Heat Problems on VAIO Z?

Hi all, just then I downloaded a utility called CPUID HWmonitor that measures the temperarure. Just then my CPU measured 80 degrees celcius, and that's pretty scary for me. I'm currently converting an HD video from MTS to WMV, as well as syncing my iPod. The fan is extremely hyper now.

The intel turbo boost utility shows no turbo boost at all. Is the heat level normal for handling these two tasks?

 

CPU temps rise pretty fast. It goes up to like 95 degrees celcius here. And no it doesn't really matter. It's just hot because it's in a cramped chassis.

 

I've seen 100C on mines after gaming... well CPU at 100C, GPU at 96C (they share the same heatsink)

 

welcome to one of the notable issues with the Z series, heat

 

not to rob the thread, but does this heat issue also appear on the new SB series notebook?

The SB series is pretty cramped as well. I was going to get the Z series, but the price leered me away. SB noticeably much cheaper and smiliar specs.
Thank you.

 

The heat on the SB is probably just as worse. The SB probably has a better cooling system though, but the amplified fan noise might annoy you quite a bit. Since there's minimal difference between the CPU's used in the Z and the SB (640M vs 2620M), they will probably be more or less at the same level of heat as the other.

 

Why do you view this as an "issue" exactly?

 

I view as this since the cpu and gpu are too close to the downclock threshold.

And since I deal with pcs since well, 94, There is a certain level of possible failure when you work your cpu at that level of stress, sometimes we do some overclocking and this in return gets us a destroyed chip, not because of the metod, but because of the added stress (they were all stable, and some random day, bam, gone). When you use a component to its limit, you are going to lose some longevity of it.

 

Nothing compared to the burning sensation (I kid you not) on the aluminum macbooks.

I think Vaio Z is standard with SSD drives, as I have that and though the bottom gets hot but the top doesn't change temperature that much. I have an extended battery, which raises up the laptop, and I have seen the temps go down slightly and less heat on the bottom panel.

 

I've had my Z shut down due to heat several times. With the fan in "Performance" mode. If I tax both the CPU and GPU at the same time, it just can't cope long term, and eventually cuts power.

That is certainly an issue.

 

I usually change my laptop at least once a year. (work and personal)

I've been through many brands (Dell, Asus, Toshiba, HP), with different GPUs (ATI or nVidia), and I have had heat problems with all of them.

My current "gaming" rig is an HP DV7 1055ea, and unless I put it on a cooling plate with fans (Akasa), it shuts down 15-20 minutes after I start gaming. Even with the cooling pad, the GPU hovers at around 96-98oC.

Haven't had that problem with my new Z yet (max 78oC so far under heavy strain), but I find that most laptop tends to overheat after a while, probably from the dust accumulating and the thermal paste needing changing.

Give it a year of intensive use, and Im sure my Z will also start overheating under stress... But so far, having checked with speedfan, I don't see anything out of the ordinary for the Z compared to all the other laptops I've owned.

Anyways, to make a long story short, I'm simply trying to say that notebooks in general are not very good heat wise, and the Z does not appear to be better or worse then the rest of them.

 

That would be an "issue", but many of us, including OP, don't have that issue.

Temps in the 80's are pretty far from throttling/shutdown temps. I don't think that's an issue, but would agree it's a bit of a design tradeoff.

 

Only since 94? Well I've only got you by 10 years then.

My point is 80s are not "at the limit". It's a design tradeoff, yes, but not an "issue".

CPU failure? Let's start a poll on how many Z users here have had a failed CPU. I'm guessing less than 2%, and it's probably much less than 1%.

 

From the reading that I have done the temps are with some constancy at somewhat on the high 80s if not on the 90s.

As I said, stressed pieces even if they are still on the specs can have a higher degradation than pieces that are on the 70s and 60s. Aside that the tdp that the cpu cooling system can handle impacts on the turbo boost functionality, if there is more leg room, the turbo boost will sustain itself for longer periods and higher than it would with some lesser cooling.

Im not saying that they are going to all fail, Im only saying that when you stress things more, they will have a lesser longevity.

You also have to understand that Im 26.

 

Nope, your wrong. Z's have heating issues.

 

Well maybe its not an issue the Z faces alone. I posted this because I thought 80 C was quite scary already (when you think about it, its quite sufficient to cook an egg or a piece of chicken fillet), but I never knew it could reach up to temperatures like 100 C.

I thought doing 2 moderately intensive tasks (syncing iPod, converting HD videos) would still keep the processor heat at a sane level, and considering that Turbo-boost didn't even kick in, it should've stayed at a more acceptable leve. I guess its one of the trade-offs of the Z because the engineers ran out of space for the fan.

 

I think what should be said, is that the Z's have heating issues, just like any other notebook with comparable GPUs.

 

its called 'overclocking' for a reason. as the manufacturer didn't intend the chip to be used at that speed(yes, i am well aware of what binning is - don't preach to the choir).

on the issue of longevity. that's the whole point of warranty. the manufacturer doesn't expect it to last past its included warranty(if it DOES, then its simply reduced cost for the manufacturer) - yes, i am aware of corporate 'fudging' and how they wouldn't offer a warranty if it wasn't business law, but the way things work is the way things work.

my point is, you can't expect what you didn't pay for. therefore, if something doesn't meet an expectation you can't expect it to meet, its really not an issue.

i'm going to take it you've never used an HP DV9000 series?

 

I usually push my Z to the limits, for over half a year now. GPU overclocked and CPU with turbo boost and HT activated. When doing massive video encoding (GPU/CPU full load) or gaming I do reach low 90's, but I did not see them going beyond 93°C (I have HWMonitor running all the time when starting very demanding tasks). Although hitting 90°C, my Z's body stays VERY cool (bottom and keyboard) which is incredible for this power and body footprint IMO. There is no problem putting it on the laps when running games, even on soft grounds no overheating/thermal throttling/shutdown at all.
Certainly when I am doing this, my Z blows out very hot air which easily can cause some pain when you try to close the vent with your fingertips.

Long story short, I am nothing short of AMAZED by the Z's thermals. Though, in the future I am willing to replace those cheap thermal conductive tapes on the GPU memory with custom copper that connects to the keyboard and use some arctic silver paste.

 

Nope. Never. I've only owned 2 notebooks in my life and the Z is my current one. (And you can probably guess my age by that fact) My first Fujitsu notebook had even worse heating issues even under minimal load. Even doing web-browsing and some youtube video viewing the whole thing just heats up really. I expect the Z to perform much better than my previous notebook but its just marginally better to be honest.

 

So what you are saying to me is go buy a enterprise class, because they have a standard 3 year warranty?

 

Well yeah, it does get quite hot. The now previous gen (2010) z can't really cope with heat with the best chip option on turbo boost. i have to set my maximum power state to 99% in power scheme settings. so i get up to 2.8 ghz of power only. if it allowed to switch to 3.2 ghz turboboost overclock, the cpu reaches like 95C with the gpu just under that... at stock 2.8 ghz without TB i get like 85-87C. that extra 400mhz on the cpu plus probably some voltage increase automatically climbs the heat levels quite a bit... but i'm not turning it off, since i only switch power schemes when i know im converting long run things like movies or rendering 3d.

 

I've got one with an i5 540M, turbo boost for 2 cores up to 2.8GHz. At 2.8GHz, I also get something like 85-90C on Balanced, and sometimes it throttles itself a bit down to around 2.66GHz.

 

Hmm wierd. mine doesn't throttle itself even when at 95c @ tb 3.2ghz