Alienware M17x R4 Custom Cooling Stand

[jackgarcia7]

Well I recently got into overclocking and was looking into good laptop stands. After a few weeks of research I realized that there weren't many good laptop stand for this laptop. especially because of the hot spots being as high as they are. I took matters into my own hands and built my own. I had an old targus chill mat xc laying around and decided to take purchase some 120mm and make them fit the stand. I bought 2 cooler master 120mm fans (not a big fan of the blue leds but they were on sale). The dba's are around 19 and the air flow is 60cfm. To power the new fans i bought a 2x12 volt ac adapter to power the fans. Then used the old fans that came with the stand and built a suction fan that is pointed directly at the cpu vent. After all this the total cost was under 20 dollars since I already had a stand. As for the temps, my laptop used to run idle at 50-52 on extreme settings level 3. Now after change thermal paste to artic 5 and adding the laptop stand I idle at 35. If any has any question about the stand let me know.

 

[DDuB420]

I like it, I'm actually looking into cooling stands. You just gave me a few ideas, thanks

 

[SWAT_Glock]

Nice custom cooler! Looks like it can make a nice how to article!

 

[yikes81]

Thats hardcore cooling. Let us know your temps if you have time.

 

[jackgarcia7]

Thanks. As for the temps I dont really have a benchmark given that I use my laptop for data handling instead of gaming. I can inform that the CPU temps have dropped 10 on max. It used to run at 80-85, now after this I ran at most 74. Thats using all 16Gbs of ram and my 3720 overclock to 3.8.

 

[SWAT_Glock]

Thanks. As for the temps I dont really have a benchmark given that I use my laptop for data handling instead of gaming. I can inform that the CPU temps have dropped 10 on max. It used to run at 80-85, now after this I ran at most 74. Thats using all 16Gbs of ram and my 3720 overclock to 3.8.

I did just the opposite... I bought Dell's M6600 Precision Mobile Workstation for gaming and my other everyday tasks. The AMD FirePro M8900 Mobility Pro business gfx card that I have is equivalent to the AMD Radeon HD 6900M series consumer gfx card. If I let Windows 8 install default drivers for it, it comes up as the 6900M. The M6600 has two major advantages... Docking port and non-glossy IPS display.

I hope the M18x or M17x have these options on the next revision.

 

[JennyM]

This is my favourite laptop cooler fan. I've had a few, and this one by far has the best cooling capacity. Enormous fan, with blue lighting - matches my blue lights on AW, Retails for around £30 - £35

 

[jackgarcia7]

I did just the opposite... I bought Dell's M6600 Precision Mobile Workstation for gaming and my other everyday tasks. The AMD FirePro M8900 Mobility Pro business gfx card that I have is equivalent to the AMD Radeon HD 6900M series consumer gfx card. If I let Windows 8 install default drivers for it, it comes up as the 6900M. The M6600 has two major advantages... Docking port and non-glossy IPS display.

I hope the M18x or M17x have these options on the next revision.

I looked into this unit, but the deciding factors for me were the ivy bridge processor and the internal flexibility of components.

View attachment 505

This is my favourite laptop cooler fan. I've had a few, and this one by far has the best cooling capacity. Enormous fan, with blue lighting - matches my blue lights on AW, Retails for around £30 - £35

The reason I made mine this way was that the hot spots on my R4 are so high that conventional stands don't help much. If you see an the image the fans are about 1 1/2 inches higher then normal.

 

[JennyM]

Ah yes, see u have the advantage of having the know-how to make ur own cooling device tailored to fit ur rig... wheras those of us who's non-tech-savies have to go with whats available, heh heh! Gratz on ur achievement tho!

 

[jackgarcia7]

I should have made a how to on this but I jumped the gun. Next time