Help with the dv5t

Hello all!

I just purchased a dv5t last night (getting the T5800 Core 2 Duo processor (2.0GHz), with the NVidia 9600 GT card). I've read a lot of stuff here about how hot the thing gets when playing games. I'm hoping the other owners out there can help me out.

First:

- While I've read the thing gets hot, has anyone experienced issues where it shut itself down when playing on a hard surface (i.e. wasn't an issue where the vents were blocked)?

- I'm looking at picking up the ASUS USB cooling pad; Anyone else using that, or want to recommend something that will work better?

- Any reliability issues at this point given the heat on the card?

Beyond the heat issues, I'm probably looking to reformat the box once it arrives (to get all the bloatware off), and install a Vista Ultimate disk I have at the house. How hard is it to get everything working again if you're not using the HP reinstall disk (i.e. does HP provide the drivers on their site to get the box working again)?

Thanks in advance!

 

Read the notebook cooler buyers guide (link in sig)... some people are enjoying the NC2000 for the DV5

 

Thanks, will do. Will this thing get so hot it powers down / damages itself if NOT using a cooling pad? While I don't expect to play games on it unless I'm somewhere I could use the cooling pad, it would be nice to be able to use it on a flight for work stuff (low graphics intensity) without worrying about melting the food tray

Also, is the 5v5t's bottom fan an exhaust or intake fan?

 

Check out my sig. Tested the NC2000 on the dv5t

 

Thanks, I'm looking at the NC2000 now (although it kinda sucks that you have to move the laptop down off the thing since the dv5t's graphics card is in the back - Where the NC2000 doesn't have vents).

Still curious about reliability and the melting food tray question I had above though too