m11x cooling needed!

I bought a Targus Chill Mat today (people in the alienware m11x cooling pad thread that I found seemed to like it), but it isn't enough.

I'm not overclocking my cpu (though turbo-boost is on), and I have a very mild gpu overclock on.

After 2 hours starcraft 2 froze up, a recurring problem that I have with various games (including CIV IV). I think it may be heat related. I forcequit and checked my temps, and got:

CPU:
Core 1 - 74 C
Core 2 - 68 C

GPU:
69 C

Yuck! Thats about what I was seeing without the cooling pad.

5 minutes after quitting SC2 my Core 1 temp is at 71 C, and Core 2 is at 64 C ... and these values don't seem to be changing very fast.

Does anyone have a better cooling solution? I usually play lying in bed or on a couch with my laptop in my lap, so I need something that won't suck up air directly from where my body is (thats the reason I bought the Targus - it sucks in air from the sides as opposed to the bottom of the chiller, and its lightly padded on the bottom).

 

[Edit - Nevermind, saw you're on a m11xr2.]

 

My previous laptop had an overheating problem, so I've gone through quite a few cooling pads--Antec, Targus, Belkin, and some no-name ones. In my experience, raising it up to provide a gap of air below the laptop is the most important job of the cooling pad, even more important than having fans at all. Ones like that Targus Chill Mat suck because they don't have a gap between the laptop and pad itself, which keeps it hot.

The cheap-o solution is to put a book or something at the back side of the laptop, though you may not like it slanted. In that case, the best one I've found (despite the $5 price) is this style Black Mini Folding USB Cooler Pad With Two Quiet Cooling Fan And LED Light,USB Powered - Meritline.com because it has very little surface area but raises the laptop up high. I use it without the fans. If you search meritline for 'cooling pad' you'll see it comes in a bunch of colors. A nice side benefit is it folds up to a very small size, so it fits in a notebook bag easily. Some of the reviews say the wiring is bad; I don't use the fans, so I don't know if that's true (though trying mine now, it works fine).

 

I agree that improving airflow to the intake on the bottom has the biggest impact on cooling. My solution is to run the power cord underneath the laptop along the back side in order to increase the gap for better intake. That will drop the temps a few degrees C.

 

How big of a performance drop are you seeing if you turn off all your overclock settings? Because I have never seen my temps reach nearly that high (my GPU almost never goes over 60) and it seems that may be a result of your overclocking.

Also the locking up in games seems like an instability with the overclock on the GPU, and should be fixed by either turning off the OC or by adjusting it until you find a stable solution. I personally use MSI Afterburner (a variation of RivaTuner co-developed by MSI) with the MSI Kombuster stability test/benchmark (a variation of Furmark) to find a nice stable OC.

 

I get the locking in games without the gpu OC. Since the gpu OC doesn't seem to affect things one way or another I've started just keeping it on. :/

 

Those temperatures look perfectly fine to me. In fact let me see another <13" laptop running SC2 and getting lower than that. I'd say roughly speaking, you should begin to worry if they go over 95 C. (Even tho I would consider extra cooling even if I stepped into 90ies) I don't think overheating is the cause of your lockups.

 

Ok so imo

The cooling in the M11x works fine if it can get air in. Temps will get into 70s on long hard use.

So the basic approach is to lift the back to improve the airflow (via cable, coasters etc..), this is a big improvement. There may be some refinement in stopping hot exhaust air circulating back in.

If you want a cooler then it must improve airflow into the fan area via holes and maybe a fan blowing directly in.

The other slight improvement from a cooler would be if it can also blow air over the rest of the base, which I think is metal and may help lower the overall inner temp of the laptop. The laptop does not have other intakes (other than general gaps in the case & keyboard)

The keyboard and wrist wrest area also heat up, so some airflow over that would help keeping hands cool. I am toying with getting a USB fan to do this for when I am gaming on the road.