Laptop heating

[lemosilveira]

Hello everyone.

TL;DR - Laptop chassis reaches (i think?) more than the 45C that meets all thermal requirements. Should I worry?

Recently got a laptop for my SO (i'll leave specs below) and I've noticed on the notes added it says the chassis can reach around 45C and that through testing it meets all thermal requirements.
Then while playing Red Dead Online (not specific to the game, just the only one we've played so far) the chassis gets so hot you cant even touch it for more than a second or two. I mean fair enough I havent actually checked the temperature, but that does seem a lot more than the 45C.
This isn't a problem for us tbh, although i guess it gets pretty hot in that area, but im more concerned on whether the chassis/components can/will withstand those temperatures in a reasonably long term (we average maybe 2-3h a day gaming).

Components:

• Defiance Series: 17.3" Matte, Full HD, 144Hz, Pantone Validated 72% NTSC, LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
• Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 11800H (2.3GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo)
• 32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
• NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 3060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
• 1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2200 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)
• ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (Thermal paste)
• Windows 11

Thanks!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hello everyone.

TL;DR - Laptop chassis reaches (i think?) more than the 45C that meets all thermal requirements. Should I worry?

Recently got a laptop for my SO (i'll leave specs below) and I've noticed on the notes added it says the chassis can reach around 45C and that through testing it meets all thermal requirements.
Then while playing Red Dead Online (not specific to the game, just the only one we've played so far) the chassis gets so hot you cant even touch it for more than a second or two. I mean fair enough I havent actually checked the temperature, but that does seem a lot more than the 45C.
This isn't a problem for us tbh, although i guess it gets pretty hot in that area, but im more concerned on whether the chassis/components can/will withstand those temperatures in a reasonably long term (we average maybe 2-3h a day gaming).

Components:

• Defiance Series: 17.3" Matte, Full HD, 144Hz, Pantone Validated 72% NTSC, LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
• Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 11800H (2.3GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo)
• 32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
• NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 3060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
• 1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2200 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)
• ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (Thermal paste)
• Windows 11

Thanks!

It's best to measure temps with hwmonitor both when idle and under load

HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

HWMonitor for Windows® x86/x64 is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, powers, currents, fans speed, utilizations, clock speeds ... The program handles : CPU and GPU-level hardware monitoring...

www.cpuid.com

When did you get the laptop?

 

[DarkPaladin]

Just a few recommendations based on my experience with using gaming laptops

1) If you're ever concerned about heat issues, the first suggestion would be to use either HWMonitor or HWInfo64 to monitor your component's heat in real time (both idle + in use)
https://www.hwinfo.com/download/
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

2) Whenever you play demanding games, it's best to turn on the fans to their maximum speed. I believe most (if not all) PCSpecialist laptops use the Fn + 1 keys to do this. It'll be loud, but your laptop will also run a lot cooler.

3) Depending on how long you've had the laptop, it might be a good idea to open up the case and check for dust build-up in the fans. I typically do this every 3-6 months, depending on how much the temperatures have increased over time.

4) Similarly, if there is little to no dust build-up in the laptop, it might be worth applying new thermal paste to the laptop. This process is daunting at first but you'll absolutely get comfortable doing this from experience. I found that the optimal way to apply paste is using the X method for the best chance of getting the paste to fully cover the components.

5) If you don't want to invest in a laptop cooling pad, simply elevating the laptop should help decrease temperatures due to having more airflow throughout the laptop.

6) As a rule of thumb, a thinner laptop will usually run hotter than a thick/bulky one due to having less thermal headroom.

 

[lemosilveira]

When did you get the laptop?

@SpyderTracks & @DarkPaladin thank you both for the replies, and sorry i forgot to include that. The laptop is about 2 weeks old so it shouldnt be any issue with dust or thermal paste.

Whenever you play demanding games, it's best to turn on the fans to their maximum speed

I believe its already running at max speed. I'll double check next time, but pretty sure its running full speed anyway.

If you don't want to invest in a laptop cooling pad, simply elevating the laptop should help decrease temperatures due to having more airflow throughout the laptop.

The chassis interestingly already has a bit of a raise on itself which is great! And it does have 2 side "vents(?)" in which hot air comes out of. On the bottom of the laptop its pretty open too, and i can see 2 fans there. Should also point out that its on a flat hard surface, not on any fabric or anything that would heat it up even more.

My main question there (and specially since its a very new laptop) is purely if it will be fine with so much heating on its chassis. Not sure what temps its supposed to withstand. Since its so new I assume when it went through its testing phase at pcspecialist, they've checked the temps? Just not wanting it to melt on me haha

 

[SpyderTracks]

The laptop is about 2 weeks old so it shouldnt be any issue with dust or thermal paste

That's what you need to rule out. It's possible it was a bad paste job when it was built. This is always possible so it's one of the tests you need to do with any new PC or laptop is test the cooling.

 

[lemosilveira]

That's what you need to rule out. It's possible it was a bad paste job when it was built. This is always possible so it's one of the tests you need to do with any new PC or laptop is test the cooling.

That doesn't sound good. I mean I've ordered twice from pcs and had no issue. This time it took about 2.5 weeks and got sent a CD with drivers when the laptop doesn't even come with a DVD drive lol

So what should the temperature be, in general, when playing something very demanding?

 

[SpyderTracks]

That doesn't sound good. I mean I've ordered twice from pcs and had no issue. This time it took about 2.5 weeks and got sent a CD with drivers when the laptop doesn't even come with a DVD drive lol

So what should the temperature be, in general, when playing something very demanding?

If you take a screenshot of your CPU and GPU when completely idle and post that

Then stress the system with something like prime95 when under load and do the same

HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

HWMonitor for Windows® x86/x64 is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, powers, currents, fans speed, utilizations, clock speeds ... The program handles : CPU and GPU-level hardware monitoring...

www.cpuid.com

Download Prime95 version 30.19 Build 14

Download Prime95 - a handy tool for overclockers and system stability checkers, Prime95 has a feature called "Torture Test" that allows maximum stress testing on the CPU and RAM. There are several options allowing the stress test to focus on the memory, processor, or a balance of both.

www.guru3d.com

You want resting temps to be mid 40s and below, load temps to be max mid 90's but preferably lower

 

[lemosilveira]

If you take a screenshot of your CPU and GPU when completely idle and post that

Then stress the system with something like prime95 when under load and do the same

HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

HWMonitor for Windows® x86/x64 is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, powers, currents, fans speed, utilizations, clock speeds ... The program handles : CPU and GPU-level hardware monitoring...

www.cpuid.com

Download Prime95 version 30.19 Build 14

Download Prime95 - a handy tool for overclockers and system stability checkers, Prime95 has a feature called "Torture Test" that allows maximum stress testing on the CPU and RAM. There are several options allowing the stress test to focus on the memory, processor, or a balance of both.

www.guru3d.com

You want resting temps to be mid 40s and below, load temps to be max mid 90's but preferably lower

I'll test it a bit later on rest (SO is currently on a campaign to pvp a griefer lol). On load temps, its sitting at between 85-90 for processor (rarely goes above 90), and for GPU its about 85.
Would that be a normal temp for it under a heavy load then?

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'll test it a bit later on rest (SO is currently on a campaign to pvp a griefer lol). On load temps, its sitting at between 85-90 for processor (rarely goes above 90), and for GPU its about 85.
Would that be a normal temp for it under a heavy load then?

Those are healthy temps, that's pretty good really, I'd be happy with that.

 

[lemosilveira]

Those are healthy temps, that's pretty good really, I'd be happy with that.

Good to hear then. In case of a PC are those temps healthy too or far too much? With normal fans that is.
And thanks for the help!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Good to hear then. In case of a PC are those temps healthy too or far too much? With normal fans that is.
And thanks for the help!

On PC you'd expect quite a lot lower, perhaps low 80s CPU and around 80 - 84 on GPU under load

 

[lemosilveira]

I mean to be fair I do need to clean that PC and since it's 4+ years old I will need to change thermal paste. Just never done it before and don't want to screw it up lol

Thanks for your help buddy!

 

[Martinr36]

I mean to be fair I do need to clean that PC and since it's 4+ years old I will need to change thermal paste. Just never done it before and don't want to screw it up lol

Plenty of videos on YouTube like this one that explain how to do it

 

[SpyderTracks]

I mean to be fair I do need to clean that PC and since it's 4+ years old I will need to change thermal paste. Just never done it before and don't want to screw it up lol

Thanks for your help buddy!

On a pc you shouldn't need to change tha paste unless there are signs of overheating.

The way laptops are they tend to seep paste quicker and run at higher temps generally so it deteriorates quicker.