laptop cooling

[Garfield]

Ummm...this question just came to mind. How is a laptop cooled? I don't have one, I'm just oddly curious. My nature, I guess...

 

[Arcane]

this is a total guess but, 1U cooler??? maybe some really small exhaust fans...that's a good question...anyone

 

[dreadlord79]

Maybe in the new ones there is a 1U cooler, I am not sure, but I do know that most newer laptops have at least one built in fan which is usually placed on the left hand side rear of the system. my old P120 laptop doesn't have any cooling execpt hs w/ out fan!

 

[Tecumseh]

Notebooks are usually cooled with a heat pipe
transfering heat off the CPU to a heat spreader
which is on the back of the keyboard or LCD
display. Fans are used too.

 

[Arcane]

actually, i think that fans wouldn't be that much of an issue...IMHO, i think laptops are mostly used as just convenience tools...in otherwords, most people use laptops for word processing, e-mail, or other lightweight work...so, i'm guessing that laptop manufacturers take that into account and provide adequate heatsinks or small fans to cool the laptops...i think people would rarely use a laptop for gaming, computer animation, or other intensive processes...but that's just a shot in the dark..

 

[Tecumseh]

While it is true that the average laptop user may only be
using a small % of the CPU, the design has to accomodate
full power use at high ambient temps for hours.

The HS technology in todays notebooks will be used
in tomorrows desktops.

 

[dreadlord79]

Yah but they have a way to go! I have 2 friends who can't use Windows media player for more than 2-3hrs unless they want their systems to lock up? One of them uses a SOny and the other a Compaq.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Most laptops today you don't actually want to use on your lap for very long. There's a lot of bad or inadequate designs out there though, they lock up through overheating too often for the users liking.

I've got laptops with fans in, and heat spreaders that cover the whole base of the machine. A friend had a 486sx that overheated so bad, that he cut a hole in the case and stuck a heatsink on it.

Road Warrior