Notebook gets extreme hot, what temperatures are safe?

Hey forum members,

These days it is very hot in Spain, yesterday it was around 32 degrees Celsius and today it is 28 degrees Celsius. My room is also very hot, a temperature sensor sais 30 degrees.

So I wanted to do some gaming these days. But when I run my notebook at idle, with Speedswitch set on Battery optimazied (800 MHz) my CPU hits 51 degrees and Harddisk is around 45 degrees!

The CPU gets around 61 degrees while gaming, but the harddisk is what I worry about. While gaming it almost hit 50 degrees Celsius. Are these safe temperatures, what do you guys recommend?

I already use a Spire Pacific Breeze cooler and another ventilator that is running at full speed pointed at my notebook.

Thanks in advance,

Charlie

 

Harddisks are usually rated for a max of 55-65 degrees C, as far as I know. So 50 is probably safe, but if you can lower it further, that might not be a bad idea. Otherwise, just check the manual/look up your harddrive online, and check what temps are safe for your particular model.

The CPU is safe though. Those don't actually get damaged until up around 100 degrees or more. They tend to get unstable (but not damaged) if they get much over 80-90 or so.

 

Your temperatures are lower than what I have - my CPU gets to ~61-65*C during gaming, and the hard drive is 51*-55*. The hard drive in my notebook is always hot, no matter what, and it doesn't help that I put an Audigy 2 ZS in the PC Card slot above it (adds about 3*). All this with the Pacific Breeze cooler.

As long as you have that cooler running, your temperatures should generally stay stable.

 

Those temps are ok enough. When I game on normal conditions with the Spire cooler mine are a little lower than that.

Chaz, you can lower your temps a lot if you download the new bios for your 5320, it enables a max fans feature. My temps go down a LOT with the fans on max. Below 50C on the CPU isnt unusual with this. I wish I had a confirmation on how much it brings down the video card.

 

Thanks for the reply guys!

Chaz, 50 degrees is very very hot for a harddrive. 55 degrees is the maximum for notebook harddrives (read it on the official site of Samsung). Your CPU is very hot too, mine gets 61 degrees max (after 3 hours gaming in a hot room).

I wish I had fan control Still waiting for Notebook Hardware Control to program ACPI fan control. It is great if your BIOS supports fan control.

Charlie

 

Hard discs are tougher than most people think. I have a samsung drive and its broken 55C on many occasions. Its still working perfectly. I had to adjust NHC to allow the disc temperature to go higher than 55 though. I have it set at 75C right now but the temperature has never gone above 62C. I do plan on getting a larger and more tolerant HDD soon enough though.

Heres a pic of HDD temps while streaming music directly from it, with wireless card on. The wireless card is very close to the HDD and the wireless runs very hot, which heats up the HDD.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll email Sager.

I had my CPU underclocked by .200V for a while. However, my laptop was actually hotter with the notebook underclocked - the CPU was cooler, but because the fans weren't on as often, the rest of the laptop got hotter because the heat wasn't escaping. So hopefully, with the max fans, I can underclock again.

It is - right now, it's 54*. As I said, the PCMCIA slot is right above the drive, and by putting in the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, it gets even hotter. It's a lose/lose situation. :-\

Chaz

 

Thanks for the replies Chaz and Twilight,

I never knew that you could push your harddrive this far. Thanks for the info.

Charlie

 

It's good to know what a safe temp is...

Now that the UK seems to be hotter than Spain in the summer what with global warming 33*c for 4 days now. Thank god for the thunderstoms

 

Hey LFC, you think the way I think. Maybe I am starting to become a geek... oh God no please

Anyway, I only turn my notebook on at around 8 pm when everything is cool now. It is 11 pm here and temps are:

CPU: 46 degrees Celsius (running at 800 MHz instead of full 1.73 GHz.)
HDD: 42 degrees Celsius

I have done no gaming or what so ever, just some browsing here.

Charlie

 

Temps are very helpful to know. I have been extremely impressed with the tmeps off of my I9400/E1705. Currently, after being at work all day 8am-630pm as it is now, my CPU claims to be at 33 and HDD at 39. We keep a very cool office and the vent blows down towards my notebook

 

So you have a free notebook cooler at work, hehe. Those temperatures are great indeed. I am impressed by the cooling system of Dell notebooks. Dell is doing some good job these days.

Charlie

 

lol, my temps go so far down when I have air conditioning and I care what they are. I've had my CPU down below 30C. My all time low record was 27C.

 

my desk on which my laptop 'lives' is right next to a centeral cooling vent. so my CPU temps are around 30~35...and GPU around 38~42............but when away from the vent...they are 50~53 idle CPU temps..and 49~62C GPU temps.

 

Wow Twilight those temperatures are incredible! My record was in the winter, I had opened all my windows and I managed these temps at start of Windows:

CPU: 22 degrees
HDD: 17 degrees.

Charlie

 

Like I said, thats only in very very cold air conditioning and when I care. So fans on max, with a cooler, and undervolted as far as posible.

 

Sager tech support was very quick in responding to my email request for the updated BIOS - I flashed my 5320. The maximum fans features is really nice. I undervolted my processor again, now it is much cooler.

 

That is great to hear, I hate hot notebooks

Charlie

 

I think it improves the PCI Express bus efficency in some way too Chaz. Could you try running a 3DMark? My scores went up a noticible amount after I had that motherboard replacement and got the new bios along with it. My stable clock speeds on the video card also increased. That was before I even realized I had the max fans to keep it cooler, lol

 

Charlie,

From your owners manual;

Operating conditions

Operational: 5°C to 35°C (ambient temperature)
10% to 90% relative humidity, non-condensing
AC input 110 - 240 V, 50 - 60 Hz

Now don't go do a Dell battery thing on us

 

Hehehe no I won't Hydra

Well I found on the site of Samsung that it would operate between 5 and 55 degrees Celsius. I once hit 50 degrees, but never 55 degrees Celsius. So I think I have nothing to worry about.

Thanks for the info mate

Charlie

 

Keep in mind that while a HD will work fine at 55 degrees or above, it might shorten its lifespan. Unlike with CPU's, there are plenty of moving parts that can get damaged over time, and plenty of bits that can slowly deteriorate.

Basically, if a CPU gets too hot, it'll get unstable. Then you let it cool down, and it's as good as new again. It doesn't take any actual damage.

A HD doesn't get unstable, it just gets worn, so it might fail sooner than it would have otherwise.

 

Thanks for that info Jalf, I didnt know that. I must say the temps arent so bad, CPU hits 58 degrees after playing Oblivion and HDD hits 43 degrees. I should be satisfied

Charlie

 

do you guys know if there is any bios update for Quanta KN1 that enables someting like that fan thingy??????

 

Thats mostly been a Clevo/Sager feature.

 

Jalf, no offense but that statement is a little too general

First off, yes, high heat is bad..gosh I hope Nvidia knows this?

My second 1705 had a bad fan controller on the motherboard. During first boot the machine froze after 6 minutes. As a tech, I knew something was wrong-no fans!

Short story, dell fried the cpu after three "script" checks. So yes, you might get away with over heats 3 or more times?

Send me your address and i'll send you three HD's that ARE unstable, in the form of write and read errors but otherwise appear to run fine and cool.
After three or four years the little devels tend to fall apart! Yep, high heat is like cancer, notebooks have to be one ofthe worst enviroments for spinning delicate parts,no?

Cheers!

PS, I lied, the drives belong to company and would require an act of God to mail them but perfectly OK to throw them in the dumpster!

 

Hey, I didn't say a HD would run forever if you kept it cool. I just said high temps would make it more likely to fail.

And yes, you can still fry a CPU if you like, but you have to make a much bigger effort. Hitting, say, 90 degrees on the CPU will usually make your system unstable, but it won't harm the CPU. You need *a lot* more heat to damage it. Of course, plenty of other things might still fry it. Messing up the voltage, for example. But under *normal* usage, assuming PSU and motherboard are working as they're supposed to, a CPU won't get damaged if it overheats. It'll just shut down.

But you're right, of course there are exceptions to any rule.

 

Jalf, you should hold me to mailing you the damm drives, to Denmark?

You guys make them Danish computers right

See ya..

 

Your temps are fine, my Core Duo will easily hit 60c and my HDD will hit 45c.

 

my computer specs below gets to about 170 fdegrees..... dont worry it wont fry myin hasn't yet lol

my dads gets to 120f around 60-70 ... while doing normal things... people dont get a dell lol

 

If you want to send me working drives, that's cool. I'll take your word on the defective ones though...

And what danish computers do we make? Only brand I can think of is Zepto. Oh, and Asetek for watercooling...