Dell XPS 1640 cooling stand

Hi Guys

My 1640 which ive owned since August and been very happy with it, expecially with Windows 7 on it now.

Lately i bought cod mw2 which plays really well on my 1640. But, theres one issue which is driving me nuts. After about 1hr of play in single player the FPS will drop to unplayable levels. If I reboot the Laptop it returns to normal.

I beleave the issue is heat related as with all laptops of this type. I have last night changed the thermal paiste on the GFX and CPU to MX2 which has made things better but it still does it. I have been looking at notebook cooler stands which i think will cure the issue.

Just looking for you opinons on what one to get for it. Heres what I have found:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coolermaster-Notepal-X1-Black-Notebook-Cooler-upto-154-Laptop

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coolermaster-Notepal-W2-Black-3-Fans-Upto-17-Wide-Laptops

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Ener...tchable-BLUE-LED-25cm-Cooling-Fan-USB-Powered - This is my favirote as the 1640 is covered in vent holes underneath so this will circulate air well.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Ante...ng-Laptops-200mm-Blue-LED-fan-upto-17-Laptops - Abit Pricey?

Your thoughts please?

Matt

 

We have 3 computers in our household and have tried many cooling pads. When I purchased my 1640, I came across a review for the Zalman NC2000. It costs a little more than most, but I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. It's the best cooler I have ever used. I even went back and bought the Zalman for the other computers as well. I don't know if you can purchase from Amazon where you live, but if you can, here's a link:
http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-ZM-NC2...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258548551&sr=1-1

Hope this helps.

 

I bought my zalman nc2000 from www.aria.co.uk, it was only £31

I also had this throttling problem. Undervolting also made a big difference for when I am unable to use the cooler.

 

my xps is the same spec as urs ninja so its nice to know someone else has seen the issue.

Does the zalman blow into the laptop or pull away.

 

It has 2x70mm fans that blow air directly at the underside of the laptop.

Not only does it stop the throttling but it keeps the palm rest and touchpad cool which bugged me the most about the sxps 16!

Best £30 you will spend on your laptop IMHO

 

I am undervolted, Arctic Silver 5, and have the NC2000. The NC2000 I find is perfect for the SXPS16 as I used a cheap one that seemed to do fine but the palmrest still got blazingly hot. NC2000 helps a lot plus I've been playing MW2 a lot too and no downthrottling that's been an issue with the 3670.

Might I suggest one thing I've noticed some other ATI users are experiencing on levels with water? Config file, edit seta_rdrawwater "1" to "0", then set to read only. You can do this on both config and mpconfig. This was causing my framerate to just drop from 70s 80s right down to 20 shortly and come back up suddenly on certain multiplayer maps that had water.. estate, rundown etc. let me know if you notice anything like that, if not you'll be okay but it's a popular issue I've seen on the steam boards.

 

No undervolt or notebook cooler used. Go into the Catalyst Control Center and enable triple buffering for open gl. Works like a charm and no more random 2d/3d fps dips. I use NC2000 by zalman and it's perfect for the 1640.

 

Thanks so much for the help on this. The zalman seems to be the one to get.

just out of interest how do you under volt the 1640 as i thought it was all locked out. This would be to make battery life alittle longer?

Ive enabled tripple buffering in open GL and will try later.

 

Here's the link to the undervolting guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824
It tells you step by step exactly what to do. After undervolting, your temps will be cooler and your battery will last longer.