Topic: MysterD's New Gaming Laptop

[MysterD]

So, last weekend I actually went and bought a new gaming laptop - ever since buying a cheap laptop a few years back (to see if I'd like laptops - and I wound up digging it obviously, BTW), I been wanting to do this. No laptop in terms of price + power can even remotely close these days, from when looking for deals online + at retail...as I felt like I was sacrificing something. This rig, no sacrifice to me what-so-ever. It was formerly $1500, but was on sale for $810 (before tax) at Microcenter. I've mentioned it a few times here in posts, but never unleashed the specs.

So, here ya go...the specs.

Acer Aspire V15 Nitro (VN7-591G-79YZ):
Intel i7 4720HQ @ 2.6 Ghz (4th Gen. Haswell)
Windows 10 64-bit**
16 GB DDR3 RAM
4GB VRAM GeForce GTX 960M
15.6'' 4K Ultra HD Screen
Seagate 2TB HDD 5400RPM
Bluetooth 4.0.

Additional Purchases / Connections:
23'' HP 2311x 1080p TN-panel monitor.
Cooler Master Cooling Pad.
External LG DVD Burner Drive.
Orico 6619 USB3.0 SATA 2.5'' / 3.5'' Hard-Drive Docking Station.

** = This PC actually came equipped with Windows 8.1 64-bit out-the-box. Naturally, since I was starting from scratch here + I just am not the biggest fan of Win 8.1, I moved it right over to W10. I liked W10 when I used it on my weak laptop...and it's certainly just fine & dandy to have on this gaming laptop.

I'm totally digging it. This is going to be great, when I go mobile and whatnot. Most games I toss at it, 900p-1080p at Medium settings or above with 30FPS+. I've thrown WWE 2K15, Fallout 4, Diablo 2, and Borderlands 2 at it. Not much to really complain about there.

Sure, it can get ultra-hot (80-96 degrees Celsius) if I run it at full blast for performance - but, balanced settings seems to be the right happy medium (somewhere often b/t 50-70 degrees Celsius). Sure, it ain't my desktop it terms of performance with tossing games at 1080p w/ High-Ultra - but, never expected that anyways. And this laptop looks like it'll get the job done, for when I'm on the go somewhere and I have that urge to want to play some games.

[Quemaqua]

Be very careful with heat. I had a desktop replacement for a short while, just because I didn't want to do a full PC upgrade and I also needed a laptop, so I figured why not ... and it from a respected company but still literally burnt a hole into the motherboard. Look into aftermarket cooling solutions if you want it to survive for very long.

[MysterD]

I just got a cheap Cooler Master cooling pad (under $20 on NewEgg - it was on sale for $15, then a $5 mail-in rebate) has been keeping the heat down a bit more - to more normal numbers (i.e. 50-70 degrees Celsius) when running a game at balanced mode w/ the laptop. That kind of degrees is pretty much where my desktop runs at, when that's at full blast.

A mixture of Cooling Pad & a 2nd fan that I just place behind the laptop (on an angle) has been keeping heat down when doing balanced mode.

Thanks for the advice, Que. Much appreciated.
Also, any more additional ideas would be great too, if anyone's got them.

EDIT:
Do you have a cooling pad, Que? If yes - what do you use to keep some heat down?

Que, BTW - what brand did you have for a laptop, if you don't mind me asking?

[Quemaqua]

I honestly can't even remember the name of the company, sorry. It was quite a while ago. I did have a cooling pad, but again, it was a while ago, so I don't know what the difference was between that and anything else.

[MysterD]

So, I recently bought an Orico 6619 USB 3.0-based SATA 2.5'' / 3.5'' Hard Drive Docking Station. Arrived yesterday and tested it out. Connected it right to my gaming laptop; threw in an old Seagate HDD 150GB 7200rpm from an older PC for a testbed (since I'm still waiting for a new 2TB Toshiba HDD to show up); threw Fallout 4 PC on the Seagate; and checked my performance out and heat levels.

Holy crap. Heat levels inside my PC went way the hell down.

Inside of on balanced of getting around 80-96 degrees Celsius (on balanced power mode) or so inside the laptop, so this basically cut it down to the 50-70's arena at 900p with a solid 30FPS cap at Medium. This is a MASSIVE improvement on the heat levels and on the in-game performance. Dock seems be taking some of the heat, as expected, but not a hell of a lot - I'm gonna have to see how this runs at 1080p at Medium.

EDIT:
With FO4, the laptop seems to be around 80-90 degrees Celsius on CPU, at 1080p at Medium with a solid 30FPS cap. Might be just better off at 900p to keep the heat down on the CPU.

EDIT 2 - May 7th, 2016:
Even better, I've found that within Windows 10 for laptops in Power Management section, I can limit the amount of performance from the CPU and other things. Only really needed to limit the CPU, as taking it down to 80% or even 85% really took down the heat levels to even lower numbers for Celsius degrees. Now, it's in 60's to 70's.

[MysterD]

Connected my HP 2311x 1080p monitor (which was over on my desktop before) over to this laptop.