Second Opinion after speaking to PCS

[jaymeh]

Hello all,

Just spoke to someone at PCS regarding (in my opinion) a high reading of my CPU temperatures on my laptop and just wondered if anyone else would mind giving a second opinion. I was told on the phone by someone who confirmed it was ok in his opinion and his managers that 95 - 99 degrees Celsius when gaming was an acceptable temperature for my CPU to be running at. To me that sounds far too hot and worries me that it may cause issues with my other components.

Below are my specs,

Chassis & Display Optimus Series: 13.3" Matte Full HD LED IPS Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk 240GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
Battery 13.3" Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH)
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence

If anyone could offer any advice it would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks
Jamie

 

[mantadog]

I suspect it is throttling at those temps to be honest.

99 is on the very upper limit of what would be considered 'safe' I wouldn't be happy with my CPU running at those temps for sure. However I am not familiar with how an i7 performs in such a small chassis...

But yeah, I would be reluctant to leave it at that. I'd be calling back and asking to have it looked at.

 

[Wozza63]

Although 99 is indeed high, I wouldn't expect too much lower from such a high grade CPU in such a small chassis, especially when its combined with a high end graphics card.

 

[jaymeh]

Hi Mantadog,

Thank you for your swift reply. It worries me due to the fact that the laptop is already on a cooling stand to try and stop this issue occurring. The laptop has already been RMA'd once and I have just got it back.

I shall try and give someone a call about it hopefully it won't be the same person I spoke to earlier.

Thanks,
Jaymeh


Hey Wozza,

Are the any downsides in your opinion of the laptop running at this temperature? Since this seems to me like pcs have sold me a laptop which isn't fit for purpose?

Thanks,
Jaymeh

 

[mantadog]

100 degrees is the thermal throttle point given for that chip on the intel site. Given as Tjunction in the official spec list.

Tjunction Max: This is the maximum temperature the cores can reach before the PROCHOT# signal is sent and thermal throttling is activated, although throttling typically occurs a degree or two below this. In this post Tjunction Max refers to either the actual throttling point for a core/CPU or what is used by a temperature monitoring program.

So basically if you are getting 99 degrees it is fairly probably you are getting some degree of throttling. Yes it is a 13" chassis with some beefy components but it shouldn't be reaching throttling temps.

One question I would be asking is, how are you achieving those temps? if its through stress testing then I would ask you to try it in a more 'real world' situation such as gaming or video editing as they don't push the system quite so hard and are much much more representative of the real like temps you can expect.

 

[tom_gr7]

What thermal paste did you add when you ordered it? I believe that top of the range paste should always be used when buying laptops. Simply to help with cooling and heat transfer.

If i were you, I'd Look at repasting the cpu and go from there.

 

[jaymeh]

Hi Mantadog,

Well upon doing a stress test it was doing that and getting about 96 with a 88% load. During gaming I got somewhere around 94 after playing for 10 minutes. The game in question was cube world but it had been happening on GTA - Episodes from Liberty City.

Hi Tom,

Well I was not so comfortable applying the thermal paste myself so I sent it back to PCS end of last week. Got it back yesterday and was told that the paste before wasn't up to their quality standards so they re-applied it.

Just dug out my order and I ordered this thermal paste

Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND

Thanks,
Jaymeh

 

[guyfawkes5]

Personally I'd consider temperatures in the range of 90-100 C even under heavy load to be unacceptable. Such high temperatures reduce the lifespan of the CPU more than usual, and can cause problems with heat-sensitive components elsewhere in the board, especially SSDs.

I'd consider this a worry even if using a CPU-load generating program, like Prime95, but it seems like you're just using a high-end game.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I wouldn't be happy with those temps either. I'd like my cpu to max at that temp only for a split second spike, but to settle at around the 90 mark.

 

[mantadog]

88% load on a stress test, why are you using? if you want to stress test you need to be getting 100% utilisation, grab a copy of prime95. That will really test the chip.

Anything over 90 is a bit toasty, 90-91 would be my personal cut off under 100% load given the size of the chassis, but anything more would seem high to me.

You say you have already sent it back for a paste re application? So you had this problem before? I think we are all in agreement that something is up, call em back up and see what they say.

 

[jaymeh]

Hi everyone.

To test it I have been using prime95. I was giving the 88% as an example that even when it's not under full loads it's still very hot but it was matching 99 degrees at 100% CPU within prime95. It seems high to me also but upon speaking to a couple of the guys there apparently 94 degrees when playing cube world is perfectly acceptable on that CPU model, within such a small case. They said I am using the some very good thermal paste and the chassis has the best possible heat sink made from copper. One of the guys said they can't do anything more to cool it. I have been having the issue for a while to be honest have spoken to them and they took it in to look over it and they have sent it back saying its fine. It now worries me that there are a variety of posts on here all unanimously stating that it is too hot. I don't really know what my next course of action is to be honest. If there stating that nothing is wrong with it I can't get a replacement or repair.

Thanks
Jaymeh

 

[Wozza63]

I'd say its acceptable for the conditions its under if not maybe just a tad over, but not much. The best thing to do would get a laptop cooler or prop up the laptop so that the bottom is getting plenty of airflow

 

[jaymeh]

Thanks for the advice once again Wozza, these temperatures were recorded whilst the laptop was already propped up on a cooling stand. This is currently the one that I am using.

[url]http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DDC3TCI/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1[/URL]

Is it up for the job or if possible do you have any suggestions for one?

Thanks again,
Jaymeh

 

[Jamie0202]

I have an idea for you which I sometimes use on my own laptop. Using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility you can underclock and undervolt your CPU. On my rig with the same CPU I can lower the temperatures by at least 10 degrees doing this. There is no noticable difference in performance since most games are GPU bound anyway (actually performance is increased because there is no throttling). Undervolting is perfectly safe (unlike overvolting) and if you go too far you can reset to default settings with a reboot because it is software based and not either hardware or BIOS based. Here is a screenshot of my settings.



Pay attention to the figures in yellow at the top right because these are the settings I use when a certain game is pushing my temperatures too high. I use 115mV of an undervolt but I recommend you start at 100mV and test from there for system stability. I've used this program with quite a few games including Crysis3 which really pushed the temperatures of my laptop pretty high.

 

[Jamie0202]

A wee double post here.

I ran 2 stress tests using default settings and the modified settings and here are my results.





In both screenshots the values on the left are determined by my cursor position which is shown by a white line.
The first test was default settings and the second was my modified settings with a difference of 11 degrees.

 

[mantadog]

Well I guess running those components in such a tight space is going to generate heat, I would be uncomfortable with my CPU running at those temps but on the other hand a 13" chassis isn't exactly a gaming desktop chassis....

If PCS are assuring you the temps are ok and they have looked at the system on a bench back at PCS HQ then I guess it's just how the system runs.

 

[jaymeh]

Hi Jamie,

That sounds like it may be a good thing for me to look into. I have gone into the advanced power settings and changed where it says Maximum Processor state in there and dropped it down to 85% which seems to be giving me much lower cpu temperatures.

I will also take a look at undervolting and post back within a week or so with my results.

Thanks Very Much Jamie

Hi Mantadog,

Yeah it seems that way, it must have some downsides to running the cpu that hot and I feel it would be more acceptable if the temperatures were around 15 - 20 degrees lower.

However I will try out the advice given by Jamie and see where I am at in a week or so.

Thank you very much for all of your help Mantadog,
Jaymeh

 

[d4005]

Thanks for this thread. It's totally put me off now from buying a PCS laptop. I bought my mother a PCS mini-PC a couple of years ago from PCS too. It spent the first 6 months of its life back and forth to PCS due to overheating issues. Now I hear they're having the same issues with their laptops years later. Collection services and free repairs don't cut it for me. I need it to work flawlessly on day one and do so until the day I don't want it no more.

Although it pains me to do so, I think it's back to Dell for me

 

[steaky360]

Thanks for this thread. It's totally put me off now from buying a PCS laptop. I bought my mother a PCS mini-PC a couple of years ago from PCS too. It spent the first 6 months of its life back and forth to PCS due to overheating issues. Now I hear they're having the same issues with their laptops years later. Collection services and free repairs don't cut it for me. I need it to work flawlessly on day one and do so until the day I don't want it no more.

Although it pains me to do so, I think it's back to Dell for me

That's sad to hear, I hope you don't have any issues with whatever system you decide to purchase

 

[SlimCini]

Thanks for this thread. It's totally put me off now from buying a PCS laptop. I bought my mother a PCS mini-PC a couple of years ago from PCS too. It spent the first 6 months of its life back and forth to PCS due to overheating issues. Now I hear they're having the same issues with their laptops years later. Collection services and free repairs don't cut it for me. I need it to work flawlessly on day one and do so until the day I don't want it no more.

Although it pains me to do so, I think it's back to Dell for me

I do hear that only PCS PC's generate heat