Pluripotent Laptop for College Multithreading

[jvang]

Originally Posted by S485122

A lot of laptops with recent processors have their fans much too noisy.

Disabling the turbo mode in BIOS reverts them to a polite noise.

Jacob

This Intel Exteme Tuning Utility is pretty cool. I've set it up to change the maximum power draw based on what I'm running. The default TDP is 45 watts, so for normal web browsing and other non-intensive tasks, I've set the power draw to no more than 15 to 20 watts, and for games it can only use 35. It's helped quite a bit, and I can't tell much of a performance difference

[masser]

Originally Posted by jvang

So a couple of days ago I ordered a cooling pad (the brand is Havit? never heard of them, but they're the highest rated cooling pad maker on Amazon ) that will help with air flow,

I don't expect the cooling pad to make a huge difference. It's just a more streamlined solution for the sticky note pads that I've propped the back of the laptop up on, which have helped a little bit.

There are laptop stands with fans built into them that will run off of a laptop usb port. It might be a nice addition in a dorm room. A laptop stand might do a better cooling job than the cooling pad and provide better ergonomics.

[jvang]

Originally Posted by masser

There are laptop stands with fans built into them that will run off of a laptop usb port. It might be a nice addition in a dorm room. A laptop stand might do a better cooling job than the cooling pad and provide better ergonomics.

Everything you said describes this "cooling pad." It props the laptop off the desk by about an inch, has 3 fans blowing air across the bottom, and is powered by a USB port on my laptop. Combining this with the Intel utility has helped with temperatures, though the laptop fans are still on full blast under heavy load. Good thing I wear headphones!