XPS 8930, upgrading fan, which thermal paste to use?

For reference, here is a pic of HWMonitor after running a load test to keep the CPU maxed at 100% and the SSD throttled due to high temperature.

If this looks normal or high, please let me know but the SSD is running very hot so I also ordered a heat sink for it.  Hopefully a heat sink with a fan blowing over it will reduce the throttling.

XPS 8930 SE

- i9 9900K

It's crazy they are installing these ... as this machine can not be factory-configured with a Liquid-Cooler.

- 64GB Crucial RAM

That much ram is going to run very hot. Would likely need heat-sinks or aux fan.

- 2TB Evo Plus NVMe SSD

A NVMe-SSD of this extreme capacity/density is going to run hot. Some kind of cooling or pad is usually required.

- 2, 16TB Seagate Exos Drives using Windows RAID 1 config

Not sure where these are, but hopefully, there are outside the machine. IMO, they belong is a Synology NAS (or equivalent).

And repeat after me ... "RAID-1 is not a backup".

@Bill Settle   Can someone point me in the right direction on which paste to order?

I am not a TIM expert, but this is what I used, @ an advertised thermal conductivity of 16W/mK

Phobya NanoGrease Extreme 

You should see a big improvement with the 120mm top exhaust fan. I moved my M.2 SSD to a PCIe slot inside a big heatsink . . . but any kind of heatsink and sitting in front of the lower front intake fan should be a big help with your SSD thermal problem.

@Bill Settle   For reference, here is a pic of HWMonitor after running a load test to keep the CPU maxed at 100%

Here is my i9-9900K pic for reference . . . keep in mind I am now liquid cooled

@Tesla1856, I have a heatsink coming for the SSD so that should help.  Never had to use a heat sink on a memory module before before but it looks like they are available.  I'll try the two new fans and SSD heat sink and take it from there. 

Also, RAID 1 is for fault tolerance and not backup.  I backup to offline disks and rotate them.

Appreciate the feedback.

@Anonymous, appreciate the recommendation on the grease.  I'm curious, did your CPU heatsink have a thermal pad, grease or both when you took it off?

I really appreciate all of the pics and details you provided.  Plus this summary post really helped with the myriad of choices so thanks @HanoverB!

@Bill Settle   I'm curious, did your CPU heatsink have a thermal pad, grease or both when you took it off?

Just grease. I used the cleaner kit linked below for cleaning and prep. I don't know that it is necessary, but since I had no clue what I was doing, I wanted to take every precaution.

ArctiClean Kit 

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@Bill Settle wrote:

I'm curious, did your CPU heatsink have a thermal pad, grease or both when you took it off?

 

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I've never heard of using both on the same chip. It is usually one or the other. For main-processors, I've always used thermal paste.

If you are sure you want to do this for the first time on your nice machine, I suggest you watch some YouTube videos and read some articles.

@Anonymous  Here is my i9-9900K pic for reference . . . keep in mind I am now liquid cooled

I just see a triangle.  Maybe the mods have to approve the pic you uploaded?

@Bill Settle    I just see a triangle.  Maybe the mods have to approve the pic you uploaded?

Correct. Only you can see your photos until moderator approved.

When the photo is approved, look at my M.2 SSD and GPU temps compared to the ones you posted. Your whole case is getting hot.

Also, why isn't your AMD Radeon showing?

@Anonymous, I was getting BSODs (another thread) and through trial and error, working through suggestions from forum members, I found the AMD firmware/software/card was causing the issue.  But after @RoHe saw my temps in the pic above, without the GPU, he suggested my BSODs may be caused by heat which echos your sentiments. 

Will upgrade the ventilation then later, add the GPU back and see how it changes things.

I thought I bought something I could just start using for software development and video editing...  NOT!

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@Bill Settle wrote:

 

I thought I bought something I could just start using for software development and video editing...  NOT!

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If you wanted a pre-built (with factory installed gaming-class card), an Aurora (with Liquid-Cooler and large Power-Supply) or Area-51 would have been a better choice. Something like those could handle those work-flows.

If you wanted a pre-built (with little-to-no gaming) a Precision Workstation would have been more appropriate. You can also just buy them with a cheap workstation-class video-card and pull-it ... install your own (nicer) retail gaming-class video-card.

HP and the others also have nice workstation-class machines. Neither them or the Dells are that expensive for what you get.

AFAIK, many developers have some hardware experience, so they just custom-built a computer to their specs. You also see this with DAW and other similar content-creation work-flows. Those without that (or time) ... just visit an online boutique shop and have them custom-build it for them.

EDITED: more info

@Tesla1856, my configuration is nothing more than what Dell offers as factory options.  I just chose to buy my RAM from Crucial and my SSD from Amazon.  If I would have wanted to spend several hundred more $, I would have configured my 8930 using Dell's config with 64GB RAM and a 2TB SSD when I ordered it.

The GPU is OEM and the 8930 is offered with 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD so I'm not sure why you would think end users would not have an expectation that that a factory config on an 8930 would not work for editing video or doing some docker development.

This is my 4th XPS and the first one that requires special attention to use it at capacity.  They have always been solid prior to the 8930.

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@Bill Settle wrote:
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@Tesla1856, my configuration is nothing more than what Dell offers as factory options. 

2. I just chose to buy ...

3. I'm not sure why you would think end users would not have an expectation that that a factory config on an 8930 would not work for editing video .

4. This is my 4th XPS and the first one that requires special attention to use it at capacity.  They have always been solid prior to the 8930.

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1. Yeah, so ? 

2. I think you missed my point, because I'm not sure "where the parts come from" matters (as long as they are new). I never spoke to that.

3. I'm sure some do, and that is unfortunate. Well, you can edit-video all day, but if you try to re-encode one ... the machine is going to melt-down (as you are showing us).

IMO, running an Intel-i7 or Intel-i9 at ALL-CORES-MAX-100%-Utilization requires a Liquid-Cooler . Or, at least a much larger heat-sink and it's fan.

4. Right. For low-end work-flows they are cheap, pretty, and fine (a little better than an Inspiron). I helped my brother select and config an XPS-8900 a few years ago (good Windows-10 machine and he still uses it). I have 2 old (but still working) XPS computers in the garage.

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@Bill Settle wrote:

my configuration is nothing more than what Dell offers as factory options. 

How do you define true capacity when the config you refer to comes from Dell as a 8930 factory option?

And then you say things like:

I thought I bought something I could just start using for software development and video editing... NOT!

This is my 4th XPS and the first one that requires special attention to use it at capacity.  They have always been solid prior to the 8930.

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So, which is it?

If you are trying to say the machine is broken and needs to be fixed, I agree with you. You could eventually permanently damage (or weaken) some of these parts that are over-heating. 

If you are saying the config is fine, but some part is just malfunctioning ... well, I sure hope so (for your sake ... as you spent a lot of money on this machine and have work to do) . But in my professional opinion, I just don't think so. This is based on 20 years of computer experience and well ... the many related posts here in this XPS forum (some are at least a year old). 

Also, let's keep your machine's issues in this thread, as it is yours.