Clevo N150SD/N151SD Vent design

Hi all,

Just bought one of the above laptops (I think!) from PCSpecialist under their "Optimus VI" badge. I'm slightly confused about the base vents, and wondered if anyone here has any comments?

Got my Optimus VI after a pretty good build/presales experience with PC Specialist. Quite happy with it, aside from one thing.

Something with the base vent arrangements is bugging me.

Look at the photo here, of the fans. http://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/up...04/4960159.jpg

Now to me, they look like standard centrifugal fans that would suck up through the base, over the heat pipe radiators and out the back edge of the machine.

So why then, does the base of the Optimus look like this: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/image...178/11_big.jpg

To me, the fans would suck up through those two large vents near the large triangular feet. But they appear to be blanked off with some sort of gloss plastic! Note the difference to the lower half of the middle vent in that photo, which is open with a typical laptop dust "filter".

Where it gets REALLY odd is the attached photos, of my machine. They confirm the photo above is correct in terms of vent appearance on my laptop. But notice the image on the Clevo introduction sheet- the two fans (CPU/GPU) are clearly visible, as I would expect. As far as I can tell from the outside, the glossy stuff isn't some sort of filter.

Anyone got any ideas? This seems a really poor design to me (unless it's some sort of transport dust cover that's not been removed) and may result in a DSR* based return. As there's a potential DSR issue here I'm loathe to crack open the case.

I've rung PCSpecialist and sent an email with these photos.

I'm sure I MUST be missing something here?

*DSR= Distance Selling Regulations: UK consumer law that provides a short period of "any reason" returns for goods purchased online/by mail order/phone, providing certain conditions are met (not a custom item, returned in good condition etc. etc.)

 

Correct.

It's up to the system builder; tape hinders dust buildup and limits noise at the expense of higher temperatures and earlier downthrottle. Not an oversight, per se, though it is a questionable decision for a gaming laptop.

No need to ' crack open' anything; just remove the 14 screws, take bottom cover off and you're good to remove the tape. It'll take you 5 minutes to diy or several days in shipping (which you'll likely have to pay for yourself).

Spoiler: N150SD - remove bottom cover

 

Thanks for your reply t456.

Interesting- I couldn't tell from the outside whether it was part of the bottom cover casting or some sort of tape/sheet. If it's tape (which does make sense from what you say), that's a pretty bad oversight from a professional builder of gaming systems (who sell this as an "extreme gaming machine"). I'm wondering if Clevo ship an over large piece of tape with every barebones chassis, under the expectation that the system builder will cut it to their preferred openings and this builder has just stuck the entire thing on.

Personally, for my use, I'd rather have everything open, even if that means opening it up and clearing it out every six months.

I think I was being a bit too colloquial there when I said "crack it open". I was pretty sure the bottom cover just unscrewed but with the DSR situation I didn't want to open it up if everyone said the blankings were cast into the base- in that case I'd simply box it back up and return it to avoid arguments re.damage. You're right, a DSR return allows the company to charge a fair price for shipping (and inspection I think).

I'm happy doing the work myself (I've had this Dell laptop apart recently to replace the motherboard, and will be going back in to strip it completely to replace the lower cover and power lead). As you say, it'd cost me shipping and several days of downtime.

 

Could poke between gap with a pencil; tape will yield easily.

Might want to run a simple benchmark of sorts before and after; might be helpful to others. Wouldn't bother with replacing all 14 screws, btw, that's just insane. Half of that would do, just check whether they're doing double-duty for something else.

 

Good tip - I'll try that when I get back to it and get the back off to see what the heck is going on.

To be honest, as it is, I'm seriously worried about running any sort of demanding benchmark on it. Unfortunately I don't think an idle temperature check will show much.

I just can't see how the heck this got sent out like this- as the link above shows, this isn't a one off bad build. Surely someone must have looked at it and thought "hang on, there's a fan there, and a moulded vent here, so maybe blanking this off isn't the best idea ever".

 

Ok, I've checked and I'm now officially stumped.

That glossy blanking is actually moulded into the base cover. On the inside it's recessed by a small amount (so it isn't as thick as the rest of the cover).

Seriously, what the heck is going on? Why would they be deliberately blanked out like this. The only intake on the base is indeed that central half vent, and the two three row sections by the side vents.

This can't be good for temperatures!

 

So it's a fake intake? That's not very Clevo-like ... have you removed the cover yet? Would be interesting to see what it looks like from the inside. Also good idea to run benchmark with cover off, that'll tell you soon enough whether it's detrimental to the cooling system or not.

 

Usually blocking an intake in one area is used to direct airflow or to increase airflow at another part to increase cooling to a certain area on the motherboard.

 

I've been inside and the view looking out is much the same as looking in- the moulding is similar and itt's been all overpainted internal silver.

Am running a 15 minute idle test/c. 1hr prime 95 test at the moment. CPUID is recording min/max temps with the laptop on its side to maximise air flow.

To be honest, aside from this I am pretty stoked with this machine. Looks very nice.

However, I genuinely can't see why the heck these vents are blocked off like this. Air entering the laptop appears to have to run over the ram area, flow along the bottom of the base cover, make a 90 degree turn up into the fan intakes (through what looks like a 3-4mm high gap) and then out through the fan/heat pipe rads/rear vents.

It's obviously been deliberately done (or else is a major, major manufacturing cock up at both Clevo and the supplier) but I can't for the life of me think why. Every other laptop I've ever seen has these fans with a direct intake. There's nothing else in there AFAIK that would require an active airflow.

 

Many higher performance machines don't.

1. This helps dampen fan noise.
2. This improves cooling over things like the chipset. This is important if doing I/O intesive operations.
3. It allows it to cope better when on your lap.
4. Air is drawn in through the keyboard helping to keep that cool too and is a bit more direct.

 

After 50 minutes of Prime95 (not the most thorough test admittedly) CPU temp max was 90 degrees.

I don't actually believe this, but it's looking pretty good so far...

 

A good repaste and -70mv undervolt in XTU could drop it down as much as 5-10 degrees.

 

Clevo have been round the block a few times on this, this is not the sort of mistake they make it's deliberate so that all configurations are happy under the most different conditions. Enjoy your new machine

 

I got one of these machines, and I agree I don't understand the vent design and why it's blocked off.

The temperatures are way high, I'm getting high 70s on the GPU when playing a simple game like Diablo 3. To give you an idea, the same GPU in the W230SD (a small 13" machine with a single fan/exhaust system for the CPU and GPU) manages to keep temps below 70C even in benchmarks.

I'm really not sure what's going on. Even with an undervolt of -70mV, the XTU stress test pushes the CPU to the mid 80C.

The cooling on this laptop appears to be wholly inadequate. I'm wondering if the blocked-off vents are part of the problem.

 

A very simplified test would be running it with the cover off to see what the heatsinks can do unhindered.

 

Apples to apples - same compound, comparable paste job, heat sinks are secured well and copper piping looks good, etc.? How's the fan behavior?

 

Can't do an apples-to-apples, as I don't have the W230SD in front of me to test.

It could be the vents, or maybe I have bad heatsinks, but the NBC review showed similar temps to what I'm getting, so I'm thinking its not an isolated case.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Eurocom-Shark-4-Clevo-N150SD-Notebook-Review.150163.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Schenker-XMG-A505-Clevo-N150SD-Notebook-Review.137736.0.html

I do find it odd that though the two laptops tested are very similar, their temps (especially the surface/keyboard temps) are so different.

 

If you aren't already doing so, you may want to cap your frame rate. This could easily result in a 10-15c drop in temp for you.

 

Yeah, I have noticed significant drops in temps (a few degrees or more) by capping at 60 fps.

 

The reason I say remove the cover is that the cooling system does look very competent, so it would be interesting to test.

 

That somewhat defeats the purpose of the 860M, as it can overclock really well...assuming you have decent cooling. And I usually play with Vsync on anyways, so those temps are with a 60FPS lock already.

As I said, bad cooling design or maybe a bad heatsnk...on both the CPU & GPU.

I'm going to try removing the bottom panel and see if that helps. So far I'm just thinking the cooling system is just not very well designed.

 

I'll be very interested in the results.

 

Except unless you have a 75 or 120 Hz screen you're really not going to get much benefit from a higher frame rate than 60. If your temps are that big of a concern. Also, V-Sync is TERRIBLE for most games as it adds a TON of input lag, I would suggest turning V-Sync off and seeing if certain games have a way of limiting frame rate without V-Sync, as most of the games that I play do. It's possible your heatsinks aren't flat and need to be lapped.