Just replaced the TIM in my XPS17 LX701.

[Puppies04]

I have always been slightly upset at my laptop running 10-15°C hotter than I felt it should (see my SIG for full specs). After reading about someone who had replaced the TIM on a XPS15 and had decent results I decided that I would do the same with mine. Well that was a couple of months ago but today I finally bit the bullet and stripped her down.

Although it wasn't the quickest of procedures because of the amount of screws involved there were no "OMG what the hell have I missed" moments which I have had with laptops in the past because they have clips that need a reasonable amount of force to pull apart. Basically you remove the bottom cover, take out the DVD drive, remove the keyboard surround and keyboard, remove the screen and then take all the mobo mounting screws out and it simply (if you count all that as simple) comes apart.

I really intended to take pics while I had her in pieces but I completely forgot and it is back together now (typing this on it). Also the standard TIM installed by dell was a mess, way to much had been applied and it was dry and flaky. The heat pipe assembly simply lifted off without any resistance which isn't very good when you consider it is supposed to be a tight thermal interface.

As for the results i'm sure the arctic 5 is still "bedding in" but my idle temps have dropped from roughly 48-55°C to 38-45°C and the fan is now either silent or on its lowest setting (ambient temps are close to 30°C thanks to the Mrs 😛). I will post back in a few hours with IBT temps once the TIM has had time to settle down, i'm hoping for a decent reduction from the 95° I was reaching before on 10 "very high" runs.

 

[Puppies04]

Update.

I have now run IBT and my hottest core hit 73°C with the others between 69 and 71. That is a nice 20°C drop compared the stock TIM so I am really happy. I also noticed I get back to idle temps in a few seconds now. I don't know exactly how long it was taking before but the fan would stay on high for 20-30 seconds and then slowly work it's way back down.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Yup! I understand the need to cut costs but it always appalls me that the TIM used on almost every laptop is as poor as it gets. I still reapply the TIM to almost all of my notebooks for the exact same reason. The results are usually huge and well worth the effort of getting everything apart.

Props to you for getting it done!

 

[Puppies04]

Yup! I understand the need to cut costs but it always appalls me that the TIM used on almost every laptop is as poor as it gets. I still reapply the TIM to almost all of my notebooks for the exact same reason. The results are usually huge and well worth the effort of getting everything apart.

Props to you for getting it done!

Thanks.

I really wasn't expecting the TIM to be an A+ job but what I found in there was shocking. You could put the poor temps down to degradation but it isn't like I used to have amazing thermals and they suddenly got worse, it has pretty much always performed like that.

If/when I buy another laptop for gaming I will base my choice on how easy it is to access the cooling components and complete this job. It didn't seem like dell were going out of their way to make the job difficult but I'm sure they could have made it a lot easier.