Crunching with an Alienware
21 Aug 2013 21:22:18 UTC
Topic 197156
(moderation:
Hello,
Has anyone here experience with the liquid cooler of an Alienware. Mine has got to warm, not to say hot. Quickly to 78°C when running two WU´s on the AMD GPU´s and nothing on the CPU (960).
The cooling system is a closed one so no refreshing or cleaning. Unless removing the screws on the aluminum plate that makes contact with the CPU.
Has anyone done that? Replace it with another liquid cooler?
Mine is now 3 years old, used for about 80 hours per week, so should still be good, but is not.
Thanks.
Greetings from
TJ
Crunching with an Alienware
)
Surely there is a radiator somewhere, at least that's my take on liquid cooling, to transfer the heat from the liquid to the surrounding air?
Is the radiator clean?
Is there a fan blowing air through it and is it working?
RE: Surely there is a
)
Yes there is a radiator and its absolutely clean and dust free. It has even two fans, one sucks air and the other pushes air.
Greetings from
TJ
TJ : I have some experience
)
TJ : I have some experience with closed coolers, but not Alienware ( I have Corsair ). If it has worked well for a while but now it doesn't, with no problem obviously visible on inspection, then I have several guesses :
- it has drawn in a slight amount of air ( some seal has degraded ). Note that this doesn't mean any fluid has necessarily has leaked out to be seen, nor that you will necessarily see any breach. You'd then get a pocket of air caught in the exchange area near the CPU, preventing flow and thus cooling.
- the circulating pump is stuffed.
- if there is any paste involved in the contact between the CPU and cooler, maybe it has degraded ( even a short period of excess temperature can permanently alter it's virtue ).
- ( least likely ) the temperature sensor has gone bad.
Which I'd say possibly adds up to getting a new one. :-(
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Thanks Mike, The temperature
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Thanks Mike,
The temperature sensor could be bad, several measuring programs give these high temperatures, 60°C when idle.
I have it built out and inspected thoroughly but indeed nothing to see, shaking give sounds of water. Added new paste a few time as well.
A program with the Alienware indicated that the pump is running.
So I thought so to buy a new one and then screw this one open and see if I can do something to it.
I also tried to place a air cooler but there is no space. It need to be small and round. Only an Intel stock cooler fits but cools not enough, I tried this.
Greetings from
TJ
RE: ... shaking give sounds
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I'd check with Alienware, but I don't think that's good. Meaning that all passageways within should be completely full with liquid, and so if you hear something then there's a liquid/gas interface ....
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
RE: RE: ... shaking give
)
No not completely full, there needs to be room for expansion. The water can become hot, and there is room needed to get the water pumped. If its completely filled with water, then this type of pump does not circulate even one molecule of water.
Greetings from
TJ
RE: No not completely full,
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Oh, OK. My understanding is with Corsairs ( that I believe just pressurise with the higher temps ).
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Well it seems there are not a
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Well it seems there are not a lot Alienware's out there. Alienware itself (Dell) does not have spare liquid coolers in stock. Could be next week or next year. So I bought an expensive liquid cooler from a well known brand, but that didn´t fit. Carefully looking at all pictures, Antec seems to have a similar fitting like Alienware uses and I have read somewhere that Alienware let Antec make their liquid coolers. This Antec was the cheapest and is in fact cooler 28°C when idle and around 50°C when two Einstein WU´s run on the GPU´s.
So this is a workable solution.
Greetings from
TJ
Hi, Today's a hot day for
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Hi,
Today's a hot day for us in Amos, Qc and my Tmax on my Alienware with 6 Gb and first batch of an I7 processor is 75°C when the machine crunch. Usually, it's more near 70°C but, like someone suggest on the board, I'm ready for a complete dust free operation !!!
Godpiou
RE: Hi, Today's a hot day
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Yes that is what I saw too 70-78°C when crunching and that is to hot for liquid cooling, after searching the net and checking benchmarks for coolers.
My system was completely dust free, I have small air compressor bought especially to clean my rigs and set a vacuum cleaner with a big funnel at the other end to collect the dust.
Alienware calls it liquid cooler instead of water cooler and say that around 70°C is normal.
I don't believe that as I have an refurbished T7400 with two Xeon's which have only large heatsinks. One fan is position on an angle at the second heatsink to cool both and I see only occasionally 70-71°C there, but never higher then 75°C.
Greetings from
TJ