Improving Laptop cooling by adding "vents"?

Espozo

Espozo

New Member
Hello! I've come here to ask how dumb of an idea it would be to create holes (long lines or circles placed in a honeycomb pattern, whatever's easier) in the bottom of my laptop to try and improve the airflow to keep it cooler. If this is okay, is there an optimal place to put them? I've heard that you're not supposed to have a vent directly under the fan, but I'd have thought this would be the best place for it.

Here's the laptop's back

Laptop Back.png

And here's the motherboard underneath that. The DVD drive was taken out.

Laptop Motherboard.png

In case this information is needed, the CPU is an AMD A12-9700P RADEON R7 @ 2.5GHz. It's an APU, but oddly enough, those 3 screw holes are where it appears a GPU is supposed to be, and it's even labeled as such. I don't remember the computer model, but it's a 17" HP I got this December. System in Windows says the computer name is DESKTOP-76NCIU1.
 
Might I ask why? Is it because there's no metal screen to keep out dirt, or are you afraid that this would compromise the strength of the plastic case?
 
If it was designed to have giant holes in it for ventilation, then the manufacturer would have done that.

While you may think your drilling holes would make better airflow, you will most likely screw up whatever airflow pattern the manufacturer designed for it.
 
Thank you. I had assumed that they just didn't do this for aesthetic reasons, and that it should never get hot enough to where it should matter (I was a little concerned, because the CPU was the most powerful option and I didn't know if this computer was designed very well for that; the 1.8GHz dual core CPU laptop I had before this had plenty of vents and was only a few years older), but I guess it could be to pull air over the entire board. The lack of any intake vents is a little strange though, not that the thing's air tight though.

I've tried to find good temperature reading, using software like Open Hardware Monitor, but all they list is a generic "temperature". I heard that there are often sensors in the CPU for each core, and one on the motherboard, but I could be wrong. In case you haven't already noticed, I'm not a computer expert (at least not a modern one. This is more on the software side of things, but I know 65xx and some x86 assembly, but I don't have a clue how fairly new inventions like CPU throttling work.)
 
Espozo said:
(I was a little concerned, because the CPU was the most powerful option and I didn't know if this computer was designed very well for that; the 1.8GHz dual core CPU laptop I had before this had plenty of vents and was only a few years older)
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I wouldn't worry about that. What you'll find out if you decide to dig deeper into CPU advancements is that, newer processors are built on newer architecture and die shrinking (built using a smaller nm process). What this means in a simpler term is, a more efficient processor generating less heat for even higher performance.
 
Yeah, you're all right, I really don't need to worry about heat. I ran a stress test (prime95) and the CPU temp never got above 67 degrees Celsius, (or at least Hardware Monitor told me) and 90 degrees is the highest temperature before it starts failing. In fact, it went down to 57 and stayed there, (even while everything was still at 100%) because I guess the fan kicked in all the way. I imagine they have it running so low so that people who aren't conscious about keeping airways clear don't ruin their computers. I bet there wouldn't be that much headroom on something like an Alienware Laptop...
 
I wouldn't drill holes in a gaming laptop, that actually needs cooling - let alone a shitty old standard HP notebook.
 
Laquer Head said:
let alone a shitty old standard HP notebook
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It's sad because it's true... I didn't buy this laptop to play games though, as the GPU part of the APU is this computer's biggest weakness. My older one was fine for what I was using it for (video editing was atrocious, but it's actually pretty good on this) but I wanted something a little better. This came with a 1TB HDD, but I replaced it for a 128GB (all I need) SSD and it's magnitudes faster in certain areas. $520 (what I payed for before the SSD) was already pretty expensive for me; I'm a junior in high school and don't have a job. I'm still really curious about the spot where a GPU could seemingly be (It's even label "GPU" next to it.) Even if I did want to play games though, I'd probably be better off getting another laptop, because I and no one else I know have the tools to do something like that, if it would work at all.

Of course, about actually needing cooling, I could overclock it... ;) The BIOS (InsydeH20) doesn't even support it, but it appears people have made an "unlocked" version that lets you adjust the buss speed and all that fun stuff.
 
Id do it. Manufacturers go for the lowest temps that can be achieved within a noise parameter. I would def do it and yes, it would def help.
 
Okedokey said:
Id do it. Manufacturers go for the lowest temps that can be achieved within a noise parameter. I would def do it and yes, it would def help.
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Don't listen to this advice. Putting extra holes in your laptop will likely disrupt the airflow the manufacturer designed. Changing the airflow could very easily make temps worse.
 
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Yeah, I've just about got it settled now. This thing operates so below the maximum temperature even at 100% load that I feel stupid I even asked about anything, although this was before I knew. I'm going to sound like a total jackass for this, but I was even seeing if I could get a few more MHz out of this (stable Super Monkey Ball emulation would be nice... It stutters a frame or two sometimes). I already told you guys how the temperature stayed at 57 degrees Celsius out of 90 at 100% CPU usage. An overclock to 2.8GHz doesn't seem like it would be that bad (I'd test it by 100MHz increments and make sure the thing never gets to be 80 degrees Celsius when heating up and 70 degrees Celsius stable)

Of course, if this is as stupid of an idea as my previous one, I won't do it. There's not even any option for overclocking in my BIOS (InsydeH20 F.35); I went to bios-mods.com and asked if there was a version someone modified to include advanced options, but there are so many requests there I won't hold my breath.
 
You know, wouldn't an easy way to end this little discussion be to run the stress test with the computer back taken off? Or would this not be accurate enough?
 
Okedokey said:
What bs.
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Far from BS. Manufacturers design specific intake and exhaust paths for the airflow. Putting holes randomly on the bottom of the case would likely disrupt the exhaust and intake air paths that were originally designed. Just as an example, say the air intake is on the left side of the laptop and flows over the GPU/CPU, then exhaust out the back of the laptop. If you put holes right in the middle of this pathway , the fan that is moving the air could very easily push that air out the new vent holes before it even reaches the heatsink on the components where it was originally intended.
 
I've taken apart dozens of HP's like this, a lot of them don't even have fans. Never have overheating problems (although the mobos die a lot).
 
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