Newbie Q - Laptop cooling: Fujitsu N6010
 

Hi,

Sorry if I am off-topic; the forums here are so high-tech I couldn't find one for a newbie like me :-)

OK, I have a Fujitsu N6010 notebook with a Mobile Intel Pentium 4 CPU running at 3.2GHz. The beast features two very loud fans which drive me nuts because they keep switching between two speeds all the time. I already tried downclocking but it made things even worse due to the fans going off only for 10 seconds or so.

So I'm looking to buy some SILENT cooling solution for this laptop; I realize there's not much space in a laptop to install bigger fans but I hope maybe someone here could point me to a more silent solution.

Many thanks,
Dan

get a desktop?

j/k

Perhaps the better approach may be to hunt around the mobo for a 7v or 5v supply and hardwire the fans to that so that they run permanently at 50% speed rather than pulsing in and out at 12v full speed...

This could be an expensive cooling mod if the notebook's not still in warranty. I would assume that Fujitsu chose the fan based upon thermal requirements and not just to piss you off. A better solution would be to find out the fan model used and look for a quieter alternative that moves same airflow.

I have an HP with a 2.8 P4, they run hotter than hell and the fans are stressed to keep up (the 7000 series)
the only way I'd change the fans is to have them at 100% and get used to it

"get a desktop?

j/k"

Don't use notebooks with desktop CPUS? The P-Ms run nice and cool; my Thinkpad T41P and now the new T42P are very very quiet.

I think I have the non-mobile CPU
??
- there are numerous mobo failures due to overheating
and I'm such a nerd I don't even know how to tell the difference (w/o taking it apart)

There are notebooks with regular Pentium 4 CPUs, with Pentium 4-mobile CPUs, and with Pentium-Mobile (P-M) CPUs. The P-Ms are usually bundled with a particular low voltage motherboard and wireless to give a "Centrino" system.

To determine your CPU in Windows XP, if you right click on My computer and go to properties then it'll show the type of CPU and amount of RAM. You might also have a sticker on the left part of notebook under your palm that tells what kind of CPU :)

They don't make a 2.8GHz P-M, and I don't recall them making a 2.8GHz P4-M either. So I'd guess it's a desktop chip. Can you underclock it? IBM has a power management setup that will let you adjust the speed of parts (CPU, hdd, GPU, cd-rom) when on battery vs. AC to extend battery life. If you can do that on your notebook then just throttle the CPU down and see if you even notice the difference. I never have on anything other than doing brief molecular simulations on planes. I'm not sure if notebooks with desktop CPUs can even do the speedstep or whatever it's called anyway...

My Toshiba centrino laptop is very quiet in operation, I'd really recommend the pentium-m chips if you want a lower noise laptop. They also tend to have better battery life and the speed is pretty good (it's about 70% as fast as my A64 desktop).

Yea I noticed a bigger difference with 7200 rpm notebook hdds than I have from the CPU speed upgrades. The i/o subsystem is the big bottleneck on notebooks I think.

it is a Pentium 4 @ 2.8; doubtless the desktop - which is why I have a 17" screen for $900
- I recall that there is a later 'drop-in'; but will the stock hsf still fit-up/work ?
(is not the CPU case height different ?)

Whatever happened to those water cooled laptops? Had some weird pump and the radiator was a flat plate that was the back of the LCD. Anyone else remember those?

eh--

http://www.lostcircuits.com/tradeshow/idf_2002/5.shtml


Well if you were really crafty you could try to re-invent it.

Disk and graphics kill them mainly. You have this powerful CPU and it can't do anything with the data it generates. ;)

ok, is there a 'later' dimensionally compatible cooler cpu that I can swap ?

Not usually, if it is already running the 2.8 then likely there is nothing you can do about it short of downgrading the CPU. You can get throttling programs that can slow the speed of the CPU when it isnt under load and can also slow the fan down when this happens. I had that on my C400 and it worked well. Not sure about the desktop chip, it can probably tune down the FSB though.

There's the problem.... You should have opted for a pentium-M instead of a nuclear furnace.

:p

Do you mostly use this as a "desktop replacement"? Is it usually in the same place? Can you put a hole in that desktop? If you can you can put a quiet(er) fan on the underside of the hole and use that to move air through the heatsink.
Failing that, there are notebook coolers that are essentially raised decks with fans in 'em (same idea only they're not really lots quieter than the notebook fan - and putting the keyboard up on a step like that is not good for your wrists (not that the standard notebook keyboard position is any good either - but this is worse).
There's a heat-pipe based notebook cooler that helps a bit - but I would guess that it wouldn't make much difference with a P4.

Use some compressed air to make sure there's no dust built up in the heat sink fins, and, if it were my laptop, I'd be removing the heatsink and re-installing it with the most efficient TIC I could find. Actually, no, were it my laptop I'd be selling it on ebay or trading it in or some such and limiting my choices to Centrino laptops for a replacement, but that's not a help this time round, is it? (sorry...)

There's a notebook forum at SPCR where a lot of this "which notebook is the quietest" gets discussed. Major reason why I looked for a Centrino this time (hadn't had a laptop for 10 years or more).

CPU downgrade
 

Hi again and thanks for all the answers. In the meantime i settled with using SpeedSwitch XP to downclock the CPU to around ~1890 MHZ but the noise is till the same. The only benefit is the fan speed doesn't vary any more so it's easier to get used to.

Anyway, this is far from satisfactory, and since the performance loss due to a lower CPU frequency doesn't seem that big compared to I/O performance differences (the laptop does have a 7200 rpm hard drive), I thought downgrading the CPU would be a good solution.

I e-mailed portableOne and they told me that there is an Intel Pentium @ 2.8GHz that would fit on the mobo. I'm wondering, is there an even slower CPU I could get? Or, more precisely, which of the CPUs that fit in the mobo socket generates the least heat?

And, pardon my illiteracy in this matter: would a Pentium M fit instead of the Intel Pentium 4 that the Fujitsu N6010 has right now on its SiS motherboard? It seems not, according to Intel's site (socket mPGA479M vs. mPGA478)...

Thanks again,
Dan

YOU DON"T WANT ANOTHER P4 YOU NEED A MOBILE PROCESSOR To LOWER THE HEAT GENERATION!

Yea the heat generation is actually 0W if you use a processor that isn't the same pinout as the motherboard.

I don't think "buy a new notebook" was what this fellow was looking for. I also would caution you against modifying the fan in the notebook; it wasn't chosen with only the CPU in mind but also the heat the 7200rpm hdd generates. Not sure which drive it is but I know the Hitachi one in my T41P and T42P both get pretty toasty. I had one fail in my T41P in fact although I can't for certain say it was heat.

Mobile Intel Pentium 4 CPUs
 

I did a little research into Mobile Intel Pentium 4 CPUs and found the list of mPGA478 CPUs which should fit on my motherboard's socket: http://processorfinder.intel.com/scr...+on+selections

My current CPU is the SL7DU at 3.2GHz and 1MB cache.

I also talked to Fujitsu tech support and they are willing to replace my CPU. Now I need to determine which of the compatible CPUs generates the lowest amount of heat. What factor in the tech specs should I look for? "Thermal guideline"? Or just judge by the lowest frequency?

Thanks,
Dan

Thermal guidline. If you are optimizing for heat only, go for the SL723 in that list which generates a maximum of 60W.

BTW, I have a Fujitsu N3010 and have exactly the same problem. It's loud. However, please consider that the amount of money you are spending may be counter productive. Look at it this way.

Laptops last about 2-5 years.

Assuming you are using the laptop for about 4 years, divide the cost of the laptop in 4. You paid maybe $1800 for it? That means you are essentially renting it for $450 per year. You've had it for a year? OK, it is now worth (at best) only 75% of it's original value: $1350.

Now, say you spend $600 to get the processor replaced (parts, shipping) to keep your current laptop for another 3 years. That's an extra $200 per year.

For $1000, you can get an entirely NEW laptop that will have equivalent computing power to that 2.4GHz P4 and have a laptop that lasts 5 years, will be much quieter.

Look into the Asus barebones laptops. You can get the chassis minus harddrive and OS and just transfer the Fujitsu hard drive into it. You might be able to transfer the memory too.

Here is one Asus system that would work better than the N6010: http://www.jncs.com/php/notebook/ind...?id=nb-as-z71v

You can google for others.