Cooling the NX860XL - interesting observation

As others have reported regarding the NX860LX, I have seen occasional over- heating of the CPU. This was magnified when I recently obtained the new Hauppauge 950 TV tuner. When viewing a full page HDTV station the CPU would heat up rapidly to 55 to 60+ degrees from the usual 40 degree operation even though the notebook sat on a flat hard surface (no laps). For that reason I ordered a Bytecc cooler which arrived today. I placed the notebook on the cooler, turned of its fans, and fired up an HDTV station. Lo and behold! A full screen show resulted in the CPU heating up to only about 45-50 degrees. It never exceeded 50. Next, I turned off the fans to see what would happen. Nothing happened. The temperature did not increase. I tried the experiment several times and it always appeared that the fans did not make one iota of difference. It appears that the cooler because of its aluminum construction and abundance of vents underneath is just as effective in a totally passive mode, allowing conductance and convection of the heat away from the notebook (and allowing the notebook's fans to more effectively do their job).

 

I've found if I raise the back of the laptop 1/2" by putting a book under it near the back that my heating problems generally go away.

 

I have the newest version of the NX860XL, i.e. with the T7200 and also have a byte cooler. Playing games at full tilt and plugged into AC, the temp has run up to but not surpassed 100 degrees F. (about 37.something Celcius). This with room temp about 76 F. The kicker is that with just web surfing etc., in the same room with the Bytec fans working, temp goes down to around 39 degrees, that's F with a 76 room temp.

Now all this is according to the CoreTemp program version .94. Seems nuts, but that's what it says. One should be very careful about putting this lappie in your lap. The fans are situated where they are likely to be obstructive and I can forsee the box overheating quickly. The rubber feet seem way too short to me, given nearly all fan intake is from underneath...and placing the box on the bytec confirms this. Frankly, given some 'ground clearance' the box runs amazingly cool, or at least that's the way it seems to me.

One other thing tho., the palm rest area on the left gets noticeably warm when playing games HARD, even with the cooler fans running. I havn't looked inside to see what is located under that area, but it gets darn warm there.

Overall, tho, seems Quanta (who oems this thing for Gateway) seems to have
done a very good and workmanlike on this machine. It is much more 'svelt' than the other similar gaming machines, in fact it is far more manageable both as to perceived weight and size than you might imagine. Tho it lacks the bells and whistles of some of the other candidates, under the hood, where it counts, it reminds me of some of the muscle cars of the late sixties...Not so much 'flash' with one hell of a lot of 'dash' for the 'cash'

So far I am quite pleased with this choice over the Dell e1705, and the Toshiba Sat 105- series.

 

Seeratlas, I agree about inadequate clearance. I also like this notebook a lot, but there just doesn't seem to be enough clearance on a flat surface for notebook fans underneath to do an adequate job of cooling. Putting notebook on a cooler, or just a book as mentioned by Sirosis, to promote better circulation appears to have quite a cooling effect.

 

39 degrees F?? that's impossible... even if your computer is off on a 76F room it's temperature would have to be the same or near the same as the room.. and don't forget that at 32ºF water freezes so that's impossible..

Tottaly agree.. I used to use gumm packages to raise the lap before I got the bytecc cooler..

It's the processor.. that's what gets left hand warm....

But I have to add that overall with the bytecc cooler I have notice that this area is a lot cooler than before.. nonetheless the computer randomly heats up /cools down very fast...

 

I've owned my NX860XL for about 3 months now. I haven't held back in playing with it. It shipped with a defective motherboard, so I helped rip it down to pieces and put it back together.

The reason it gets hot on the left palm rest is because that's where your video card is situated. The CPU is actually located beneath the touchpad. When playing a game, the heat from the GPU will affect the temperature of your CPU, as they are both on the same heatpipe.

If you're truly concerned about CPU temp, the absolute best way to reduce it is to reduce the core voltage using a program called RightMark CPU Clock Utility, or RMClock as most people know it. I've used the program to undervolt and control clock speeds for over 3 years now, first on a Gateway 7405GX (Athlon64 3200+) and now on my NX860XL (Core2Duo T7200 2.0GHz).

If anyone wants a guide on how to do this, just email me at [email protected].

 

after many trials with cpu/temp apps, i just ended up opening it up and bored some 1-2mm holes in the area of heat, at the bottom of the casing and where i thought that would help to suck in air and dissipate it around. no heat, no external cooler, no extra app, no burning palms!

unconventional but works so far for my d47k and emachines.

cheers ...

 

I put an empty pack of smokes under the front to increase air flow, works. If you put your notebook on a hard flat surface, after a while maybe an hour that surface gets very hot and cooling suffers move your notebook to a cool area from time to time.

Unless you pour ice water on your notebook it's temp will never drop below room temp. Get a new program to monitor your temp. But if you are reading C as F that would explain it also.