ViciousXUSMC's Ultimate G73JH Review

ViciousXUSMC · 02-18-2010, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim4

@ViciousXUSMC Have you figured out about air coming into laptop cooling system? Is it sucked from upside or from bottom. If it is sucked from upside then there is no external cooler to cool it down. But if it sucked from bottom it's another deal. Very interested in that.

Nope nobody has it figured out 100% yet. I think the only way to know is to take apart the unit and I am not going to do that until I have a reason to (cpu upgrade) so you guys donate me a Intel 920XM CPU and I will be sure to take step by step pictures of the install and find out where the cooling system is pulling air from

I tried to find out via simple testing like tissue paper over the vents on the bottom or the keyboard at top while things were revved up under load but there was not enough vacuum for me to determine where the air was going in. It very well could be a balance, some of it from the keyboard, some from the bottom, and some from under/behind the lid area.

Better yet I can do video now, I ordered a Creative Vado HD camcorder the other day, nothing fancy but it should handle doing simple video reviews pretty well.

ziddy123 · 02-18-2010, 07:31 AM

I did a smoke test and confirmed the air intake is behind the lid. So the smoke goes below the space between lid and top cover and into the back. In the back are two slits on the left and right side. The smoke test confirmed for both sides. So yes it's being sucked in from the top. The lid is designed that if you close it down, the back of the lid will cover up the intake, so don't close the lid.

Why no one seems to believe what I'm typing is a little odd to me. Do it yourself. You can easily feel the air being taken in with your fingers.

JUST DO THE SMOKE TEST FOR YOURSELF.

Slide a piece of paper under the lid and into the back and you can feel where the vents are...

Mandrake · 02-18-2010, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim4

@ViciousXUSMC Have you figured out about air coming into laptop cooling system? Is it sucked from upside or from bottom. If it is sucked from upside then there is no external cooler to cool it down. But if it sucked from bottom it's another deal. Very interested in that.

Even if it does suck air from the top (I have seen no evidence of this myself), if you open the compartment door on the bottom you can see how the GPU sticks out right next to the memory modules. Next to them going towards the back is the CPU. You can use a notebook cooler to bring in air from the bottom and cool the important components.

Mandrake · 02-18-2010, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziddy123

I did a smoke test and confirmed the air intake is behind the lid. So the smoke goes below the space between lid and top cover and into the back. In the back are two slits on the left and right side. The smoke test confirmed for both sides.

Why no one seems to believe what I'm typing is a little odd to me. Do it yourself. You can even feel the air being taken in with your fingers.

Slide a piece of paper under the lid and into the back and you can feel where the vents are...

I'm only against this theory because I've opened it up to see how it worked. If it is in fact sucking in air from where you say it is then that air is going directly into the fans and back out the system. It would not be enough to even cool off the copper pipes next to the fan.

Tim4 · 02-18-2010, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mandrake

I'm only against this theory because I've opened it up to see how it worked. If it is in fact sucking in air from where you say it is then that air is going directly into the fans and back out the system. It would not be enough to even cool off the copper pipes next to the fan.

That's also confusing me.

@ziddy123 It's not that no one belive you. It's human nature to be suspecious.

ziddy123 · 02-18-2010, 08:11 AM

Oh well, but that's where it is. You can do the smoke test also and see for yourself the air being sucked under the lid. It isn't much but that's where it is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mandrake

I'm only against this theory because I've opened it up to see how it worked. If it is in fact sucking in air from where you say it is then that air is going directly into the fans and back out the system. It would not be enough to even cool off the copper pipes next to the fan.

Mandrake · 02-18-2010, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziddy123

Oh well, but that's where it is. You can do the smoke test also and see for yourself the air being sucked under the lid. It isn't much but that's where it is.

Did you try from underneath?

0100 1010 0101 0011 · 02-18-2010, 08:36 AM

I tried the tissue trick from the top and the bottom. What I did was started running Crysis in DX10. After about 10 minutes of getting my butt kicked on the beach, I turned the laptop on it's left side. This gave me access to the front and back at the same time. I can verify that air was being drawn in from the top. I held the tissue parallel to the keyboard and slowly brought it closer until I could tell that the tissue was being pulled towards the laptop.

However, I did the same test to the bottom, and the suction from the bay door was enough to hold the tissue in place. In other words, I covered the slits in the bay door with the tissue, and let go of the tissue. The tissue stuck right were it was, and did not fall to the table.

I think it's safe to assume that the fans are drawing air in from wherever they can. Perhaps the most air is coming from the bay door on the underside, but there is additional air being drawn into the system. There may not be direct channels where air is being pulled in on top, but then, you wouldn't want such a closed-off system anyways, because the additional heat from the other components needs to be pulled into the fans too. I think the cooling system is great, but a cooler with a single centralized fan pushing air into the bottom will bring temps down another 5C, based on tests done by Vic or Mandrake (forgot who did that test).

mindinversion · 02-18-2010, 09:10 AM

174 watt draw with everything maxed. . I'd be interested to see if it was drawing power from the battery to compensate. Might be worth a look.

And just a thought. . . . drag a piece of paper over over the top of the unit during a heavy benchmark? the suction SHOULD draw the paper like a magnet. Can't say for sure atm, since my X1 won't be here until sometime this afternoon.

evensen007 · 02-18-2010, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doogie

New G73JH-A1 owner (preorder). I'm fairly unfamiliar with how these benchmarks are calculated but would the 7fps you gained on the average framerate after overclocking be slightly exaggerated due to the 1fps you had briefly while loading into another area in the first benchmark? I'm asking only because I'm not sure whether to overclock or not, but if you can realistically expect the 15% increase in in-game performance that you got it might be worth it.

It really depends on the game, and yes you are right. The number is exaggerated because of the 1fps it clocked when I transitioned.

Don't forget, that bench was done with AA on max, which I find completely unnecessary at this kind of resolution. My frames would be up 15-20 fps with AA off.

45 fps with AA on is VERY playable. I will run another fraps average and make sure I don't load into an area, that way we can have a more accurate picture of what the overclock gets you. To be honest, that overclock is so rock stable that I set it every time I boot the machine. In ~ 3 weeks when the 10.3 ati driver comes out, we won't have to reset the overclock every reboot. CCC will save it for us.

That same overclock only yields me about 4 fps in BattleField Bad Company 2, but if it's stable and the temps are good why not?