This Thing Gets HOT!

Just received my P7801-u from my wonderful UPS man! Got it set up and man I have to say that this thing gets pretty hot pretty fast. Are the fans only these 2 gills on the front and side the only ones? What about the vents underneath? And forgive me for being a noob but what exactly does undervolting do? Thanks!

 

Undervolting reduces the voltage going to the CPU without comprimising on performance. This in turn reduces heat and can increase battery life.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

 

ah thank you my good man

 

how hot is hot?

What are you getting temp wise?
(HWMonitor)

 

Yes, please get HWMonitor and post your temps.

A Notebook Cooler may also be in intrest. I suggest the Enermax Aeolus CP001 (review in sig), or the NZXT Cryo LX.

 

Well it's really not even my CPU that's running hot, it's chilling at about 32-35 celsius.

...the Hard Drive on the other hand is at about 50-55 and the Hard GPU is kickin up and over 65! Maybe my spectrum of hot and cold is biased by my consistently cool desktop?

Suppose I threw a Solid State Drive in this bad boy...do you think it'd run cooler? ^^

Also how do you cool the GPU? Guess it's a USB fan or bust?

Do the vents on the bottom of this thing have fans attached or are they just slits?

 

Also I do have the back of the machine propped up. I've heard this helps so I'm assuming that at least some of the vents on the bottom are fan-powered...

 

Ok the gpu is a bit on the warm side (have you tried raising the back about 1-2inches?)

The hard drive temps on the other hand scare me a bit. A mechanical disc hard drive should get to near 60 degrees... thats skirting the line on danger zone. I would look into a cooler. The biggest problem with the FX design is the passive cooling HD bays... with no ventilation from the fans you just have to "hope" enough air can get through the "completely blocked off by the bloody hard drive caddy vents"
A good cooler will typically alieviate this, but still its one of the poorer design choices they made.

As to a SSD. Its about tit-for-tat. SSD's still get quite warm, but they also have a much greater heat tolerance (sometimes 70+ degrees) Though some SSD's do run cooler than mechanical HD's

ah then you have met our catch 22. If you raise the back to lower GPU/CPU temps then you completely rob the hard drive bays of air flow (referance back my poor design statement)

I would recommend getting rubber "feet" and raising the entier notebook about 1inch that would help alot... but a cooler will probably be your best bet.

Though you might have got a bad GPU (it happenes sometimes) Try updating your drivers to see if that will help the temps. DOX 180.70 seems to run the coolest to me. But others might have different recommendations

 

Stepp are you saying the GPU reaches 65 when idling or when running a game...?

 

Thankyou for your responses Kalim! I think you answered just about all my questions. I'm still not sold on the idea of a cooling platform... I don't guess the blow to the battery life is really that big of a deal considering what it does, but i'm worried that taking one of these things into school with an already very large laptop will be widely regarded as overkill!

Also I purchased a ThermaPak HeatShift Pad or whatever... my main concern here is that it will block air flow? I'd still like a definitive answer on whether of these vents on the bottom of the machine have fans blowing out of them... but I'm guessing that the fans are mounted close to the openings on the back and side? Thus the vents on the bottom simply allow air to be pulled in?

I like the idea about some rubber pegs...seems that would still allow air intake as well as get rid of heat that builds between the base of the laptop and whatever surface it's resting on. Any idea where I could get some nice ones?

 

While gaming, of course! ^^ Sorry, I should have clarified. I like the video games very much!

 

65 when gaming is perfectly fine bud (Anything under 90C when gaming is perfectly fine for laptops) you've got no problem..
Well, besides the HDD at 55c... Is that at idle?

 

65 while gaming is fine and completely normal. But yeah, get a cooler. The HDDs are the big problem with these. I hate the passive cooling system as well. What I do is center the fans of my pad underneath the hard drives, and I keep a separate fan off to the side of my computer, blowing in the direction of my drives. If you can keep the room cool, that's always good, but I have trouble keeping my 7200 rpm under 40C.

 

This is very good news! ^^ If it was 90 though I'd be flippin out!

The HDD actually climbed to that temp while I was installing a bunch of stuff... I guess that's usin the hard drive right?

 

Yeah, your temps are fine. Get a cooler though, they really help the hard drive, and even the GPU when it's under stress.

 

Bummer deal about the hard drive. Considering upgrading to a SSD for the OS and putting all the files on this 320gb drive. Still not sold on a cooler...isn't that technically forcing air into the system? :/

 

yes excellent temps. especially if u aren't raising the back. mine stays at 60-65 with the back raised a little while gaming. but temps shoot to around 75 when laying the comp. flat. Assuming u r playing the latest games of course. HD stays at around 50 idle, but never goes above 60.
u could have considered a sager. a friend has one with similar specs and it has what looks like a much better cooling system at the back. didn't test the temps thoroughly though. but it is a bit pricier (then the 7811 and 7805 at least) a little thicker at the back and is probably the most boring looking laptop i've seen yet.

 

Oh! these were your max temps... no worries then. Your rig is running perfectly fine. If the temps just max out there or (max idle) then no biggie, thats WELL with in the normal range of the notebook.

You dont have anything to worry about with your rig heat wise.

Thats for a reason. It lets you do anything you want to with them. They can be high end business machines or the stealth kick in the head of every competitor rig. Just what you want to do with it.

Our FX s nice and muted so it can "kinda" blend in in a more professional environment, but its not "made" to be there. And i've gotten more than one funny stare due to the "obvious gaming system" at work meetings

 

Thanks for all the help guys! Still considering alternative cooling methods, however, considering the temp is steadily climbing as I continue gaming and multitasking.

I like the idea about adding some rubber pegs to the bottom of the system. I still think cooling pads probably block the air intake... Correct me if I'm wrong but won't a USB-powered cooling platform force more air into the system than it pulls out? Is there any risk of damaging or reducing the life of your machine?

 

no worries, thats why were here.

Peg can be gotten from places like Lowes or Home Depot (or any place like that)

The cooling fans are perfectly fine. Theres no way to move more air into the system than leaves... it breaks the laws of physics
Their only down side is slightly cooler temps and slightly reduced battery life

 

For me personally, I checked out my local Home Depot and was looking for rubber bumpers that you'd use to lift the back of the laptop, but they were all so thin and would barely clear 1/4". I could've tried some rubber pegs I suppose but instead I actually use small rubber door wedges from Home Depot. They lift the back 1" easily and they're not so big that they block any vents. They're a good alternative and very cheap, and they also don't have to be glued/fastened to the laptop because many of them come with anti-skid traction on top so your laptop will be secure and not move even if you try to jostle it. I even use the wedges when I put my laptop on my flat-rubber-topped bean bag tray so I can use the laptop on my bed and still get airflow.

 

Haha I LoLed when I read the bit about breaking the laws of physics. Good to know I got you guys in my corner...hopefully I'll become educated to the point where I can begin to return the favor!

I'm off to the hardware store to purchase some rubber stoppers now!

Gonna try out the energy-friendly solutions first Not to mention the space...

 

C'mon -

do the laws of physics really apply to gamers?

 

Only until level 9

 

that made me lol irl!! Ive got a home made cooler I will post pics of soon...its doable without any usb fans

 

Thats not too bad. HDD and GPU a little high, but nothing to worry about. It could be running "externally" hot, and not internally.

Again, undervolting might help, clean out your fan and vents with compressed air, a cooler as well. I suggest the Enermax Aeolus CP001 (review in sig).

 

to anyone considering pegs or something nonattached to elevate p-78s i HIGHLY reccomend it! It shaved a cool 5 degrees celsius off my gaming! Nothing to sneeze at for a 2 dollar investment at a hardware store!