Picked up the P-7811 FX - Temps

Picked up my 7811 from BB the other day thanks to the help of the Labor Day weekend price. So far it's great, my previous laptop was a Dell e1705 with the 7900gs in it. The only real issue I'd say I have with it is the whole fingerprint magnet thing... (not really a super critical problem, hehe) And the location of the fn key.

Outside of that framerates in games and responsiveness of the system is awesome.

I've actually blown away the original install and did a clean install of 64bit Vista, and I have the latest nvidia Cuda enabled drivers so I can make use of the 9800m gts' idle time with some folding.

Anyway, I do have one concern with the laptop and that's heat. Of course I could get a laptop cooler, which is something I'll probably do. But my concern isn't the GPU or the CPU, those temps seem to be great. According to nVidia's system manager I'm looking at the following idle temps:

CPU - 35C
GPU - 42C
HD - 52C

Most of that is fine, even the under load temps seem alright, with the exception of that HD. We're looking at 8C off what Seagate says is the maximum operational temp of that drive.

Ambient temp in this room is probably 23-24C. And I currently have the laptop raised off the desk by about 1/4 of an inch.

Is anyone else experiencing high HD temps?

 

those are spot on with what I run. I too see the HD hit 60C occasionally but not very often.

 

The Hard drives in these machines dont breath very well so dont panic . My drive hits 60 degrees as well when ive been going at it all day .

 

wow thats kinda hot. Mine idles at about 35 and maxes at 45. Did not realize 7200RPM was that much hotter.

 

I swear the HD is the only thing that gets hot in my machine. Everywhere else on the laptop is fairly cool to the touch.. but the spot above the harddrive (right palmrest) gets hotter than any other part of the computer.

 

That's odd, my HDD maxes out at 53*C. 60*C is dangerously hot, I'd look into that.

 

Yeah same here. All the other areas are cool to the touch except for the HDD which hits 53-57C. It runs fine though.

 

Letting it fold using the GPU for the last couple of hours since my post I'm showing:

CPU = 34C
GPU = 60C
HD = 56C

 

ditto, CPU and GPU idling at around 30C-40C. Hard drive.... 50C-55C

 

I believe the HDD is hot because there's no fan blowing in that area? I mean, in computers, there are fans blowing at the HDD to keep it cool but in a laptop, that fan isn't there.

 

my old computer (tower) use to get hot enough to heat up 4 rooms in winter, and by heat up i mean OMG OFF WITH THE CLOTHES IM SWEATING LIKE A PIG.. hot. The HD's (9) + (DVDR) use to get so hot i couldnt touch the case or i would burn my self. It worked like that for 4 years never a single HD problem. I dont think our HDs will be failing any time soon any one think the same?

 

Well this was the basis on my HD concern.

http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_momentus_7200_2.pdf

Operating temp.

Earlier this morning I had seen it at 60C.

 

During a 2 hour test of Crysis last night at high/very high mixed settings with 1920x1200 resolution, I saw the CPU sit at around 35C to 37C. The HDD was at around 45C. I was using a Pacific Breeze during that run. Unfortunately, I don't know how hot the GPU was getting.

I was feeling a ton of heat coming off above the RAM, near the 7, 8, and F9 keys. That was easily the hottest part of the system while gaming. I'm assuming the GPU is there? Heat was pouring out the left side fan but there was very little air moving out the right side fan and that one really wasn't all that warm. The underside of the system was cool to the touch, but that's probably the work of the cooler.

Does this match with everyone else? No problems, instability, or other glitches showed up during that run.

EDIT: A little OT here, but the drives for this system are 2.5 HDD's right? I think I'll buy a second.

 

Yeah it should be 2.5"

 

could you guys link me the software you are using atm to measure temps? thank you, i will link you my temps. but so far only the gpu gets omg im going to melt!!!... hot. From what i read however your temps are the standard :S.

 

I'm just using the nVidia system manager.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.02.html

 

except for the HDD temp mine is about the same right now, but yesterday my gpu temps shot up to 85-90C because it was so hot in my moms house. so now it's only good for me to game at night unless at my dads.

 

I just don't get why Gateway didn't make the HD door ventilated. It wouldn't have been difficult to do.

 

I just tested my HD temps with CPUID HWMonitor and it's sitting at 44C. But I have in there a Hitachi 7200 SATA/150 80gb drive. I'm sure when I put back the stock seagate drive it'll bump up to 50+ degrees.

 

wait os you put in a 80gb drive in there? if you dont mind me asking... why :O? just bescause its a cooler drive? im a videholic so anything below 1tb makes me sad so going from 200 to 80 seems like pure madness!!! :O?

 

Unfortunately, those HDD temps are normal for this notebook. It will hit 60c at times, and while it's not healthy for your HDD, it normally won't be a matter for concern. I would suggest a notebook cooler, or if you don't want to spend the money, use 4 sodabottle caps to sit your notebook on. That will help your HDD stay 2-3c cooler. You should just keep the bottlecaps in your laptop case.

I also have another little trick: if I'm hardcore gaming and my notebook gets noticeably hot, I take 2 of my dad's lean cuisines out of the freezer and rest my notebook on them. Very quick way to get the notebook cool. Try not to cover any vents on the underside though.

 

These might work a bit better than bottlecaps:

http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/335/C4300/

 

Not bad, but they're $20 (for 2 sets).

You can get these:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/peripherals/cool-feet-laptop-stilts-202439.php

for 13 dollars.

 

I think I'm just going to get the Zalman USB cooler.

 

Did you pick up that little trick in college? I had a friend that would do something similar. I started doing it to defrost meals to make them cook faster and more evenly in the microwave.

I was thinking of getting an Antec cooler to replace my Pacific Breeze since it's quieter, but it really makes no difference with the left side fan on this Gateway going. Not a big deal -- I have headphones that wipe out this kind of noise easily.

 

Antec Cooler's absolute garbage especially for 17" notebooks, don't waste your $$ on it.

 

i dont know, ice + upper heat = steam, steam + heat = condensation, condensation + electronics = short circuits, short circuits + your fingers + your lap + no waranti = pain. Thats just my opinion.

 

I had an old 80gb Hitachi drive lying around so I used it to clone the stock hard drive. I'm just playing around with the laptop for 14 days with the 80 gb drive and installing different OS's / games to see how it performs. After 14 days I'll put the 200 gb back in, burn the driver/recovery disks, format it, then install WinXP.

 

hwmonitor

blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

Alright, so I downloaded CPUID and ran some tests: with WoW running in a 1280 x 1040 window so I could watch the temp results I ran the same basic "kill a clefthoof bull" scenario with the 7811 flat on a wooden table w/ polyurethane finish (very smooth), inclined on my NZXT cooler but with the fans off, and then with the fans active but set to the lowest rpm.

Those who have suggested that just inclining the machine can make a nice difference were 100% correct in my tests. Adding the active fans helped even more however.

My numbers are maximum degrees C, average was usually the same or at most a degree less. The columns are flat, inclined, active fans on; enjoy:

ACPI 56 51 48
ACPI 56 51 48
CPU1 50 47 43
CPU2 50 47 43
GPU 64 57 56
HD1 45 44 43
HD2 44 42 41

From what others have said I guess I have a cool-running unit, especially in the hard drive area. Perhaps the active fans would do even more on a unit with higher average base temps, I don't know. I didn't run another test with the fans at full but just looking at it for a minute some temps went down a degree or two more by turning the fans up.

 

I've actually let the laptop run for a day now without the cover on the hard drive, it really didn't seem to help a lot. The laptop itself is also raised ~ 1/2 an inch. Ambient temp probably isn't fantastic maybe 75-76F. The whole time Folding@home has been running on both the GPU and CPU.

Min/Max
ACPI - 39C/56C
CPU - 28C/48C
GPU - 37C/66C
HDD - 49C/58C

 

That sounds like what I'm getting... Guess that's normal.

 

So just to be on the safe side, I did a little chat with the Gateway support... which by the way I have to admit is pretty worthless. So I opted for a second opinion from Seagate. I've included my chat log. But long story short, 60C is perfectly fine.

Brandon R.: Hi, my name is Brandon R.. How may I help you?
Julian K: Hey Brandon, I had a quick question with regards to the longevity of a HD in my new laptop and potential for damage.
Julian K: I have a new Gateway p-7811 fx laptop that has a seagate 200gig momentus HD in it, specifically the ST9200420AS.
Julian K: And I've been monitoring the temps on this thing, and I've witnessed it get up to 60C. Now on the seagate website it says that 60C is the max operational temp.
Brandon R.: Give just a moment to look up the specs on that, please.
Julian K: sure
Julian K: Gateway support doesn't seem overly worried about it. But I just wanted to make sure that this drive can take that kind of abuse.
Julian K: No better place to ask that than from the manufacturer.
Brandon R.: Sometimes it takes a bit to find the info, esp on new drives. Im still a looking
Julian K: No problem.
Brandon R.: There we go. 500,000 hours is our mean time between failure on that drive.
Brandon R.: http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_momentus_7200_3.pdf
Brandon R.: There is the spec sheet on the Momentus 7200.3 drives.
Julian K: ok I think the drive I have though is actually a .2 as it's a 200gig drive.
Julian K: I'm pretty sure this is the drive in the machine.
Julian K: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...8a3d010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&reqPage=Model
Julian K: But like I said according to the spec sheet max operational temp is 60C, which it was hitting in a climate controlled room.
Brandon R.: http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/notebook/momentus/7200.2/100451238d.pdf
Brandon R.: There you go, its in section 2.13
Julian K: Ok, when it says 'Ambient' is that the drive temp? or is that like the max temp if I put the thing in an oven?
Julian K: Of course I don't know why I'd be using my laptop in an oven.
Brandon R.: Ambient is the the room temperature of the drive.
Julian K: So would the surface temp of the drive being 60C would be considered ambient?
Julian K: Sorry if I'm being annoying, just looking for an answer as to whether or not seeing some 60-65C readings on the drive has the potential of damaging the drive or not.
Brandon R.: That is about the normal operating temp of the drive.
Julian K: Ok, so that's not abnormal to see that sort of temp on the drive while in operation then?
Brandon R.: No, especially in a portable. Any where between 55 to 65 degrees give or take is normal for the drive. Under load it will get up to about 65, just idle (not spun down) it will hover abotu 50 55 degrees
Julian K: What would you consider to be dangerous?
Brandon R.: 75 up is dangerous for the drive.
Julian K: Awesome, you are my personal hero today Brandon.
Julian K: Thanks for your help.
Brandon R.: Hey thanks! Is there anything more I can help you with today?
Julian K: Nope that was it. Sounds like it's time to fire up a few games on the new laptop, for some very rigorous testing
Brandon R.: Good luck. Just make sure you got plenty of air flow, not over for the drive but for the computer itself, and you be just fine.
Julian K: Hey thanks a lot. Have a good one, and go home for the day, you've earned it
Brandon R.: I wish I could, couple of hours left. Take care and have a good one!
You have disconnected.

So all concerns I have on this laptop are now null and void.

 

thanks cowprince i think brandon made my day too today ^^

i kinda got worried after i connected my pc lcd monitor to the laptop and watched a episode of house m.d. while playing warcraft 3. because the laptop was working very hard and burning hot :/

i checked the temps right after that with the nvidia tool (it took like 5-10 minutes to set up) and it showed me 60C for GPU and HD and about 40C for the CPUs (that should be totally fine, right?).
Now I only have to be worried about the GPU


EDIT: after reading those threads:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=3881
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=1029

which basically said that up to 70 during load is totally fine and even up to 90 is not odd, im just the happiest guy on the earth with this laptop!
i have none of the described problems here in the forum (no dead pixels, no screen errors, no driver problems, NOT ANY PROBLEMS) and im just glad i bought that laptop while still being in the usa!

 

Heres what I have got while at work today.
Min/Max
ACPI - 31C/50C
CPU - 22C/45C
GPU - 32C/72C
HDD - 32C/56C

Mind you I only played like 30 mins of CoD 4 on my needless to say. I don't think mine is doing to bad.

 

Just curious how were you able to chat with Gateway Support, it was my understanding that they removed that feature with the switch to indirect sales.