Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

You should read, but TL;DR, yes, the PCH is a part that requires cooling. The conclusion is located on Page 4.

So when playing games I would notice the performance of my entire system suffer despite the CPU and GPU being in very safe temperature ranges. This would manifest as sudden drops in CPU clock speeds for up to 10 seconds at a time. I would get results like the following:

View attachment 145481
View attachment 145482

So warranty came out to swap my motherboard...

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

You should read, but TL;DR, yes, the PCH is a part that requires cooling. The conclusion is located on Page 4.

So when playing games I would notice the performance of my entire system suffer despite the CPU and GPU being in very safe temperature ranges. This would manifest as sudden drops in CPU clock speeds for up to 10 seconds at a time. I would get results like the following:

View attachment 145481
View attachment 145482

So warranty came out to swap my motherboard...

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

You should read, but TL;DR, yes, the PCH is a part that requires cooling. The conclusion is located on Page 4.

So when playing games I would notice the performance of my entire system suffer despite the CPU and GPU being in very safe temperature ranges. This would manifest as sudden drops in CPU clock speeds for up to 10 seconds at a time. I would get results like the following:

View attachment 145481
View attachment 145482

So warranty came out to swap my motherboard...

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

You should read, but TL;DR, yes, the PCH is a part that requires cooling. The conclusion is located on Page 4.

So when playing games I would notice the performance of my entire system suffer despite the CPU and GPU being in very safe temperature ranges. This would manifest as sudden drops in CPU clock speeds for up to 10 seconds at a time. I would get results like the following:

View attachment 145481
View attachment 145482

So warranty came out to swap my motherboard...

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

You should read, but TL;DR, yes, the PCH is a part that requires cooling. The conclusion is located on Page 4.

So when playing games I would notice the performance of my entire system suffer despite the CPU and GPU being in very safe temperature ranges. This would manifest as sudden drops in CPU clock speeds for up to 10 seconds at a time. I would get results like the following:

View attachment 145481
View attachment 145482

So warranty came out to swap my motherboard...

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

You should read, but TL;DR, yes, the PCH is a part that requires cooling. The conclusion is located on Page 4.

So when playing games I would notice the performance of my entire system suffer despite the CPU and GPU being in very safe temperature ranges. This would manifest as sudden drops in CPU clock speeds for up to 10 seconds at a time. I would get results like the following:

View attachment 145481
View attachment 145482

So warranty came out to swap my motherboard...

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

You should read, but TL;DR, yes, the PCH is a part that requires cooling. The conclusion is located on Page 4.

So when playing games I would notice the performance of my entire system suffer despite the CPU and GPU being in very safe temperature ranges. This would manifest as sudden drops in CPU clock speeds for up to 10 seconds at a time. I would get results like the following:

View attachment 145481
View attachment 145482

So warranty came out to swap my motherboard...

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

You should read, but TL;DR, yes, the PCH is a part that requires cooling. The conclusion is located on Page 4.

So when playing games I would notice the performance of my entire system suffer despite the CPU and GPU being in very safe temperature ranges. This would manifest as sudden drops in CPU clock speeds for up to 10 seconds at a time. I would get results like the following:

View attachment 145481
View attachment 145482

So warranty came out to swap my motherboard...

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

You should read, but TL;DR, yes, the PCH is a part that requires cooling. The conclusion is located on Page 4.

So when playing games I would notice the performance of my entire system suffer despite the CPU and GPU being in very safe temperature ranges. This would manifest as sudden drops in CPU clock speeds for up to 10 seconds at a time. I would get results like the following:

View attachment 145481
View attachment 145482

So warranty came out to swap my motherboard...

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

You should read, but TL;DR, yes, the PCH is a part that requires cooling. The conclusion is located on Page 4.

So when playing games I would notice the performance of my entire system suffer despite the CPU and GPU being in very safe temperature ranges. This would manifest as sudden drops in CPU clock speeds for up to 10 seconds at a time. I would get results like the following:

View attachment 145481
View attachment 145482

So warranty came out to swap my motherboard...

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?

Alienware 13 R3 Thermal Testing - Should you cool your PCH with mods?