I've worked with many laptops over the years - new and old - and rarely have I come across a laptop cooling system that does a good job for intense processing and longevity.
In regards to performance, keeping most temperatures below about 60C for the CPU, GPU (graphics), Hard drive and Motherboard is crucial for performance, sustainability, hardware health, and your safety. However many manufactures, including brand new laptops,
continue to ignore temperature safety and release units that go to the high 70s right out of the box! Once the temperatures go over 90C for the CPU, GPU, and Motherboard, you risk of hardware damage as certain forms of solder can melt and desolder components from the board if exposed to lengthy sessions of 90C or above. For instance, the HP TX1000 was notorious for GPU Failures (black screen of death if you may) because the units were released with terrible cooling systems that ran the GPUs around 90C and eventually desoldered the chip from the board rendering no possible video output.
To resolve this, manufactures should be implementing:
Easier access/removal of the fan(s). Too many currently laptops still have extremely difficult fan removal procedures that most people won't attempt. Blowing air into the fan port will only remove small particles, but not the accumulated thick chunks of dust, strings, hair. These can become a fire hazard under certain conditions over time or may even stop the fan entirely rendering a possible CPU meltdown.
Physical Fan Speed Controls A physical switch that allows the user to choose between automatic (noise reduction) or constant maximum speed modes. A manual speed adjustment knob addon could also be great for advanced users. Some laptops have software methods of controlling the speed, but a hardware switch is much more necessary since software isn't always available or compatible. For older laptops or more temperature sensitive laptops - setting a constant maximum speed would offer greater performance than the constant cycling between fast and slow each time you open a new program.
Better thermal paste from the start Too many manufacturers still ignore the thermal paste quality for heatsinks and fans in their laptops up to this day. Even worse, they may not even use paste at all and try to get away with a chemically moist thermal pad instead. From my experience of replacing these pads with silver based thermal paste, I've dropped average temperatures by 8-10C immediately. That's a difference that will certainly increase the longevity of the hardware.
For now, I will continue adding to this topic in future posts with new discoveries and techniques.
People can use those cooling pads, but honestly I have yet to see a case of any significant temperature reductions. Taking the problem serious requires innovating the system internally. Laptops really need to take a note from modern desktops that feature multiple fans for both incoming air and outgoing air to create a more secure flow of air.
I'm still looking into decent guides for resolving the issues ourselves & here's one to start with for now:
Laptop Cooling Mod Walkthrough (Johnson's News)
Also be sure to read these
9 Tips For Using Your Laptop in Warm or Hot Weather from Unplggd.com
UPDATE: 12/11/2011 - Part 2 Now Online - Laptop Manufacturers Still Overlook Cooling - Part 2
