case it's best to start from the right side. Be careful as there's a cable you need to disconnect before you pull it out. EDIT: For those of you who struggle a lot with taking the cover out, make sure you read this mod by Aikimox. Keyboard Unscrew the 5 little screws holding the keyboard and then gently pull it up. lift the keyboard up,disconnect those two cables and remove the it. Video cards. Since both video cards are going to get the same treatment, i'll describe just the master. We are going to pull it out, remove the heatsink, clean it and perform Ashtefere's retention clip mod Keep in mind that it will void your warranty! Remove the bracket. unscrew both screws that hold the video card. Disconnect the CF cable from the card, i used my nails to do it. Note that the location of the CF connector on the second card is under the heatsink and you'll need to remove the heatsink before disconnecting the CF cable there. Now pull the card up from it's outer side to remove it and expose the fan. blow compressed air to clean the heatsink and the fan. Unscrew the 4 screws that hold the heatsink down, following the numeration next to those screws. Now, after unscrewing those screws, the heatsink will probably be still attached to the video card pretty hard. Pry it up gently using the pry tool but make sure to do so where there's no electronic stuff under the tool. This is what you'll see. Next, clean the old thermal paste using alcohol pads, and remove the old thermal pads from the memory. Reapply thermal paste on the video card. I replaced the old thermal pads with with new ones, Ashtefere suggests applying a thick thermal paste on the memory (Shin Etsu would work since it's very thick).. Next, Ash's retention clip mod. I will not repeat him, he explained it beautifully in his guide. This is just to demonstrate how the screw looks like with the washer on it. Follow his guide to reassemble the heatsink on top of the card and return the card to it's place. (Don't forget the crossfire cable). Repeat with the slave card. CPU To access the heatsink of the CPU we will be removing the palmrest and the magnesium cover. With both video cards back in place and screwed in, turn the laptop, and unscrew three screws inside the battery compartment that are marked M2.5XL5 to release the palmrest. With the pry tool pry the palmrest down and then lift it up to remove the little cable that connects the touchpad. Ok, here i forgot to take a number of pictures so I will explain everything on this one. Basically what we're going to do is remove the magnesium cover. before we do that we will need to: disconnect LCD/Wifi/BT cables. They are marked with yellow. Next we will need to open the 10 screws that hold the cover down, those screws are marked with red and with a P letter on the cover itself. Disconnect the Crossfire cable from the master video card so you can pull it out. Finally, after the cover is removed, we'll unscrew those four screws that hold the heatsink down. They are marked with blue Clean the CPU and the heatsink from the old thermal paste with alcohol pads. Next i reapplied Shin Etsu G751 thermal paste on the CPU and replaced the thermal pad on the heatsink with a new one. That's it. Next, reversing the steps i reassembled the whole thing. I had a hard time putting the LCD cable back in place, took me maybe 3 tries before i got it right. Results Those are readings before and after, both after about 30 minutes of playing mass effect 2 so to me this comparison looks valid. Thanks to Ashtefere's mod,replacement of thermal paste and pads to better ones and cleaning the dust I can see about 5-7 degrees temperature drop on the CPU, and i have reason to believe that it'll keep dropping as Shin Etsu has about 3 days settle in time 11-19 degrees GPU temperature drop (!!!) 11-18 degrees GPU DISP/IO temps drop 19-24 degrees GPU /IO temps drop 15-20 degrees Shader temps drop 5 Minutes Furmark run No game warms the GPUs as furmark does, so after running it for 5 minutes and seeing the temperatures stabilize where they did i am very happy overall. EDIT: Additional Resources M17x Service Manual

This work may not be reproduced without the written permission of the author Hi all. I currently live in Israel and here, as well as in many other countries that i know of the price difference when buying computers between local Dell and Dell US is huge. So, i decided to try and by my new M17x from dell US. I thought i'd share my knowledge since some of the members here asked me to explain how i did it. There are actually 2 things stopping a person from ordering. 1. Dell US won't ship anywhere except US. 2. You need a US issued credit card to complete your payment through the website. (there's also a paypal payment option, but that does not work either since your credit card that paypal uses has to be us issued too) I solved the first issue, using a mail forwarding service. There are lots of them available and shipping rates vary, i used US Mail Forwarding, International Shipping | MyUS.com as they seemed the most reliable company but feel free to do your own research. Easy shopping in the U.S.A also is worth consideration . Now for the next part - i was able to pay using my international credit card over the phone. I tried lots of support numbers but i found that using 1-800-999-3355 (blackhawk team i think) gave me the best results. Their team is very professional and they are actually in the US . I created my laptop setup, added it to cart and saved my cart. Then i called customer support explaining that i am not a US citizen but i have a shipping address inside us and a international credit card that i wish to use to pay for my laptop. That did the trick. There's also a wire transfer option available, but i can't verify that since i used the credit card path. But i was told this is an option by one of the reps. I should also note, that Dell will most certainly try and contact you over the phone to confirm your identity since the purchase is made with international card. So you should also have a US phone number and that number should preferably be from the same city as your shipping address otherwise it raises red flags. (shipping address from one state, phone number from another and credit card from another country does look suspicious). To get a US phone number i used Skype as it is reliable and relatively decently priced. To have a US phone number call your cellphone using Skype follow those 2 steps: 1. purchasing a US number from Skype that is forwarded to your Skype account 2. Forwarding your Skype account (in case you're not logged in to Skype) to a cellphone - rates apply.. 1. go to Free Skype calls and cheap calls to phones - Skype, login or create a user, and get to your Account tab. From there choose Online Number -> get online Number -> Choose US -> Choose Florida -> Choose Sarasota -> Choose a number and activate it. Now you have a number that when called will redirect you to your skype account. 2. Now all you have to do is set up Call forwarding : From Account tab : Choose Call Forwarding -> Add number -> follow the on screen instructions to complete the wizard. Now test, just call the number and watch your cellphone ring Please note, that i still need to pay forwarding to Israel which is about 200$ with fedex plus i will need to pay import tax when it arrives here. But i found that it is still marginally cheaper than buying the same configuration here. One more thing, if you want your warranty to become international you have to buy the complete care (they call it advanced warranty now) for three years. Anything below that will get you US only warranty. (Which is transferable to your country). The difference being, that with complete care, you do not have to transfer your warranty to get service abroad. (with some limitations) Thought it was worth mentioning too. Note that HIDevolution.com - Specializing in customized computers, electronics, and mobile devices for gamers and professionals can order the system for international buyers for a small fee and ship it. But if you want to be in control of the whole process, my way is better, and cheaper. Guys this is pretty important... I had my first two orders canceled, just because my credit card is not US issued - Dell just classified it as fraud, automatically, without even speaking to me before. They way to go about it is to demand, at the time of purchase, that your sales rep makes contact with the "credit card order processing" department. Make the rep explain to them the situation (you're abroad, shipping to US address etc) and make them approve the order at the spot. So, do your math and good luck!

nice find, does it run with all CCC versions ?