*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R3 Owner's Lounge

Guys guys guysss! some news, now i undervolted to -150! here are the result, the only downside still is the cores not being even but at these temps i don't think it's a big deal, i hope tightening the screws will get that better, but keep in mind : THIS IS WITHOUT REPASTING, or touching screws or the heatsink! I didn't update the Bios yet, some said it takes temps down -5 or so, others says it messes things up.. anyway:


Question is, how low could it get after a repaste? and adjusting pressure on the screws to get cores to be more even? i think i don't have the best, but it's not a unit to return IMO

 

I just got my Alienware 15. Here's a link to what my temperatures look like:

https://imgur.com/a/IiYwk

The max temperature did get really high, but it only spiked up to those temperatures for half a second and mainly stays at around low 70s. There is still a difference of 10 degrees between the cores though. What do you guys think?

 

Standard behaviour on this machine.

 

I'm not that knowledgeable about this topic, so do my temperatures seem bad enough to warrant a return?

Edit: Also the longer I test, the lower the temperatures drop.

https://imgur.com/a/xhUiq

 

No imo, the CPU cooling is not as good as the GPU one but good enough for the 6700HQ.

 

The Windows Power Options Control Panel, for the Balanced Power Plan, set the Advanced Options for the Processor Power Management - 0% minimum, 99% maximum - anything under 100% in maximum disables Turbo.

In Windows Power Options Control panel, for the High Performance power plan, set the Advanced Options for the Processor Power Management - 99% minimum, 99% maximum - anything under 100% in maximum disables Turbo.

Then there are the other notes I gave you

The longer you test, the higher speed the fans should run and the more they will cool things off. Initially the fans won't respond quick enough, they ramp up slowly so heat builds up quicker and doesn't cool down as quickly.

That's why I run 100% fans until I get to the lowest ambient temperature as read in hwinfo64, and then run the test. Then after the test I let the fans cool down back to the coolest ambient temperature, and then run another test. Always start the test from the lowest ambient temperature to get consistent comparable readings between runs.

You do have high temperature core differential, which means your heatplate isn't applied with even pressure across the screw points, putting higher pressure on the cool cores and less pressure or thermal contact on the hot cores.

You can tweak it yourself, either just adjusting the screw pressure - releaving the pressure from the cool side and allowing slack to be used to add pressure to the hot side - even out the pressure to get the same thermal contact across the CPU die and even out the cooling.

Some completely disassemble to re-paste with something better - like ICD or Gelid Extreme, I don't recommend Liquid metal pastes for this as they are a very thin coating that needs excellent alignment of the CPU die and heatplate - which is hard to do on the AW mount. Thicker pastes will work better, like ICD.

AW was more cooperative earlier with fixing this problem, but many report more problems after AW sends an in home repair person, and won't RMA the laptop unless the temps are over 100c - which is ridiculous.

For now I'd recommend returning it and getting something else until AW follows through on this:

 

so would having it set to 100% not work ?

 

Can someone tell me is it possible to have the base spec i7 model
(6700hq/8gb/1060/FHD/1tbhdd) with the 99wh battery? I can't see where to do the battery upgrade on their site, do we have to call in?

Thanks

 

IMO these temps are acceptable. Yes, it would be better if there wasn't a difference between the cores, but if it's maintaining 3.1GHz with ~70C average temps, then it's really never going to be a problem. I'd be keeping it.

 

Going back to his original question, trying to stop coil whine in the power section, he is looking for a way to stop the load related coil whine. He gets this even in sleep mode, which is odd, but I thought trying some ways of reducing the power draw under various power plans - disabling Turbo - might work.

Dropping out of Turbo mode stops the high power draw, reducing the CPU speed to base speed does this, 99% in the maximum setting position for CPU Power Management is a shorthand for "disable Turbo".

At 0%/100% the CPU will Turbo to maximum in the Balanced Power plan, at 100%/100% the CPU will *stay* at maximum clock rate even after the load has gone away, even in idle it will stay at high clock speed - unless it power throttles or thermal throttles then the clock speed will drop.

I made other suggestions, including charging while off, to reduce the power draw of charging combined with running.

So your question is unconnected from the original problem, read his posts again.

With those temperature differentials, high CPU load will cause thermal throttling on those high temp cores first.

He needs to run something that actually loads the CPU long enough, like a CPU intensive game, Prime95, Heaven / Valley, etc.

The core differential at low loads with low temps aren't the issue, it's the differential causing thermal throttling at high loads and high temps, which you get while gaming that is the problem.

You can make it look good by keeping the ambient temperatures and load low, but it's gonna be a problem in real use - there isn't enough play room in the thermal range for anything but even temperatures to work correctly - high core temperature differentials ruin it's potential.