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    HD Gets too Hot While Gaming. SSD a solution?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by mew1838, Jul 30, 2009.

  1. mew1838

    mew1838 Team Teal

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    My HD gets up to 60 deg when playing mass effect for a few hours. I know this is not good fot the HD. If I install an SSD and run my game off it, would it run much cooler than this?
     
  2. Saisei

    Saisei Notebook Deity

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    When you say 60 do you mean Celsius or Fahrenheit? Also im not sure if a SSD will work in all laptops since i don't even know what a SSD looks like so i cant help you with that.
     
  3. ViciousXUSMC

    ViciousXUSMC Master Viking NBR Reviewer

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    60c should be fine, you dont really want to go above that but its not hot enough to damage it.

    If you want to make it cooler the best thing you can do probably is get a laptop cooling pad/stand.
     
  4. Oxyflo

    Oxyflo Notebook Enthusiast

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    Do you have an eSATA port? try just getting a nice external at high rpm and run the games off that.
     
  5. mew1838

    mew1838 Team Teal

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    62 deg Celcius exactly. And running it off an external drive would not work because the game needs to be installed in the windows partition. SSDs are supposed to run "ice cold"? and would even improve my gaming performance?
     
  6. ViciousXUSMC

    ViciousXUSMC Master Viking NBR Reviewer

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    SSD is expensive and while some of them run cooler some of them run hot too.

    It wont improve your game performance any, but it may cut loading times.

    A cooling pad is really your best solution.
     
  7. Soviet Sunrise

    Soviet Sunrise Notebook Prophet

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    Update your chipset drivers and install the Intel Matrix Storage drivers. That should shave a few degrees off your hard drive, mew1838.
     
  8. nklive

    nklive Notebook Evangelist

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    Are you sure you have to install it in a Windows Partition? Because I have it in a partition that has only Data and no windows! (it is a legal copy). So you might be able to install it in an external HDD. SSD are running cooler than HDD (-5 to -8 oC) as they need less power but still they, too, get hot, but they will improve the loading time of the game or the intervals i.e. when you enter a new area or a facility, it should be instant. One cheap idea would have been to buy a cheap 32GB ssd and install it as an external and put mass effect there just to see the improvements. But overall the cheapest solution would be to buy a cooling pad, they do work. I have one that I bought from the one pound shop and it's doing great work considering I bought it for £1.
     
  9. TevashSzat

    TevashSzat Notebook Deity

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    SSDs do not necessarily run cooler than hard drives. They heat up just like flash drives heat up when transferring lots files (like anything 5Gb+).

    Your HDD temps must be put in context. What are your ambient, CPU, and GPU temps?
     
  10. Oxyflo

    Oxyflo Notebook Enthusiast

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    The temperature drop is nice but not necessary for the hard drive. The loading time is great, but SSD technology won't be worth shelling out the money for another year or so.
     
  11. JohnnyFlash

    JohnnyFlash Notebook Virtuoso

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    Are you undervolting your CPU? I bet that would help.
     
  12. awdark

    awdark Notebook Consultant

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    I think you should just get a laptop cooler.
    My hard drive is located right below my left palm rest and it gets really hot when the processor gets going. Originally I thought all the heat was coming from my drive but after my drive failed, I took out the drive and ran linux from USB for a while and that same spot on my laptop was still hot. So even though I have that 500gb hitachi that everyone says "runs cooler" its still hot.

    If your laptop was designed the same way, it might not make a difference for you :(