Heating on Keypad / Palmrest: What models are best?

[telemeister]

Having had a couple of notebooks (not IBM) which have gotten hot on the palm rests, I'm a bit paranoid about this issue. I'm wanting to buy a new thinkpad - and dont want one that gets uncomfortable when typing. I guess I'm looking at T42 T43 R52 - all would probably do the job - I'd be influenced if there is a significant difference in how hot they get on the palm rest/keyboard.

Where I live (Brisbane, Australia) it is difficult to try before you buy. Therefore I'd really appreciate some guidance from experienced users specifically on what to look out for.

The IBM sales rep said " You've nothing to worry aout - all IBMs are designed to run cool" but I'd prefer some input from actual users.

I would imagine that the following factors might be relevant - but dont really know!

form factor (e.g. will a t43 get hotter than a similarly spec'd R52)
Construction material (plastic vs metal)
Processor speed / disk speed / graphics processor
screen size

Greatly appreciate any advice on what to look out for / what models to avoid etc

[Navck]

R52 seems to keep cooler with 40GB harddrive vs my T43 with its 60GB harddrive (Both 5400 RPM, my friend owns R52)

Maybe its the thickness seperating the HD... But thats what I think

They generally run a bit "warm" (Lukewarm, nothing bad), unless you touch the IBM symbol on the T43 on a VERY hot day after defragmenting for several hours... Thats the only real method you can get some "hotish" feeling, nothing burning, just uncomfortable.

[ibm_phil]

i have a new T43p, with a 100GB/5400rpm drive and prev had the 60gb/7200rpm drive. i notice when copying files to an external or running processes all day using hardrive, that the hardrive area, right hand rest pad gets a bit hot, nothing bad, just warm. the amount of air blowing out of left hand side fan airflow gets very hot if processing, enough that if my mobile phone is about 20cm away direct on the left, it will get warm.

i have been using 8 hours straight today, mainly emailing and surfing web, the palm rest pads are not hot, air coming from side is warm. ive seen worse in other laptops, my Sony Vaio used to get much hotter and was much noiser.

Phil.

[nrj45]

once again i'm according to ibm_phil. I own nearly the same config as ibm_phil. (exept i have a 14'' 1.86GHz 1024 mb model). I also exchanged the hdd 7k60 -> toshiba 1032GAX 100gb 5400rpm 16mb cache. Depending on what you do, and how you configure your thinkpad, it can run cool or hot.
1st : will you downvolt your cpu ?
2nd : what kind of job are you planning to do on your tp ?

as i'm writing this :
- 800MHz at 0.700Vcore
- room 25°C
- fan middle-speed blowing quite a cold air
- cpu 41°C

But of course if you make some word processing/surfing/mailing with power manager set to max perf, it's possible that the left palmrest/touchpad will become a little bit hot.

Summary : a t43p right configured will not get hot.

[Vindicated]

My palm rest has never been an issue, even before I undervolted. The only part that bugs me is the exhaust fan's warm air. I have a habbit of resting my left hand on the side of the laptop and the warm air gets annoying. Undervolting helped this out a little bit, but really theres not much to do about it - its supposed to be blowing warm air, that's how you know the fan & heatink are working right.

Also the laptop does get a little warm on my lap; not hot though - big difference. On most laptops its down right uncomfortable (if not unbearable) for the laptop to be on your lap for an extended period of time. I've gone 4 hours with the thinkpad on my lap and I'm pretty sure I can still have kids. My lap just gets a little sweaty so for extra comfort I use a Targus LapDesk -- I plan to buy the lapinator, I want to see if that works better as the Targus one feels pretty cheap.

[beerak]

If you want cool palm rest then never buy X series. When I am running it for longer time it is like a roaster. But T series is quite cool

[telemeister]

Depending on what you do, and how you configure your thinkpad, it can run cool or hot.
1st : will you downvolt your cpu ?
2nd : what kind of job are you planning to do on your tp ?

Thnx very much for that useful feedback guys - from what you're saying it sounds like heating might be less of an issue with the IBMs than with some other brands.

In answer to nrj45's queries

>1st : will you downvolt your cpu ?

Will be dual booting the machiine, but mainly running in linux. I need to do some research to see if downvolting is viable under linux...

>2nd : what kind of job are you planning to do on your tp ?

Programming (Python + c),
Occassional scientific data processing to test code - slightly CPU intensive
Office apps and web browsing.

[pphilipko]

If you want cool palm rest then never buy X series. When I am running it for longer time it is like a roaster. But T series is quite cool

hmmm...my X40 always runs cool!

[nrj45]

>1st : will you downvolt your cpu ?

Will be dual booting the machiine, but mainly running in linux. I need to do some research to see if downvolting is viable under linux...

I'm also searching a tool for that. I didn't find any tool like CHC, but i heard that powernowd (linux powernow daemon) can be configured for that. So i will take the voltage scheme i applied under CHC and put it in the configuration file of powernowd.
BTW CHC is downloadable under www.pbus-167.com.

[beerak]

If you want cool palm rest then never buy X series. When I am running it for longer time it is like a roaster. But T series is quite cool

hmmm...my X40 always runs cool!

Your X40 is curious Or in Vancouver is not 30-35 C temperature in summer