XPS 8940, Better Thermals

@GameCrusader    After a lot of heavy modding the 8930 it does seem better then stock but I still don't care for the design.

What type of tasks do you typically use your computer to perform (as if your user name isn't a give away)?

If you don't mind sharing, posts some photos and specs of your modified XPS 8930.

@GameCrusader    Here is everything I did to my current 8930. I'll see about getting some pics up later.

Looks like you have done some good work. I had not seen that Noctua CPU cooler before. Does that keep CPU temps down while gaming?  Also, just wondering, on your top exhaust fan and lower front intake fan; is there some reason you went with 15mm fans instead of 25mm fans?

@GameCrusader 

OK, with a 286.5mm triple fan graphics card, I can see why you may have had to go with a 15mm lower front intake fan. I am actually surprised you got that graphics card inside a XPS 8930. Crow bar & sledge hammer 

"with a 286.5mm triple fan graphics card, I can see why you may have had to go with a 15mm lower front intake fan."

Yup that's it. The full story is originally I had an EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 Black and two Noctua NF-S12A fans (top and front). I went through THREE bad EVGA cards before I gave up on them. I know it wasn't the computer's issue as I was having a friend test the cards in his computer and had the same results. I finally got a working card (fourth one). I ended up giving that to my friend for doing all of the testing for me and moved over to Gigabyte. Had zero problems with this card. 

As for the fit, I measured it and it seemed like it was a close fit. I was right except I wasn't accounting for the front case fan, hence the move to the 15 mm fan. That said it's a VERY snug fit in there

Since I was swapping out the front fan I figured I might as well do the top as well for consistency.

@Anonymous wrote 

I don't know if anyone has tried this yet on the G5 or XPS 8940, but for the Aurora series AWCC, any 3-pin fan can be used at TOP FAN header and it will not throw the BIOS start up error. So a couple 120mm nice, quiet Noctua 3-pin 1200 rpm fans may work nicely.

Not heard from @Noorss about his post on the install of the 4 pin PWM fan on that chassis fan header using a Y cable and sent an inquiry his way if he is getting a startup error on a cold boot.or strange fan behavior like other non-Dell 4 pin fans.

As you state, I do believe using a 3 pin fan on the G5 chassis fan header or bypassing it completely with a fan to the PSU is the  easiest way to do so until a compatible swap fan is discovered or a suitable workaround is found using a 4-pin fan direct to the chassis header.   Still needs to be confirmed but no one on that thread has thrown a 3 pin fan on that header to test this.....I've asked on that thread and on another thread , but no feedback so far.  "Shrug"

Didn't see any information about the XPS 8940 having the G5 AWCC as part of the software package.  There are subtle differences in the motherboard between the two models and maybe that chassis fan header will be a bit more friendly to upgrades.

@GameCrusader   Since I was swapping out the front fan I figured I might as well do the top as well for consistency.

My Phase I mod was pretty much the same; I already had the blower fan style CPU cooler, so I just went with Seasonic 850 watt PSU and Noctua NF-S12A FLX all around.

The XPS 8940 Service Manual shows a new "processor fan and heat-sink assembly" which is much beefier than the stock intel fan and cooler.  I would like to know if this new cpu cooler is standard with all configurations, or does it depend on the processor (like in the previous generation where only K processors got the blower and heat pipe assembly.)

@GameCrusader  Hi there, I have an 8930 as well. Was the Noctua NH-L9i a straight bolt on? Or where there any modifications needed? Lastly,  did you get any error codes when not using a non Dell CPU fan? I'm planning to upgrade my processor to a i9 9900K since they're getting cheaper. Thanks in advance for your help.

@Teamrich    I'm planning to upgrade my processor to a i9 9900K since they're getting cheaper.

If you are upgrading to a 95 watt TDP processor, you should consider the blower style fan and heatsink shown in the photo in the post above, which is a straight 'bolt on'. The Noctua NH-L9i is not recommended for i9-9900K CPU unless power is limited in the BIOS.

So  upgrading to the new RTX 30 series is out of the option?

Is there not an external psu for desktops?

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@Socom Master wrote:

So  upgrading to the new RTX 30 series is out of the option?

Is there not an external psu for desktops?

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Does the Dell PSU in the XPS 8940 use a custom connector(s) for the motherboard?

Don't know when Dell might test and offer RTX 30xx GPUs in this model. And even if they do, it probably would be an OEM version of the card which could have different (lower) power requirements than a retail version of the same card.

What about installing the Intel Dynamic Tuning driver, which "is a power and thermal management solution used to resolve fan noise, overheating, and performance-related issues..."?

Good morning,

If you have a moment I would like to know if these are 120mm fans in the dell xps 8930? I would like to know if the 120mm fits and if it needs an adapter?