W3v palmrest heat - facts and figures...

Ok, so I finally remembered to dig out my IR thermometer..... acurate within 1 degree at as low as -30F and +1000F

The palmrest reads 71F when the system first starts (room temp)....... after an hour of the system running under super performance mode (which when plugged in runs the cpu at full speed all the time)..... the right palmrest, near the upper right side of the touchpad, reads 101F (or 38C when I switch the meter over to Celsius). That is dead on the hotspot of the harddrive..... however the average temp for the right palmrest (what radiates from that hotspot) is about 83F.

Now, this is just information, so how you take it is up to you, but at the same time the average temp was taken on the entire right palmrest (83F), the left palmrest was taken and comes up as 80F......... So everything is pretty even... the only thing I can think of which settles the issue is that the people who think it's "HOT" have their pulse point directly over the hotspot on the hard drive..... that is basically on the brushed aluminum touchpad surround on the right part of the touchpad incase you want to check... That would be the most sensitive part of your hand/palm to heat... and the aluminum is obviously transferring heat more efficently than the carbon fiber...

That is actual surface temperature...... now what you prefer is totally subjective, but this is "normal" and within operating temperatures. For comparison, under this same test, the air coming out of the exhaust fan reads 130F.

So... with that... talk it up.... I wish I could go out and buy one, but even for a decent one you're looking at $100.

 

Now if only someone would do the same test on the new P1 MX's to see how they compare with their neat heat dissipation features.

 

I can tell you right now, I can reinstall the thermal tape I tested a couple months back.... no matter what P1 says, their "custom thermal barrier" is just graphite reflective tape used in HVAC systems..... what it'll do is spread that heat across itself and remove that hot spot..... therefore making the entire right side even heat wise..... technically that causes two probablys as I saw it......

1. the further right part of the right touchpad that was much cooler is now going to be hotter (we're talking a couple degrees) as the heat spreads more evenly.

2. a lot of the heat is being reflected back into the hard drive and will raise the temp of the drive - we're talking trapping 15 degrees F in there which raises the temp of the drive and even though it's not that much... technically the hotter your drive runs, the less performance you have and the shorter life.... I'm not about to say the thing will crap out, but for something advertised as something that will remove heat from the palmrest - and heat is a "performance minded feature" .... it may not be a LOT, but it would be doing the opposite by raising the internal temp of the drive itself.... anti-performance no matter how you look at it.

 

As a past customer of P1, I managed to obtaining one of the HDD cooling kits for their version of the W3. It comprises a sheet of graphite material which is placed between the HDD and the base of the computer which, I deduce, encourages more conduction of heat out of the bottom.

I have observed a slight HDD temperature reduction (1 or 2°C), and definitely not an increase.

Overall computer temperatures depend on the ambient temperature. Justin's implient ambient temperature is a relatively cool 71°F. The steady state HDD and palm rest temperatures will increase as the ambient temperature goes up (in my experience the HDD (without the P1 cooling kit) runs at 20 to 24°C above ambient, depending on activity).

As someone once commented in another post, the warm palm rest may be welcome in cold working conditions!

John

 

Haha... John, if you could take a picture of what they sent you, it would be nice to see.... it sounds all fancy, but given the space in there, there's not much room for anything.......... I actually went out today and found a new thermal tape.. instead of being reflective (which would increase HDD temp), it's like a graphite or aluminum tape that just spreads the heat.... which must be what that thing does because it logically can't get rid of the heat.... Originally I didn't just want to spread the heat, but it's the only thing you can do...... given the temps, it's marginal, but the real area that is getting warm is the aluminum touchpad surround... other than that, it's all within a couple degrees F, which is nothing.

Yes, room temp here in PA today was 71 apparently.... but we're looking at 10-15F jump in system temp....... with a 60F jump in the exhaust temp...... and a 30F jump right on the hotspot of the hard drive....

So if it's 90 where you are, you're going to add 20 degrees to all the temps..... but that's why I gave that baseline temp.... if it was 40 degrees F here, the temps would read "room temp"

 

Justin you are the man!!!! I will bicth-slap anyone who says otherwise from now on. Hott my a$$ that seems to be mildly warm to me just like most people were saying. Now if you can take your thermometer and apply it to all the rest just so people can rest asured that anyone complaining about heat is probably cold blooded this will take off some of everyones work load. You just made my day.

 

Thank you for supplying a counter argument to this P1 MX. Not that I don't think it's still a great option, I was just starting to get really dissapointed with the W3V but didn't want to take the $500 hit to get an MX to Canada from the US for the heat difference issues.

 

"Heat difference issues". I love it.

 

This has nothing to do with a company that I don't care exists..... it has everything to do with the fact that in a forum like this there are a few things that are really bad for sales of a notebook (both for us on one end and the consumer who may put off what could have been the best computer purchase of their lives) ...... because of two subjective things that honestly can't even get worked out fairly if we were all in a big room looking at and feeling the same thing.

1. screen issues - I tried to cover that in my w3demo write up
2. heat issues - obviously thats what I'm doing here
3. noise issues - next weeks project

Those things are totally subjective and without a baseline of numbers to compare with and actual data from those involved.... people can't actually say someone's out of their mind unless we've got numbers to compare to. If people with W3's who say they are hot have hard drives that are running a lot hotter than mine, then there is a problem that a warranty would probably take care of and then we'd all understand what it's about. It's not about selling this, defending that.... it's about answers and about how everyone is different and with actual numbers, people can make up their own minds and make an informed decision and not go yea or nah based on joe schmo complaining about this or that.......

My only problem is that it was hard to find people with skills to copy my screen demo (you need to KNOW photography and how sceens act.. and money for the setup)........ with this demo, it was easier, but you're looking at least at $100 for the tool to do it properly........ I do this stuff because it helps us on the RMA side figure out whats going on and if someone complained about heat - we can test their drives and find out if there's a problem or not........ For instance.. one thing that I've seen a LOT and have actually seen it kill a hard drive... is fingerprints.... oily fingerprints on a drive will create hot spots...... which could kill the drive..... they NEED to be wiped down with alcohol for best performance.

 

I'm going to start another thread about fan noise...

 

Wow for real you got to clean off the HD, I never knew that. Thanks for the info.

 

If you dont manhandle the drive then you dont have to clean em. The only forseable threat are fingerprints which overtime can cause oxidation. i would surely advise not to manhandle the drives. It may not be bad but it cant bee good. Cant comment on the heat scenario

 

... No actually that's not really true Eddie.... for the most case people won't have a problem as they don't really handle the drive, or have really greasy hands.... but a single fingerprint is known to create a hot spot - even if it's only a degree higher, it does raise it and can do damage to the drive..

I'm not talking about dipping it in oil... but you want the top of the hard drive as clean as possible... just wiping it with a alcohol dampened paper towel is good enough.

 

Which part is not true? Finger prints creating oxidation points? The only part i cant comment on is figerprints creating heatspots. If a finger print can create a heatspot what can the paper adhesive labels on every drive do to heat. Prolly alot more then a fingerprint. Wouldnt worry too much about fingerprints on the metal shell. I would wipe em off the bottom ciircuit board. I have no degree in electrical engineering and this is not common sence. Just something i was told by a guy that serviced automation of nuclear reactors back in another world who is also my only technician.

 

I'm not saying it couldn't eventually create oxidation as they are aluminum.. but I don't care if the guy was an astronaut, unless he's actually seen what oil can do on the face of a hard drive, it doesn't matter much... Look it up, I know TechTV did a big thing about it a couple years ago when they were still around..... my buddy Leo hosted call for help turned me on to that problem...... I don't know if the oil is reflecting the heat or is just heating up... but it's not good...... but we're talking about oil and not glues...

 

You think oily finger prints which eventually dry up pretty quick can prevent heat from venting normally worse then the paper cover over the lid of the drive? Unless the user just took a shower in 10w30 I cant picture it. Next thing you know after reading this thread some user will gue up their hd with as5 and claim it lowered the temp. Anyone care to try? Anyone? I wasnt talking about ixidation on the lid i am talking about the circuit board on the bottom. I though you were talking about prints on the lid.

 

Dude - picture it or not - I have no reason to make this....... You can look it up online I'm sure, or if you care to call up Seagate, I know they'll tell you the same thing....

Maybe we're not on the same page... I'm talking about prints on the lid, not the circuit board......