Laptop Cooling Pads

strangeotron

Much as i love computers, tech is starting to do my head in. I'm either worrying that an expensive device will break, or it breaks.

Life was simpler back in the day

Strider590

Stoke wrote: »

A good example of this type of failure is the Xbox 360 which had lots of problems with solder fracture.

The 360 was a prime example of the early effects of EU RoHS regulations.

Failures caused by 100% tin solder, as tin is rather brittle. Back in the day lead was added to compensate for the brittle nature of tin, so that products would last longer.

Now we're consuming electronic goods at an insane rate, largely because of early life failures bought on by EU RoHS.
This in turn actually makes it worse for the environment, because it's pretty much all ending up in landfill, instead of going on in use for 10, 20, 30 years.

RumRat

strangeotron wrote: »

Much as i love computers, tech is starting to do my head in. I'm either worrying that an expensive device will break, or it breaks.

Life was simpler back in the day

Forums like this will only highlight the small fraction of problems suffered by a small section of the population.
Most people use their tech without any major problems and few small problems.
Lifes too short to be worrying about things breaking when they are working perfectly well. Most modern tech is very reliable and trouble free. Just the sheer amount of it will throw up troubles for some and the internet will make all problems seem huge.
The one thing I've noticed though is that I have less problems than people who tinker with their hardware (not a euphemism!!!).;)

Stoke

Strider590 wrote: »

The 360 was a prime example of the early effects of EU RoHS regulations.

Failures caused by 100% tin solder, as tin is rather brittle. Back in the day lead was added to compensate for the brittle nature of tin, so that products would last longer.

Now we're consuming electronic goods at an insane rate, largely because of early life failures bought on by EU RoHS.
This in turn actually makes it worse for the environment, because it's pretty much all ending up in landfill, instead of going on in use for 10, 20, 30 years.

Totally agree. I still use lead solder for that reason alone. I have a friend who had to switch to lead-free solder to keep his business running and it caused a lot of problems for him. For one, a lot of his equipment was rendered useless because the melting point of tin solder is actually higher than lead-based. The brittleness is just another issue.

strangeotron

My hardware is getting temperatures of almost 70degrees C when I run Stacraft 2. This can't be healthy! Yet it's the graphics card that's coolest. That got to about 53 degrees.

Stoke

strangeotron wrote: »

My hardware is getting temperatures of almost 70degrees C when I run Stacraft 2. This can't be healthy! Yet it's the graphics card that's coolest. That got to about 53 degrees.

Your hardware? What hardware? CPU? RAM? Genitalia? You need to be a little bit more specific. No idea what your graphics card is, but modern graphics cards are highly efficient. A few years ago, I developed graphics drivers for a major silicon vendor (still bound by my NDA), and much of the work was focussed on improving the efficiency of the rendering pipeline. We also used some strategies to optimize and improve the performance of the GPU, which also reduced temperatures overall.

If your graphics card isn't getting hot, then something else is. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, you just need to make sure whichever piece of hardware it is, isn't likely to become a bottleneck, otherwise you'll soon suffer the consequences.

strangeotron

Motherboard and cpu specifically.

Stoke

strangeotron wrote: »

Motherboard and cpu specifically.

Your motherboard should only see a slight increase in temps, although anything which begins to push your machine will see a fairly global rise. If your CPU is getting hot, then the game is putting a high load on your CPU and your cooling is clearly not good enough, or perhaps not efficient enough.

I'd consider replacing the stock heatsink and fan, and installing a decent aftermarket fan. Those fans they throw in with your processor are !!!!. Cheap OEM rubbish that weren't even good enough 10 years ago, so how they're still around I don't know.

Get something like this:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-ZE
That'll dissipate heat far better

Don't forget to use Arctic Silver Thermal Compound when installing your heatsink. It's the de facto standard.

strangeotron

Motherboard and cpu specifically.

strangeotron

Stoke wrote: »

Your motherboard should only see a slight increase in temps, although anything which begins to push your machine will see a fairly global rise. If your CPU is getting hot, then the game is putting a high load on your CPU and your cooling is clearly not good enough, or perhaps not efficient enough.

I'd consider replacing the stock heatsink and fan, and installing a decent aftermarket fan. Those fans they throw in with your processor are !!!!. Cheap OEM rubbish that weren't even good enough 10 years ago, so how they're still around I don't know.

Get something like this:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-ZE
That'll dissipate heat far better

Don't forget to use Arctic Silver Thermal Compound when installing your heatsink. It's the de facto standard.

How will that fit in a laptop?