Modding the Eluktronics Watercooled Laptop: From Loud to whisper quiet

[LmnSour]

I got an Eluktronics Mech-17 13900HX, RTX 4090.  After a ton of research, I settled for this laptop mostly for the Prema mod bios, allow full undervolt and overclock options, including memory and memory timing. 

 

But not going to lie, I was also excited about the Liquid cooler!

 

For those not familiar: Water cooling a GeForce RTX 4090 laptop: Eluktronics Liquid Propulsion Package G2 review - NotebookCheck.net Reviews 

 

But when the LPP cooler arrived, I was less than impressed and honestly can't recommend this laptop.  I don't NOT recommend it, but I don't quite recommend it either but that's another story. 

 

 

So to my modding adventures:

 

First issue was the Aluminum radiator.  Eluktronics says to run just distilled water but that's just begging for corrosion, that radiator needed to go.  Taking that out wasn't hard but finding a copper radiator that could fit was not easy.  It had to be exactly 120mm in width and not many 120mm radiators fit the bill.  I was able to find the OEM company that made the Alu core radiator and to my luck, they made a copper core version: 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09CDCWRY4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (its currently unavailable here)

 

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Next issue was harder.  The pump was loud and the software control sucked.  It offered no control and regulated the pump and fan speed based off temp so the pump would ramp up and down and sounded worse than the laptop fans.  Piling it on, I'm pretty sure the laptop would lower fan speeds and your custom fan curve no longer worked, so your overall temps were not as good as they could be unless you forced the fans on max.  

 

Solution: 

 

Alphacool DC-LT pump

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H0KV6GO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Alphacool Eisstation 40 DC-LT Pump Top/Reservoir

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081HGW89K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I'm not going to belabor you the absolute, total PITA this was and will go ahead and recommend you NOT TRY THIS.  I'm also not going to post how much it cost me, to include killing the control board on my original LPP and having to buy another one... @ $250... mostly because I don't even want to know the cost.  Wasn't worth it, but once I started it, I couldn't stop.  "In for a penny, in for a pound."

 

Here it is:

Original (from Notebookcheck.com):

 

Test Fit (version 3 IIRC):

 

All back together with fill/drain port: (Yes, the front plate JUST BARELY fits)

 

Leak test:

 

Results (I don't know exactly what it usually idles at but I think 50C; this is just a quick snap after initial boot; I just needed to make sure the water was flowing):

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So that's hardware but the software side of things was also a PITA.  The laptop connected to the LPP and controlled it via Bluetooth and as I mentioned above, user control was not a thing.

 

The original hardware has a flow indicator and the software uses the indicator to know the pump is working.  If there is no flow, the software will fault and shut down.  Now the issue was that the Alphacool pump needed more voltage than the original and when the laptop was idle, the software would slow down the pump, in this case, causing the Alphacool to shut off (or spin too slow for water circulation), ultimately causing the software to fault. 

 

But I found a fix that allowed me to remove the flow indicator, control the laptop fan speeds independent of the LPP pump and fan, run the pump and radiator fan at a constant speed, and it runs ABSOLUTELY QUIET to boot (the only issue is I forget to turn it off because it runs so quiet -bsitting 2 feet from me, I don't hear it).  To run the LPP in manual mode, click the LPP power button to put it into pair mode then push and hold down the button for about 3-5 seconds which runs it in, I guess, override / manual mode at a constant speed.  I think it's just running at 12V, so max speed.  Thank goodness I also changed the fan to an Arctic P120.   

 

Phew!  At least after almost losing my sanity and blowing more money than I care to admit I have something to show for it!  More results pending.  I have 5 kids and a needy wife so it might be a while before I can get around to posting results. 

[thrasher_565]

its cool but to me i dont get to buy a laptop and make it stationary could be just me i dont no.

im going to guess it wont be the last to hear about this.

[LmnSour]

22 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

its cool but to me i dont get to buy a laptop and make it stationary could be just me i dont no.

im going to guess it wont be the last to hear about this.

I travel a lot and use my laptop setup in my hotel. I'm a fan of desktop replacements. This works very nicely, can carry it in my backpack. I don't (yet) take the LPP on travel.

 

At home the kids use it so keeping it quiet was a big win but admittingly it was a bit too much in the end.

[thrasher_565]

1 minute ago, LmnSour said:

I travel a lot and use my laptop setup in my hotel. I'm a fan of desktop replacements. This works very nicely, can carry it in my backpack. I don't (yet) take the LPP on travel.

so how do you use it with out the pump and rad then?

[LmnSour]

5 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

so how do you use it with out the pump and rad then?

The LPP comes with the laptop but its not needed:

 

You can read up on the Eluktronics Mech-17 here:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Eluktronics-Mech-17-GP2-laptop-review-MSI-GT77-Titan-performance-without-the-size.699099.0.html

 

 

[LmnSour]

Some R23 testing.  Warm up loop conducted prior to each run and fans were allowed to spin down to make sure the heatsink was heat soaked and fans returned to normal operations.  HWinfo max/mins reset prior to each run.  A longer heat soak was given for the water.  Its not exactly scientific but its a good indication of the performance the extra cooling gives.

 

No overclock (AVX Offset enabled), 32GB DDR5 5600 CL40 ram, "Beat mode" (I think this is just all power limits removed), LM TIM replaced with PTM pads, and thermal pads replaced with putty.

 

Auto Fans only: 30522

 

Max Fans: 31121

 

Water with Auto fans: 31699

 

Water with Max Fans: 31603

 

 

Looks like we hit a clock wall and more cooling wasn't doing much.  Time to "overclock".  For the Overclock, I basically disabled AVX offset (usually this results in thermal throttling for no benefit) using Throttlestop and enabled Speedshift but I don't think that helps in R23. 

 

Water with Fan on Auto: 34156

 

Water with Fans on Max: 33989

 

 

Curiously, I think the Max fans reduce the power available to the CPU, dropping the R23 scores.  With the water and auto fans, the R23 run is over before fans reach 50%. 

 

I'll do some GPU overclock and gaming next.

[LmnSour]

Quick GPU overlcock.  I'm stuck at 2563 core and memory loses stability around +1350 - 1400.  Fans never spun up the entire time testing but TBH, the run never lasted more than a minute. I don't know if this is game stable and haven't done a 10min run; I was just seeing how far I could push it with reckless abandonment. 

 

[Snekiepete]

LmnSour - Thank you for posting your modifications to the LPP. I have had two of the units, and both suffered from extremely loud pumps. I used your infotmation to build my own. Here are some pics. It's super quiet and works as expected with the flow indicator, except on AUTO mode. I am using the below components, with some modifications.

 

Be Quiet 140mm fans (2)

Alphacool 140mm Radiator

Alphacool Eisball pump/resevoir with a D5 pump

 

Enjoy the pics