Can gaming ruin your laptop?

just a question because i am going to college i bought a laptop to replace my desktop, the dv6t quad edition with i7 and radeon 6770. I plan on play games like half life 2 and COD. I heard however that playing games on a laptop can easily ruin it or shorten its life. I was just wondering if it was true

 

Lol yes. If you hit temperatures too high for too long, or if you OC your system, you can easily shorten it's lifespan.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Buy or build your own cooler and you're laptop will be fine, no matter how hard you run it. As mrmysterious66 said, heat is what kills a computer.

 

what do you mean buy building a cooler?

 

It's rather simple. There are a few mods that you can look at, including this gigantic thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/accessories/304671-notebook-coolers-buyers-guide.html

Mr. Mysterious

 

Using anything laying around the house to lift your laptop off the surface of your desk.

Just keep the cooling vents clear (on the side of your laptop and/or the bottom as well), and you'll be fine)

 

it's only true if your computer has a losy cooling solution

 

If you don't overclock and don't make/let your computer overheat drastically or regularly, then it shouldn't make much of a difference. Maybe if you gamed a lot on battery power you'd shorten your battery life as well, not just session for session but the battery would deteriorate more quickly because of more charging cycles.

However, most gaming on a laptop should be totally fine. If you're not overclocking and you're not pushing games to their maximum graphically (and thus pushing your computer to run at extra-high temps regularly), then any issues that occur are probably hardware flaws that should be covered by the warranty.

Example: my Envy 14's GPU is clocked at 450 MHz, when the standard clock speed for that card is 550 MHz. Even at its low clock speed, it deteriorated over a couple months of gaming to the point where it has been borderline unusable for months now. When I head back to the States for the summer, it's going in for warranty repairs, and there's no way I'm taking "no" for an answer because moderate gaming is well within the computer's standard operating parameters, so it's on HP to fix it for me under the warranty agreement.

 

so let's say i am on my bed playing starcraft 2 when i get my dv6tqe, i should just put a pillow under the laptop and i will be fine?

what games did you play?

 

NO! Don't put a pillow, that will probably be the worst thing you can do!

Just place something hard and flat underneath your computer, staying clear of the vents, and play your games on a table.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Particularly a down pillow that surrounds the whole base of the laptop so your legs don't get hot.

The above is certifiably terrible advice. Please don't follow it, ever.

Hmm, bummer, I can't seem to make that come out as small and inconspicuous as I wanted to... the size tags don't seem to be working for me...

Mostly Borderlands, some Fallout 3 and Bioshock as well - all stuff that other E14 owners have played on high settings with zero problems.

 

something hard like what? should i just buy a cooling pad or playing it on my desk will be just fine?

 

Place like a.....hardcover book or...even a DVD cover under both corners in the back of your laptop.

Mr. Mysterious

 

what about cleaning the fan? how can i do that?

 

Use a can of compressed air you can find at any convenience store and without taking anything out, you can blow at the vents.

Mr. Mysterious

 

so in the end i just have to avoid keeping the vents flat and cleaning the fans and i will be ok right? i don't really need to spend extra money on a cooling pad?

 

Well it depends on the computer you want to buy and it's cooling capabilities....

But for the most part, no you won't have to buy a cooling pad. A good idea would be to install HWMonitor and keep an eye on the temperatures.

Under 90C is a good zone. Above that and things start to get risky.

Mr. Mysterious

 

i am getting the hp dv6t quad edition and i herd it has some cooling feature or something like that i am not sure

 

That's fine, there are no known heating issues with that laptop. This should be a very good resource for you:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-pavilion-notebooks/570602-hp-dv6t-dv7t-select-edition-quad-edition-6xxx-series-order-status-discussion.html

Mr. Mysterious

 

I'm sorry but I fell of my chair when I saw this

I used to use a dinner tray, my laptop sat in it "uncomfortably" if that made sense. This gave a good 3mm or so clearance underneath and the vent on side was in line with the hole in the tray for the handle. Even when video converting it wouldn't get higher than 65-70c at full CPU usage.

 

one thing that wasnt mentioned about cleaning your laptop with compressed air is to not do it with the computer on. You want to also keep the fans from spinning when you blow the compressed air into the vents. the pressure the air comes out of the can can make the fans spin super fast , much faster then they are designed for. so that can ruin the fan quicker.

also DO NOT hold the can of compressed air at any kind of angle and especially not upside down since doing this will basically shoot out an extremely cold liquid which can cause frostbite/ nasty burns to your skin.

 

And freeze and break your computers components. Which is much more important than skin IMO.

 

yes if you rage and punch a hole through your screen!

 

Using CPUID Hardware Monitor - When you refer to above 90C as a zone where it starts to get risky, are you referring to the temperature of the computer as a whole (temperature displayed as a subordinate of the laptop model,) or the GPU temperature independently?

Without using the hair-drying FN+1, while running multiple programs and Call of Duty World at War on maximum settings for 60 minutes, I obtain these max temp metrics:

Clevo P170HM Max: 78C
CPU (i7 2720): 78C
GPU (485M): 91C

 

I believe mysterious is refering to the gpu. And those temps are really hot, you might want to invest in a cooler or if you havent, raise your laptop...

 

Spend $10~20 and get a proper cooler with a built-in fan. It will both prop up the laptop base and draw cool air to it. You're already spending hundreds of dollars on the laptop, why not spend a few bucks more to increase its lifespan.

 

As long as the laptop is on a flat, hard surface and the ambient temperature isn't too hot, you will be fine. Besides, most laptops will throttle down if the temps get too high to prevent damage. You will be just fine.

 

You would be shocked at how many people I've met who thought that even installing a game can ruin your computer; As if games are equivalent to computer viruses.

 

If your temps get too high due to playing games, there are mainly three possibilities.

1: The system needs cleaning

2: Poor thermal design from the manufacturer

3: You are playing in a room at 30C ambient temperature

A laptop shouldn't overheat due to high loads and shouldn't need a cooler to operate at full load either. The only reasons to buy a cooler is to get lower overall temps, to counter high ambient temperatures or to compensate for the manufacturer's poor thermal design.

Lol and true enough, but then the issue isn't with gaming but more with anger management hehe (or you could be playing mirror's edge). If you're the kind to fling the mouse or controller through the room, get a pillow to punch, a stress ball or something .

 

What about the Belkin Pillow?

Belkin CushTop Notebook Pillow

 

That is still blocking the fans.

 

My temps constantly hit 95c on my Asus, sometimes even as high as 98 but not often. My vents are clean but this is around 8 or 9 months old. I can't repaste because it will break the warranty void sticker =/
Plus i dont even know how to repaste and im too scared to do it.
So i'll just wait if it ever overheats and ask the warranty depot to repaste but so far i haven't got a single BSOD or bad performance cause of temps.

 

How about a cooler?

Mr. Mysterious

 

Anything like this would be good for bed....

Newegg.com - LapGear MyDesk Lap Desk - Black Model 45345
Newegg.com - LapGear Multi-Purpose Jumbo MyDesk Model 45303
Newegg.com - Logitech N500 Comfort Lapdesk Model 939-000285

Anything with a hardtop surface will do the job

 

I was considering one until someone with the exact same model bought a cooler and said it made like a 1 degree difference. I don't think its worth it if its true. My laptop barely has vents. Its just like 2 small rectangles near the fan.

 

I like the logitech model that comes with a cooler in the middle, its in the same line as the one linked

I have cushion with a wooden plank painted and lacquered, thats more than enough for my bed, I had a cooler from coolermaster (dont rememer which model), but gave it to my mom since her laptop was experience heat issues, when I oc the card, I use a mini fan, which is fairly small (20cm wide), in a wooden box', with that one my temps go in the 80c range, being the clocks of the 4670m as follow 800 and 1000

 

That looks like a very ill-advised product...

Personally, when using my laptop in bed, I have a piece of wood that's about 2 feet by 1 foot by half an inch thick. It allows for proper cooling of the laptop as well as being big enough to use as a mouse surface when necessary. As others have said, anything with a hard flat surface should suffice for that kind of use.

 

Look, I hate to get into a big argument here and a lot of people are probably going to disagree with me here.
It doesn't matter how well your computer is designed, you game on it, its going to die quicker.
Laptops are very small compared to desktops with proper cooling solutions.
They are going to run much hotter when you game. Materials heat up/cool down which will weaken them over time, factor in constantly moving the laptop by itself is more wear and tear.
Also no matter how well they are designed, even if your laptop runs cooler when you first get it.. the more you game the more your fans are going to run.
As your fans run more, they need to be replaced sooner. I've never personally heard/seen anyway to replace fans/internal heatsinks (just never seen them available for sell or anything.)
There are those who disagree but, I firmly believe if you seriously game on a laptop, your going to shorten its life.
If you get lucky/have a laptop that never gets hot under full load that is great but, lets be realistic..

Some numbers we should look at.

50 degrees Celsius = 122 degrees Fahrenheit

90 degrees Celsius = 194 degrees Fahrenheit

98 degrees Celsius = 208.4 degrees Fahrenheit

100 degrees Celsius = 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

Why they are relevant.

50 degrees Celsius is the current max tempt I get in my desktop when playing video games ambient temp of 23c average or 75f. 122f would be pretty uncomfortable for a person.

90c is the danger zone as someone else stated. This itself isn't dangerous to your machine in brief periods of time its actually designed to handle this much to some degree. Still when you look at the Fahr its really, really hot. (I included fahr partly because, a lot of people are more familiar with it).

98c is something of a personal number to me.

My last laptop I had got that hot (at cpu) and that's when I started looking at building a desktop.. I realized if I kept gaming on it.. it was dead a lot faster than it would be if I let my girlfriend browse the web/play games moderately on it.. and I got a new gaming machine altogether. It was only about two years old..
The plastic although largely intact was breaking right around the exhaust vent. I tried reapplying thermal paste and thought a bit about it trying to get temps lower. The laptop showed a lot of signs of age even if it ran fine usually. I also noticed that I either got use to it.. or the fan was a lot less audible than it use to be and moving a low slower.. I think its partly both to be honest..
This is also the temperature the graphics card in a computer I built for my girlfriends dad gets. He wanted a new desktop so I helped him pick parts, my brother has an old 8800 GTX we decided to stick in there and with a few hours of game play it gets to 98c or higher sometimes.
We have checked and it isn't affecting other temps too adversely but, we aren't expecting it to live an incredibly long time.. although he games far less than us (mostly weekends) it may live quite some time yet.

100C is a very interesting number.

Start boiling a pot of water. That's how hot your computer is if it reaches 100c.

Yes, cpu's are designed to "handle" this much heat.
However, something that commonly gets left out of discussion when we speak about "safe operating temperatures" is that just because components have _____ as their maximum "safe" temperature.
They are still bleeding heat into other components which are not qualified to handle that much heat. And even if something is designed to "handle it" still doesn't mean it won't run down quicker over time because of more stress.
Example of this. I had a rubber pointer on my laptop keyboard.. it had some ridges to make it easier for your finger to move it.
The heat from my laptop literally turned the rubber thing so brittle that one day while touching it, the ridges just broke off. It is only a guess what other components in the laptop may be affected internally.

No amount of engineering/cooling/anything else is really going to compensate for heavy gaming.

Gaming every so often won't hurt.. but, if your a heavy gamer.. your going to be constantly questioning "whats safe?".

 

Unless you have temps that constantly hit 95-100 degrees, your computer will be obsolete before it dies. Unless it's built with faulty hardware to begin with.

People say the same thing about overclocking shortening the life of hardware, but if you search Google for evidence, all you get are people saying it's true, not people who have actually killed their CPU/GPU.

 

I've heard this same stuff for years and years and years and seen no evidence showing that "high" temps will destroy your computer, period. Being a gamer for at least three decades, and owning probably a dozen gaming laptops in my life I can say with confidence, that it won't matter. Yes, monitor your temps, it's just an indication if something else is going wrong: thermal paste getting old, fans clogged with dust, etc. Just don't stress over it. It can't hurt to lower the temps, but my main reason for wanting lower temps is to reduce noise from the fan, not necessarily to get as cool as possible.

Considering I tend to resell my gaming capable laptop about every 18 months, several to friends and family, and none have exhibited early failure, at all.

 

I suggest getting one of those belkin laptop coolers if you're using it on your bed.

Since I only game while on a table (mouse stability etc), I just place a small plank of wood on the back end to raise the laptop then take one of those Little Blizzards that you can buy at Bed Bath and Beyond and block a heck bunch of cool air under the laptop. Lol, it's a ghetto solution, but it works.

Placing your laptop on a pillow/soft surface will most likely block the fans/heat vents.

 

! I'm not supposed to put pillows under my laptop? Oh crap

 

look I owned 2 laptops for long times and using for work, multimedia, internet and gaming.
concerning gaming aspect certain points should be considered:
1. always monitor your temp. during gaming (HWMonitor should be fine)
2. always raise your laptop using flat surface.
3. during gaming or heavy load the room temp. should be below (30 C) and laptop placed in a good ventilated place.
4. from time to time u should clean your vents using air cane.
5. if high temp. (above 90 C) reached during gaming or heavy load. CPU undervolting software (CPUgenie) and GPU underclock software should be used.
Other than these precautions gaming on laptop should be fine and without any consequences.

Note: my past (dead) laptop was due to water spill and NOT GAMING.

 

That's the number 1 killer of laptops lol. It should be the first point: DON'T DRINK BEVERAGES NEAR LAPTOP (or at least drink something with a cover / cap).

 

Or if you don't want it resting directly on your legs there's

Newegg.com - Rosewill Aluminum Multi-Functional Lapdesk Model RNA-9000

That's what I've used in bed, on the couch and on the floor. It weighs almost nothing, it looks a lot heavier than it actually is. If you have a tempurpedic you may have to put a book under it since that whole "you can jump on one side without spilling a glass of wine on the other" thing means that the side of the stand that's supporting most of the weight will dip while the rest stays in place. If you have a normal bed, you'll be fine.

I don't know where the fans are on the dv6t quad edition but my GF had a pavillion she would game a bit on and used that setup with this thing

Newegg.com - Rosewill Notebook Cooler with Silent 220mm Fan Cooling Model RNA-7700

and was sometimes better off just raising the back of the laptop with a book to let the fans breathe, the pavillion was weird about it's fans. I use that same cooler on my lappy and it works great.

 

There are laptops built for gaming.

Gaming ruins the laptop in the same nature that eating will ruin your teeth. They're made for eating, but chewing only shortens their lifespan.

The question is, how useful are teeth in 90 vs 120 years?

How useful is a laptop in 6 vs 10 years?

I don't think gaming will shorten lifespan enough to cause you a headache if the system is properly cooled. By the time components fail, you'll be using it as a backup system by then hopefully.

 

or drink if you have a thinkpad

 

Or buy one of these:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...x-new-condition-14-99-shipped-lenovo-com.html

Maybe not the dusty rose one, but I have one with a gray mouse pad. Small, cheap, portable, and effective up to 15" laptop.

 

@ snow_fox

great little write up,

is anything dead yet? I mean down to heat? you havent said anything died to overheating.

 

Whats with the pillow discussion?
I don't understand it.

The point is, don't cover the fan intake or vent. Look at the bottom of your notebook. If its close to the middle, then you can spread your legs basically with each back corner on each knee, the airflow will be perfect and better than a desk or flat surface.

I can't believe the people who say never game on your lap. I would never buy a gaming laptop if it were really a bad idea to do that.
The whole point is that its a very relaxed and portable way to game.