Folding Forum

I am considering purchasing a budget laptop with a P8700 dual core processor, and was wondering if it would get too hot running Gromacs on a steady basis?

Does anyone have any experience with this? (I have always used a desktop to run FAH.)

As with all laptops, they need frequent cleaning and need to be on a surface that doesn't restrict airflow. As for getting too hot, that would be dependent on the model you get. I'm sure the fan will kick into overdrive if you fold on it on every core. Other than the noise, again depending on the model, it should be able to handle the heat. As for cost, reliability, and computational power--laptops generally sacrifice in those areas in favor of compactness and portability. They have their place and if that's what you need to use then it should be fine. It would not be a first choice for 24/7 folding if that's it's only purpose.

PennyPincherP wrote:As with all laptops, they need frequent cleaning and need to be on a surface that doesn't restrict airflow. As for getting too hot, that would be dependent on the model you get. I'm sure the fan will kick into overdrive if you fold on it on every core. Other than the noise, again depending on the model, it should be able to handle the heat. As for cost, reliability, and computational power--laptops generally sacrifice in those areas in favor of compactness and portability. They have their place and if that's what you need to use then it should be fine. It would not be a first choice for 24/7 folding if that's it's only purpose.

Thank you!

If you have a chance to purchase a higher wattage power adapter I'd do it. I was folding on a low end Dell for awhile. The power supply could not keep up with the fans and 100% cpu without the battery starting to run down. Every week or so I'd have to shut down folding for a few hours to get the battery charged back up.
I also have a Thinkpad T61 which folds very nicely without that problem. Core temps generally are higher than I'd like (mid 70's c) but that's why I bought the 3 year warranty.

Remember that max allowable core temps for laptop CPUs are significantly higher -- on the order of 100C vs 70C.

My IBM T42 has been Folding almost constantly (except when in the travel bag) for 4+ years, and my T500 since I bought it last Feb. The T500 core temps average around 65.

jrweiss wrote:Remember that max allowable core temps for laptop CPUs are significantly higher -- on the order of 100C vs 70C.

Thanks, that is good to know. I actually decided to upgrade because the promotional deals were so good, so I purchased an HP Pavilion dv6t Quad, which has an i7-720QM processor, so that should be able to perform well hopefully without consuming large amounts of power!

HP ... I usually don't like their laptops ... large, heavy, and not so well cooled

P.S : my very old Compaq Presario 2805 (P4-m 1.4 GHz) has been folding since the day I bought it (7 or 8 years ago) ... I didn't have any problem with it (I regularly blow dust out of the air vents), and it's still working fine (this message has been posted with it ).

Some Nvidia Geforce 8400M chips had overheating and failure issues. Nvidia had to pay considerable amount of money to many computer companies. My own Dell XPS 1330 was in warranty and MB was changed. So, there might be a risk, if you got 8400 Geforce.

Jaak

My Dell Vostro 1500 runs 2 x uniprocessors clients and does just fine.
I upgraded the CPU from a T5270 Core 2 Duo @ 1.4Ghz to a T9300 Core 2 Duo @ 2.5Ghz
The faster CPU does make the laptop run a little hotter under load.

I use a Zalman Laptop cooler while running Folding@Home and my temps at 100% CPU load are 55C.
Here is a link to the product I use: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834998686
(Note they have one for 14/15 inch laptops and one for 15/17 inch laptops)

Totow suggestion to clean the heatsink out is a solid one.
I dissemble my laptop approx every 8 months to remove the dust that can hinder airflow in the fan/heatsink.
I also replaced the stock TIM with higher quality Arctic Silver and it also lowered temp by 5-7C.

Jaak is alos correct that the nVidia 8400m/8600m did have some issue and can fail under certain conditions.
I do not use my GPU 8400m for folding but I have had no issue to date with it.

@EvilAlchemist: I'm folding on a T9300-laptop too ! Linux-SMP in a VMware Workstation VM, running on WinXP => ~1900 PPD . Beat that with two uniprocessor clients

I have 3 Dual Core laptops folding 24x7 for almost 2 years. I set the CPU usage to 80% on all of them and that prevents them from overheating. Getting on for 8,000 units between them so they've been very productive. I do have a 4th Dual Core Laptop but this started to get annoyingly noisy when folding, even at 80%.

Ppete

I have a hp 6715b amd turion 64 x2 that runs 100% 24/7. It has very high temps. The cpu is like 113C. I tried looking at the fan speeds but I could not see them. I do have a problem with unpluging my computer it shuts off. Then when I trun it on it just has a blank screen. After like 15 minutes it cools down and I restart in to windows. It only does this and turn off when I unplug it when its very hot.

My Asus with a T6400 stays around 70C with both cores @ 100% and also folding on the GT120M GPU.

Watch the temps. Place it where it can get more airflow. Lift it off the table an inch. Blow it out often.

uncle fuzzy wrote:.... Place it where it can get more airflow. Lift it off the table an inch. Blow it out often.

I had not thought of that, good idea! Much as a pie just out of the oven needs to be placed upon a pie stand, perhaps FAH could sell a raised laptop cooling stand!

rbpeake wrote: I had not thought of that, good idea! Much as a pie just out of the oven needs to be placed upon a pie stand, perhaps FAH could sell a raised laptop cooling stand!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product