Studio 17 cooling question

I'm gonna purchase a cooler for my Studio 17 before it comes in. My question is, are the fans on the bottom of the laptop an intake or exhaust?

 

I don't believe the Studio 17 has fans on the bottom. If it's anything like the Studio 15, then it just has vents at the bottom, with an exhaust fan at the back. So, a cooler that blows air up into the vents would be best.

 

If we're talking about the Studio 1735 or 1737, they do have vents on the underside. There's a big vent under the fan and a couple smaller ones here and there. They should all be intake vents. Just take a look at the base cover:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/studio1737/en/SM/base.htm#wp1223477

 

Cool thanks for the replies

 

Honestly, you might as well wait to see if you even need a cooler for your Studio 17. The Studio series notebooks don't tend to run hot at all. I ended up buying a cooler with my Studio 15, and I never even use it. Give your laptop a try without a cooler and see if you really need it. I'm willing to bet your temperatures will be fine the way they are.

 

Shrooms my 1537 stays about an average of 50C for processor and gpu. This is way better than my hp dv6000 which you could literary cook eggs on. Just elevate the studio and you will be fine

 

Hmm ok. I'm just basing this on my 9400. Without a cooler, the cpu temps go as high as 55c. And the gpu can go up to 69c. And that's on balance power settings in vista. If I put it on performance it goes higher. And the bottom is unbearably hot!

 

That's not too bad, but certainly hotter than my 1535, and that's with the T9500 processor. I idle around 38 Celsius, sometimes up to 40 if I'm using it on my bed or pillow, blocking the bottom vents. GPU idles at around 50C. At full load (gaming/compiling code), the CPU gets up to around 65C, and the GPU maxes out around 80.

That's certainly safe temperatures, although I bet you could get lower temps similar to mine if you apply some good thermal paste like Arctic Silver 5 or OCZ Freeze. Definitely nothing to worry about.

If 55C and 69C are the highest temperatures your CPU and GPU see, then you are miles away from dangerous heat levels. That's interesting that it's too hot to the touch despite those pretty low temperatures.

As it is, I don't think either of you need a cooler.

 

55C and 69C for the CPU and GPU are fairly normal for a machine like the 9400. I had a D620 of the same era with a T2300 and an IGP, and the CPU temp would go up into the fifties as well before the fan started. Those first and second generation dual-cores just aren't that good at managing power.

The Studio 15 and 17 should be significantly cooler.

 

I don't know whether the following applies also to current Studio 17 (1737). I've found the area just next to the right side of the touchpad of my Studio 17 (1735) very hot. Underneath is the South Bridge of Intel Mobile 965 Express Chipset, which is not connected to any heat pipe, instead it transfers its heat to the notebook main frame through a thermal pad.

Although this notebook large bottom cover doesn't have dedicated vent for this South Bridge, but since next to it there are 2 vents (for SODIMMs and mini PCI-E cards), so by blowing air through these 2 vents using proper notebook cooler (I'm using Cooler Master Notepal Infinite), it helps lowering the South Bridge area's heat down. As the result, the area just next to the right side of the touchpad is not so hot anymore.

 

That seems a rather silly design for the southbridge thermal management...on my 1535, the heatsink covers everything.

 

I have a picture which shows the inside of my 1735 (taken before swapping memories & wireless card and adding WWAN card & 2nd HDD). This picture shows how the heatpipes positioned in 1735:




The main heatpipe channels the heat of Nortbridge and processor to the heatsink. The second heatpipe (slightly covered by the notebook's frame) channels the heat from ATI GPU. While the Southbridge, located below the SODIMMS or left side of WiFi card & coin battery, can only channel its heat through notebook's frame.