XPS 8940, Better 3rd party cooler

@SomeCaliGuy 

I got the Vetroo cooler today, and I wanted to sanity check the process to replace the stock cooler with that one to make sure I have it right. If you'd indulge me, I'd appreciate it.

• Unscrew and remove the stock cooler
• Clean old thermal paste from CPU
• Screw brackets onto motherboard mount points
• Apply new thermal paste
• Screw Vetroo cooler onto brackets in the order listed in its documentation
• Attach fan to heatsink, ensuring that it's blowing toward the back of the case

So basically, it's the same as any other cooler installation, except that you don't install a backplate because the board provides the mount points that the backplate would normally provide.

Hello, new owner of the 8940. I wish I stumbled upon this thread before impulsively buying a CPU cooler lol. I ordered a Cooler Master i71c and was wondering if that requires any additional equipment? 

 ----> For the XPS 8940, you won't use the included Vetroo Intel back-plate at all.

Mount the brackets to the cooler as per the directions in the box.  Then installing the new cooler is just the reverse of uninstalling the old cooler. 

The Vetroo V5 mounting screws will probably need some slight adjustment (they slide in the bracket just for that reason) before final mounting.

Once you clean it, I strongly suggest not immediately re-pasting the CPU, so you can adjust how the screws in the brackets will fit the motherboard screw holes.

First, mount the brackets to the cooler first, then put everything in position and adjust/slide the bracket screws until they match the spacing on the MB screw holes.  Don't screw them down, just assure the fit/spacing.

And then paste the cpu and when you put the vetroo on to mount it, everything will fit perfect and you can just screw it down (4-5 turns each corner, crisscrossing for equal pressure, go firm, but don't over tighten).

And then, you attach the fan, set to blow the air out of the case (i.e. to the back, see my previous photo).

I've now had a chance to do further testing with the Vetroo V5 cooler under real life (i.e. not benchmark) conditions. 

After lots of video editing, transcoding (plus CPU heavy gaming, etc.) I'm happy to say that, no matter how I abuse it (willfully or not).  the Vetroo V5 seems to always keep the CPU at 70-71C or lower.

@Jon-62 Yep, no point whatsoever, it was really just idle curiosity. I wouldn't have hooked it up even if it had the appropriate connector.

@FuriousBrad  The specs indicate that the fan uses 5V addressable RGB.  There aren't any 12V RGB or 5V ARGB headers on the motherboard and, as you say, what would be the point as the case is dark when closed up.

Hi guys, I'm staying at Malaysia and there's no vetroo v5 available yet. Would it be good if I use pure rock 2?

I just tucked the RGB cable into the bit of side space (between the cages for for the 2.5 and 3.5 HDD's).  This allowed me to keep the wiring fairly tidy and the fan doesn't care if you're using the RGB (or not).

@CoolerdellCan't you just order the Vetroo V5 through amazon or ebay? 

@Coolerdell  The Pure Rock Slim 2 would be a better choice, with a height of only 135mm from the top of the processor.

@Coolerdell   I'd suggest that the Be Quiet! Pure Rock 2 may be too tall for the case.  The cooler measures 155mm from the top of the processor to the top of the cooler and my XPS 8940 case isn't much wider.  Dell gives169mm for the width of an XPS 8940, which I don't think will be enough of a difference to allow the cooler to fit in.

Hi @SomeCaliGuy ,

Thank you so much for the suggestion! I got the cpu cooler ordered and on the way! I also ordered a new fan for the back of the cage cause why not! I also ordered the vrm coolers that you linked in your post, may I ask what those are used for? I'm kind of a computer noob, and since you used them I went ahead and ordered them. 

Thanks!

@Incogniton the VRM is the Voltage Regulator Module. It's those components placed right next to the CPU socket, and their role is to provide power to the CPU (transforming 12V into much lower voltage needed by the CPU). They handle a lot of current, and tend to get pretty hot, especially when the CPU is running at full load and drawing a lot of power. Putting a heatsink on them allows for that heat to dissipate faster.

How timely! One of my favorite youtubers just released a video about how bad the stock cooler in the XPS (and G5) is.

He also got his hands on one of the bigger coolers that Dell puts on K CPUs and compares that, as well as a Noctua to the stock cooler. Needless to say the tiny stock cooler fails miserably and he mocks it all along the video. The big Dell cooler is better, but still not as good as the Noctua. 

One interesting tidbit of info he mentions (at 4:32 in the video) is that the Dell reps told him that they only consider the CPU to be overheating if the system actually crashes and shuts down, so when it reaches 100 degrees, not the thermal throttling temp of 90 degrees which severely degrades performance. To them, that's acceptable!