Got my NP8660, and it's awesome, and I'm pretty certain I'm sending it back

how did you prove this? I heard otherwise. since all hard drive, SSD's included get high readings, then it is not the hard drive since SSD's dont give off that much heat.

 

Ah. This is interesting. My current laptop (also a Clevo) has a metal plate that covers the whole face of the harddrive.

Do you think there's space for a full-sized plate or is there a special gap for the plate in the chassis?

I am having a hard time believing the HDD is generating the excess heat because they're not faulty, don't normally require much, if any ventilation, and no one has complained of a burning hot touchpad. Everyone talks about the palm-rest area. If you look at the internals of the M860TU the harddrive is almost exactly in the middle of the laptop, directly under the touchpad. Yet the heat is coming from the right palm rest, which appears to be closer to the NB.

 

These heat issues are only with people who goth 7200RPM hard drives right?

 

the drive running hot in my desktop harddrive did not bother me that much either, until the machine would not boot up and I had lost all my data

 

Mine has an hitachi 320 7200 in it and this morning I surfed around for about an hr. then played a 2hr. movie stored on the hard drive and never got over 53c. The palm rest gets alittle warm but not bad, my 5793 got just as warm there.
I love the 8660 and I am very happy with it.

 

Yes! I am getting the same drive, I should have it by tomorrow or by the latest Friday. Then I can also decided what's going on here.

 

Some people have reported unusually high temperatures with a 5400rpm 320gb drive. So no it's not limited to 7200rpm drives.

 

me thinks its time for a mini survey.
ill start a new thread soon but in the mean time are there any other questions you think i need to ask.
supplier:
model name:
received date:
hard disc make/model:
hard disc size:
5400 or 7200:
idle temp:
general brousing:
gaming 15 minutes:
gaming 30 minutes:
gaming 1 hour:
room temp:
do you use a cooler:

anything else i need to add.
once the european notebooks hit the streets ill draw up some graphs.

 

umm...having your hdd even in the low 50s is to high.
If it idles in 50, it will surely slowly demish its life expectancy imo.

 

I don't think it's the HDD, I have an SSD, which should give off less heat and I still experience heat on the right palm rest. Also if you look at the pictures of the M860TU opened, the HDD, to me seems to be placed almost in the botton center where the touchpad is. Based on that picture, it looks like the closest component is memory or the bridge. It also doesn't get that hot, maybe just a design flaw?

 

Sorry MrDJ but from all the reports now, the temperature seems to be totally random, when you look at the drive speed. Only Deathwinger have lower temps, maybe because of his hard drive being a little more special

 

Teebo,

Can you please do me a favour and take a picture of the inside of the bottom panel when it's removed? I want to see what the inside of the fan grill looks like.

Or you can just tell me. Is there a ring of foam or anything around the grill?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=290880

 

I have confirmed it is the hard drive that heated up by touching it directly with my finger when the laptop is powered off. And I didn't feel anything else as hot as it that is immediately next to it. (of course the heat sink on GPU and CPU are hotter).

And someone mentioned the SSDs are also hot, and SSD doesn't even give off much heat, therefore I suspect that the problem is with the motherboard. And possibly has something to do with the power supply to the hard drive and SSD.

 

That's not a picture of the bottom panel..

I need the inside of the bottom panel.

And youdontneedtoknow, was the NB heatsink cooler than the HDD?

 

soz,thats what i thought you meant. me bad

 

NB heat sink was not very hot compared with the hard drive...

 

Besides the processors and video cards, I was wondering if Sager thought about the hard drives when they came up with their thermal budget. It's kinda funny in an odd way... there were alot of discussion about the 9800 GTX and the M860TU's thermal budget before its released and we were told that Clevo/Sager were the best in the business designing cool running notebooks. Look at us now

 

Lol, what? I don't have the laptop yet. It's probably in customs right now.

I shall determine the heat etc. tomorrow as I should have it in my hands and installing what need be by tomorrow night.

 

@ livesoft -- I really don't think the HDD temperatures are "random" -- I think that perhaps peoples' interpretations of what is hot for an HDD and heat in general (e.g. the palm rest) are diverse, though. People with all types of HDDs have been reporting temperatures, at idle, at or above 50 C which, by manufacturers' standards, is on the upper limit of how hot an HDD should be running. Under load it might be different for some, and sure RPM speed will affect things a little bit, but 50 C is still hotter than most other laptops.

It seems like some people may have misinterpreted my OP as me being upset about the heat of the computer in general; let me emphasize that it's JUST the HDD, and I only know it's running that hot through CPUID software. The right palmrest gets a little bit warm, but I don't mind it; it's sort of pleasant in a sick, loving-your-laptop sort of way

@ Shyster -- I am not confident enough in my skills nor do I have the proper tools to try your suggestion, but I do think that a more hardware-modification-savvy person with the unit that is having problems and has the proper equipment should try that solution. Better yet, maybe some of the resellers could? If thermal paste could substantially reduce the operating temperature of the HDD (say so that it is at 50 C under load and lower than 45 C in normal use), that would give owner some piece of mind.

Still, I don't know how long I can wait for a solution, and I am going to be browsing for alternative computers ( ) in the meantime. I can't just rely on faith in Sager on this subject and hope for the best. I really don't think that Clevo would have overlooked an issue like this, though, so it's a bit perplexing that this is even an issue.

 

Sorry, I didn't read correctly. Its blade445 (and it should be the same for you).

And I'm not talking about user reports but I check the reported temperature from screenshots of CPUID. From there, I saw some 5400 running at 60 while there was 7200 running at around 58 and all.

 

Well maybe I am wrong.

Does anyone else want to finger temp-probe the various components after stress and see what's running hottest?

 

Yeah, a month ago who would have thought the primary concern with this machine would be the hard drive temp...

 

gavinh, I am pretty confident it is the hard drive alone unless something is under (above) it. The palm resting area and the touch pad area is directly above it too. And the hard drive was hot all over it when I touched it not a particular side thing. And the NB was pretty far away from it compared to the GPU heat sink. I seriously think something is overloading the hard drive thus overheating the hard drive, because it should never generate that much heat.

 

I see a promising career of proctology in your future.

 

I'm going to see if my current harddrive plate will fit.

Maybe a couple of RAM sinks would be in order...

youdontneedtoknow, is there a special gap in the chassis for the metal plate on the HDD or do you think a full-length plate could fit?

 

From my recollection, I would say it has enough space for a full-length plate to fit, though of course, it depends on how big your full-length plate is. I think anything that takes heat off the hard drive would be helpful.

 

I can't help thinking that someone in the Sager/Clevo QA and/or design team was so asleep at the job. Or maybe their idea of testing involves just watching it load Windows.

 

I am guessing they probably used a keyboard so they never noticed the heat from palm rest. But of course the heating issue from the hard drive is least severe kind of problem of all compared with CPU and GPU.

 

My 7K200 runs at 36 C or 96 F. Is that good or bad?

 

what is 7k200? 36 C is very good. My old hp run about 43C.

 

7k200 is 7200

 

I also just got my NP8660. I totally agree with the OP that is is sleek and beautiful and powerful. At this point I have had it on for about an hour, fooling around with Windows Vista, setting up my internet connection and now browsing the web. The right palm rest is, IMO, hot. Enough so that my wrist/palm is starting to get a bit red and my palm is definitely sweaty. The heat extends up through the 'asd' line of the keyboard and left halfway through the touchpad, though at the outer limits to me it's warm and not hot. The underside of the computer at the front right is even hotter.

I have the 320gb 7200 RPM

I downloaded CPUID software and it is showing
ACPI : 51 C (max 55)
CPU Core #0: 36 (max 40)
CPU Core #1: 42 (max 51)
Video Card (9800M GT): 48 (max 49)
HDD: 58 - MIN 58 - Max 58

Granted, I just downloaded it so it's not like it recorded the minimum temp when I first turned on the machine but I noticed the heat within about 15 min. This is only the second laptop I've ever had so I'm not totally sure how concerned to be, but for me even the external temp is at least somewhat uncomfortable.

 

Those temps look in line with what I was seeing, too :-\

 

To me, that doesn't look bad except for the HDD ,which is kind of hot.

 

AutumnZephyr, What brand is your hdd? Seagate or Hitachi?

 

I should probably mention that my notebook cooler hasn't arrived yet, so I'm not using one, but it is on a flat surface as well as being slightly elevated by coasters under the corners.

Is there a way to tell what brand it is short of opening up the computer? (dumb question, sorry ) If not, I'll have to get back to you on that!

 

It should tell the make in hwmonitor.

 

I says "ST9320421aAS", and then beneath that it just says HDD.

ETA: Which is apparently a Seagate, as I find it on their website.

Also, it's down to 57 now, FWIW. And the I'm getting used to the external temp, but I'm worried about the HDD functioning/reliability.

 

Autumn, does your display have any "sparkle" or grain to it? some users have reported this, and I noticed it too

 

From a cold start in High Preformance setting mine Idles (after a while) at about 47c and slowly but surly will get to 50c. After or running for it for a longtime give or take overnight it will hang around 52c and bounce anywhere from 52c-55c. I do not have a laptop cooler. (i bought one but it sucked so i returned it and ordered a Zalman)

I have yet to look at the temp after a really long gaming session but i will deffinitally look into it.

From what im reading is 50c is is going kill the life my of Hdd?

I have 320gig at 7200rpm

 

If ACPI is the motherboard temp sensor, isn't it weird that the mobo is hotter than the CPU and GPU? I don't have a notebook (yet) so I'm just used to desktops where the CPU and GPU are always far warmer.

 

I am about to purchase a NP8660. After reading a lot of threads on this forum, I became concerned about heat. Being an engineer by trade I have devised a possible solution with a marginally expensive upkeep.

 

Aren't you worried about it making your notebook so cold that water condenses inside of it

 

I just realized from posts that some of us maybe getting different power bricks. And those of us are getting the wrong power brick might already have some component fried that is causing the hard drive to be excessively hot.

I think the power brick with a fan may not be the right one, but I have not confirmed this yet.

So anyone got a power bricke WITHOUT a fan, please tell us how hot your hard drive is.

 

I am not. A glass of ice water put into a hot environment produces condensation, correct? This is the opposite? For simplicity putting a glass of hot water in a cold environment does not condense. How why? What? Well your environment is the very cold air you are pumping in. The computer is your glass of hot water?

Condensation happens because colder air can not hold as much moisture as hot air. So hot air at 50%RH at the point it meets the cold glass that 50%RH of the higher temp is above 100%RH of the cooler (glass) temp.

So simply where is the moisture going to come from? You are blowing cold (can't hold moisture) into an environment that is hotter (can hold moisture) that is the simple.

Also consider in a 70F room at 30% to 50% RH have you seen condensation on a glass of ice water (32F)? In winter when below freezing it must get very very cold before interior windows condense?

I don't have my psychrometric calculator handy but condensation of glass of ice water happens more like 85F+ 80RH+. Notebook is not going to get to 32F?

You asked MrFong and I was bored so there it is?

 

My display actually looks AWESOME. I don't see any graininess, it's quite clear. No dead pixels, and so far indoors the glare is minimal - I notice it a little when the screen is black... which means nothing is going on.

So I installed Oblivion, and after one hour with the laptop on, and about 30 minutes doing character setup in the game, the temps are even worse.

ACPI 76, CPU 67 and 70, GPU 71 and HDD 61 (max numbers). This is by no means heavy gaming or gaming for long periods. Does anyone have any thoughts? Should I contact Xotic PC or is this similar to what others are experiencing?

 

Looks like I need to repeat my question since it is not very noticable anymore.

Please help me to answer these questions since they may help some of the people who bought this laptop.

1) Since some people has power brick without a fan, please take a picture of the power brick, especially the underside of it with all the specifications.

2) People with power brick that doesn't have a fan, please tell me how hot is your HDD.

I am asking this is because I remembered of smelling something burning the first time I plugged in my power brick. I am guess I may be not using (receiving) the right power brick, and this possiblly wrong power brick may have fried some components inside the laptop and causing the HDD to be excessively hot.

So, please answer my questions, then we will be steps closer to solve this problem.

 

youdontneedtoknow I think you could be onto something! I read after my last post and thought good point. But wanted to let others comment. I still think good point.

 

powerpack, thank you for sharing your knowledge of the basic physics, you have mentioned information that involves with phases change, fluid dynamics and thermal dynamics ...