I found something interesting in my friends laptop

[Jmi20]

My friend brought me his laptop asking me to reinstall windows 10. He said he was experiencing massive slowdown.

The laptop is an Asus with a Pentium N4200 CPU. It has an SSD, and I don’t think SSDs slow down as they fill up. So I assumed that the system was overheating.

I ran the system stability test of Aida64 and temps spiked to 90c in the first 10 seconds, confirming my assumptions.

So I took the top cover off, and hey the fan is right in the middle and it’s a big one! Its all clogged up with dust too. So I took it off, and I took the motherboard off to clean the fins of the heatsink:

Wait, wheres the heatsink? That is the heatsink?? It’s smaller than the MacBook Air’s heatsink! Its the smallest one I’ve ever seen!

I took the heat sink off and put it in my palm:

And here it is next to the fan:

The fan is still a bit dirty in this pic, but I already brushed off a large chunk of the dirt. I only started taking pics when I saw that “heatsink”.

No wonder it was overheating, it has virtually no cooling system... I mean, is the fan even doing any good for the “heatsink”? Maybe I should just remove it all together. Its getting noisy anyways.

After further cleaning and reassembling the system, I ran Aida64 again and the CPU was able to maintain a temp of 72c for 10 minutes. No more throttling.

Im not very updated in the goings on in the industry, is this the general trend these days?
Im curious now, and want to open up my new Vivobook S14 with a Ryzen 5 to see what its cooling system looks like. But I don’t want to void my warranty.

 

[Colif]

and I don’t think SSDs slow down as they fill up.

They do actually. Though it depends how full you make them, its always best to have at least 10% empty

It doesn't need a fan

Similar to the predecessor, Intel specifies the TDP with 6 Watts (SDP 4 Watts – Scenario Design Power). The chip can therefore be cooled passively in theory, but SKUs with fans are possible as well.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Pentium-N4200-Notebook-Processor.182736.0.html

 

[Jmi20]

They do actually. Though it depends how full you make them, its always best to have at least 10% empty

It doesn't need a fan

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Pentium-N4200-Notebook-Processor.182736.0.html

I see, I never knew that. The ssd wasn’t filled, only about 100gb was used out of 500. I used the optimize drive app of windows (trim) for good measure.

Is that so? I wonder why they even put a fan in the first place then. Gonna try to see if it would overheat without the fan...
If it doesn’t overheat then I guess it would actually be better for the system if I unplug it, less dust, noise, and a bit less power consumption maybe.

 

[King_V]

Is that so? I wonder why they even put a fan in the first place then. Gonna try to see if it would overheat without the fan...
If it doesn’t overheat then I guess it would actually be better for the system if I unplug it, less dust, noise, and a bit less power consumption maybe.

Note that it was said that it could be passively cooled "in theory" - if Asus spent the extra few dollars/pennies to put on that cheap heatsink and fan, then they figured even that small amount of heat would need to be removed from the system. Otherwise, that heat just sits there and builds up. I would strongly recommend AGAINST going fanless on that.

 

[Jmi20]

Note that it was said that it could be passively cooled "in theory" - if Asus spent the extra few dollars/pennies to put on that cheap heatsink and fan, then they figured even that small amount of heat would need to be removed from the system. Otherwise, that heat just sits there and builds up. I would strongly recommend AGAINST going fanless on that.

I understand, thanks. I unplugged the fan for a while just to test, the temps reached 69c at idle, compared to 45 with the fan on. Didn’t load it up though.

Perhaps if the heatsink were better it might work out.

Might just buy a new fan, its not that expensive anyway...

 

[King_V]

Perhaps if the heatsink were better it might work out.

Possibly... but Asus clearly did not want warranty claims. Plus, the laptop case is basically like an almost completely enclosed oven. With no fan to force the warmer air out, it just sits there in the case, building up.

 

[Colif]

The fan is there to give the heat an indication of which way to get out of case, as otherwise it doesn't go anywhere. If it was in a normal PC it would likely get enough airflow just from the intake fans, but as laptops don't include those, the fan was added.

It is actually better than many Apples as at least the fan is closer to the heatsink than in some of theirs, some Apples put heatsink and fan in 2 different parts and supposedly attach them by heat pipes, or maybe not.

 

[Jmi20]

The fan is there to give the heat an indication of which way to get out of case, as otherwise it doesn't go anywhere. If it was in a normal PC it would likely get enough airflow just from the intake fans, but as laptops don't include those, the fan was added.

It is actually better than many Apples as at least the fan is closer to the heatsink than in some of theirs, some Apples put heatsink and fan in 2 different parts and supposedly attach them by heat pipes, or maybe not.

Yeah, the fan of the MacBook air doesn’t even blow air through the heatsink.

My only complaint about the MacBook is that the underside gets quite warm, mainly because its made of metal.

My Asus Vivobook seems to also be made out of metal, but doesn’t really get that warm. Must be due to the 7nm process of the Ryzen compared to the macs 14, but I digress.

Just ordered a new fan for this poor pentium. Better to not deviate from its stock config.