Brand new Asus X501A laptop with elevated CPU and motheboard temperature on idle (55ºC) (130ºF)

So I got yesterday this Asus X501A with Pentium 2020M Ivy Bridge and I wonder if it is faulty. The CPU and motherboard temperatures on start up and from the fresh first boot have been around 50º-55º Celsius (or 125-135º Farenheit).

I measure constantly from the first boot with the program Speccy, which is very reliable.

In addition, I got another X501A before this one that I had to return for hard disk noises, but the temperature was 40-45º, much colder, around 10º colder, and even when I processed some videos for two hours at 99% CPU load, it never got more than 62º in temperature.

Now it gets up to 70º easily when work load is demanding.

The motherboard usually shows a very similar temperature to the CPU.

Should I return this laptop too?

Thanks

 

150 views so far and nobody bothers to say what his normal temperature is.

Great.

 

Google is your friend..

ARK | Intel® Pentium® Processor 2020M (2M Cache, 2.40 GHz)

Max processor temp 90C.

 

Hm, did the last X501A have the same CPU? 10c is a lot of difference.

But you're still within the normal range. Depending on ambient conditions and your power profile, idling from mid 40s to high 50s is normal.

P.S. most of those views are robots (web crawlers, etc.)

 

*nods*.. they keep selling these models with i3s and b950s as if they were extremely light. But the cpus, sandy bridge or ivy bridge versions are 35w packages, and they will actually idle down to 40-45 degrees with an over average effective cooling array. And... blow over 70 degrees on full burn, even with the dual core versions. Hitting 90 degrees and the passive trip-points really is "normal"..

..I still miss my old Llano apu, running at 350Mhz, and having >30 degrees on the core sensor. Didn't actually need a fan on it. Lower watt-drain than my EeePC, just in 15 inches and a full keyboard.. Anyway. Would really advice you to look for an apu setup if you're digging in piles of retailer stock. That's usually where the good buy is, where you get something worth your money (it's not like these outgoing models are extremely cheap yet anyway, so why settle for something that just cuts max speed, and gives you no real benefits..).

Or get one of the dual-core xxxxU processors with 17w tdp (more expensive, note: also u-models with 35w packages), the pentium 987 models (17w as well - perfectly fine for something to write and watch movies on) - or possibly wait for haswell.

 

Thanks for the replies.

Certainly, the other one was the same model and same Pentium 2020M and it was around 45º and 65º max when processing movies.

Today the CPU was colder, 47º average, and I just relaxed and forgot about it, but then I did processing of a movie with Handbrake again and the CPU went up to 78º, while the room was quite cold, around 18º only. So in the summer I am afraid it can go up to 90º or more as the heat here gets very high (35º - 40º easily). In the other laptop, it went up to 65º maximum when processing movies, so the difference is huge and sounds dangerous.

I know and had already seen the Intel page of the 2020M and that it says its maximum is 90º, but still I prefer to ask. My last laptop died when I was processing a movie. It got fried and had to throw it away. Since I am still on time to change it, I was wondering if someone else had the same laptop or CPU or just had some experience.