Alienware M17X R4 water cooling system

[jackgarcia7]

I am starting a water cooling system for my R4. Before you ask why I am doing this I will give you the answer.

1. Better cooling system for the laptop (not a gamer so gpu is always idle)
2. Because someone told me it couldn't be done.

I am runnning my benchmarks right now. If you want me to do a benchmark for you with my specs let me know but so far this is what I am testing.

1. CPU stress test temperatures (100% at 3.8Ghz)
2. GPU stress test temperatures (100% at 1350Mhz)
3. Memory stress test temperatures (100% at 1600Mhz)
4. Idle temperatures (Idles around 1.2Ghz)

The cooling system will consist of a built-in water pump power at start up. I will also have a reservoir and about 2 feet of 1/4'' copper piping. The piping will not be the same size everywhere but overall it will be 1/4''.

Know for my questions

1. Will the water changes create condensation on the copper piping?
2. If yes, should the piping be coated in some material?
3. Is there a location on the motherboard where the pipes cannot cross over?
4. Is there a place where the motherboard shouldn't heat up.

Last but not least throw me some suggestions. After my testing is complete I will post my schematics. Wish me luck .

 

[MattyB]

This sounds awesome! Good luck to you. Make sure you keep a good record of your progress (video/photos) for us to check out when you're done.

 

[AeonSoul]

Interesting. Try to document the whole thing as Matty said, I'm curious to see how it turns out.

 

[yikes81]

Got dibs on any remaining working parts if the liquid cooling fails!!

LoL. Jk. Hope all goes well and you give us a success video. And also so you can stick it to the person that said it could not be done.


Sent via Tapatalk

 

[Maelstrom]

I'm not trying to undermine you or anything, but wouldn't watercooling a laptop remove it's... mobility feature? I'm not sure how watercooling a laptop would look like, but I would assume that you are either going to have to make it larger to fit in the tubes/pumps/all that stuff to make it work.

 

[DeRon1]

Good luck

 

[yikes81]

** images don't work for me via tapatalk. Damn iPhone **

There we go .. once I am back onto a PC, its all good.

 

[jackgarcia7]

** images don't work for me via tapatalk. Damn iPhone **

There we go .. once I am back onto a PC, its all good.

Lol. That's a pretty bad water cooling system. I am making mine be completely internal. With a possibility of adding an external pump for upgraded performance, but it has to remain portable.

Here all are all my pre water cooling scores and temperatures. All these test were done at around 22-23Celcius room temp.
XTU Stress Test
CPU
CPU: 93 (Max)
86.5 (Average)

Intel Burn Test
CPU: 92 (Max)
87.5 (Average)

3DMark06
Score: 17980 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score: 6848
HDR/Sm3.0 Score: 7524
CPU Score: 7228
CPU Temp: 58.2 (Average)
GPU Temp: 70.9 (Average)


3DMark Vantage
Score: 12146 3DMarks
Graphics Score: 10379
CPU Score: 24819
CPU Temp: 57.4 (Average)
GPU Temp: 65.3 (Average)


3DMark 11
Score: P2676 3DMarks
Graphics Score: 2422
Physics Score: 8494
Combined Score: 2158
CPU Temp: 58.3 (Average)
GPU Temp: 59.4 (Average)

 

[jackgarcia7]

Well here is my schematic finally finished up. The first picture is only the tear down. After that you will see picture 2 and 3. When I receive the pump I purchased I will see what fitting is more appropriate. So far I am pushing for the one with the submersible pump. If it won't fit I will settle for the one I ordered, which is not submersible. Side note pump will be powered by CD drive. Both 2 and 3 show the layout for the copper piping on the front of the motherboard. Picture 4 shows the layout on the back of the motherboard. The layout is a little unique so I will explain it as good as I can. I will solder a 1/2 inch pipe to the 1/4 inch copper pipe which is what will be used overall. If you see the picture you will notice that all the piping will be layered over with extra flat piping. As for the CPU heat sink, I will take it to a machine shop to cut a score instead of slant that it currently has. That way I can move over the current heat sink and add the water copper next to them. Then I will do the same procedure to the GPU heat sink. Allowing all the heat sinks to be merge to spread heat equally. Finally to explain how the piping will cross through the heat sinks. I will drill through and solder a flatten 1/2 inch piece of copper piping through. This will give me 2 built in radiators. If you have any question or want to follow along with me let me know. I will give you a list of what I have gotten so far. Current I am just waiting for the extra GPU and CPU heat sink so that I put everything together. Will update soon and wish me luck.

 

[jacobberke]

haha super sick, I wanna get it in my laptop.

 

[AeonSoul]

Sounds nice, keep us posted man.

 

[jackgarcia7]

Sounds nice, keep us posted man.

Will update soon.

 

[jackgarcia7]

I have been trying to work on this mod as much as possible, but it is a bit difficult right now since I graduate in December and everything needs to be done by then. So far I have made my own water pump that will run from the CD drive power source. I have also bought my materials to make the acrylic reservoir and have started looking for fitting for the pipes. As for the matter of the piping flow rate I will have to look further into that issue since I haven't had much success receiving my spare heat sinks. I will be doing some extensive testing on the spare heat sinks and will report results.

 

[noitulive]

Good luck man... its a real inspiration!

 

[jackgarcia7]

Sorry guys I had finals this week so I haven't done much. I should have an update on the system by tomorrow.

 

[DDuB420]

Looking forward to it

 

[jackgarcia7]

Update. Here a submersible pump that I have converted into a non submersible. Also I have started the water reservoir. Alongside I have also shaved off some of the casing to give the reservoir clearance. I have also moved the power source connection now it will be extracted from the old speaker connection. I will update when materials dry. Thoughts?

 

[Meaker]

Well you are currently further than anyone else I have seen try this in the last 8 years.

The only thing I can see is without a large surface area to conduct the heat away how do you really intend to properly leverage the power of water cooling?

Most ideas I have seen is for some pluggable external dock which contains the radiators.

 

[jackgarcia7]

Well you are currently further than anyone else I have seen try this in the last 8 years.

The only thing I can see is without a large surface area to conduct the heat away how do you really intend to properly leverage the power of water cooling?

Most ideas I have seen is for some pluggable external dock which contains the radiators.

Well for the power source I have chosen the power from the speakers the pump only requires 3V to run. As for the radiator I will run the tubing through the heatsinks. Refer to my previous posts for more details.

 

[Meaker]

You said you are keeping everything internal, but that does not answer my question of heat dissipation area, since the second fan is controlled by GPU temperature, if you intend to control that manually, you may as well get heatpipes added to connect the two coolers giving you a lighter setup which can still use an optical bay.

Cool project, but I don't think it's going to be the most efficient solution.