ENVY 14 Cooling Pad

Hi,

I have an ENVY 14 with a first-gen i7. I have the processor underclocked to 85%, and the core temps range from about 51-56 C while I'm typing this, with only Chrome open. The fan is more than audible.

When I game the temps spike to the 70s, which is a problem. The fan gets so loud that it sounds like it's about to break.

I'm looking for a quiet, lap-friendly cooler that won't feel too big on the 14" ENVY. I'd really like it to be quiet so that it isn't worse than the built-in fan, but it has to get air moving.

I've read a few reviews. The Logitech N100 doesn't look too bad, but I'm worried it won't get enough air moving to effectively cool the i7. Any suggestions?

 

There's something wrong with your laptop and getting a cooler wont fix it, and will only lower the temp by a few degrees. You should first try checking to see if your vents aren't clogged with dust. Try using some canned air to blow them out.

Edit: Didn't realize this was normal for an i7. My bad for jumping onto the post too quickly. I didn't think that an i7 would make as much as a 20+ degree C difference between my i5-520.

 

The temps you're getting are normal.

Also, any sort of cooler will lower the temp by only around 2-3 C

 

Yea your temps definitely in the normal range. Like eafd said the laptop cooler will only lower temps a few degrees so your fans still going to stay on. If the fan noise is the same level from when you turn the laptop on after a few hours then its probably already at its lowest speed and in the BIOS the standard setting is Fan Always On. So a cooler isn't going to do anything. You can turn that setting off but the fan will come on often and at full blast until it cools down enough. If the cooler you buy is quieter then the stock fan and able to keep the temps low enough so the full blast fan doesn't kick in, then that might be your solution.

 

Yep. as the previous people have said, its normal. i also have a first gen i7 and it gets blazzing hot while gaming or heavy rendering. get used to it, there is no workaround that wont have potentially damaging side effects.

you could check the thermal compound. from what i hear its hit and miss with HP's quality on their pastes.

 

Even if it only cools by a few degrees, I'd still like to buy a cooler. Thanks for the help so far everyone!

 

What can help with the fans is setting another 40% CPU max power plan for when you want a quiet computer. I'm sitting here typing this message and I can barely hear the fans.

However, when gaming, you can't really prevent the fans from ramping up. Most games don't really use too much CPU, though, so you might get away with throttling the CPU.

 

I set my CPU (i5-580) at 85% when gaming, it hardly ever gets past 65C while gaming.
The GPU will bottleneck gaming performance waaay before the CPU , even with an i3. So I think I could even try or 50 or 60%. Ill test that tonight.

Otherwise, when on battery or doing basic office work / web browsing, I set it at 25%.