So while laptop covers and cases may serve their purpose in decorating and protecting surfaces, its good to be aware of the disadvantages so that a user can determine what best serves their needs. Using laptop covers can also negatively impact cooling performance as the covers are typically made of insulating materials that will prevent heat from escaping. Running the laptop with the screen closed in clamshell mode can trap heat, resulting in a greater need for supplemental cooling. This means that the aluminum enclosure is an important component in the laptop’s built-in cooling system, with it playing a more significant role as the laptop size increases.įor the most effective enclosure cooling, the enclosure should be open and exposed to cooling airflow, or should be connected to an external heatsink to pull heat away from the laptop. Using aluminum for the enclosure also allows it to act as a heatsink, absorbing heat from internal heat generating components through direct physical contact (conduction), heat waves (radiation) and hot air (convection).
This helps create a structure that is light, strong and rigid, as well as creating a durable and beautifully finished surface. Using metal instead of plastic allows the enclosure to act as the device’s structure onto which mechanical and electronic components mount.
The first production Mac laptop with a metal enclosure was released in 2001, and by 2006 all Mac laptops began to use an anodized aluminum metal enclosure. These cooling systems consists of the following components that will be reviewed in greater detail in subsequent sections: 1) an external aluminum enclosure heatsink, and 2) an air cooling system that includes one or more processor heatsink, heat pipe, heat radiator fan, cool air intake vent and hot air exhaust vent. The computer’s internal power supply and batteries can also generate significant heat when being charged or when being rapidly discharged.Īpple laptops, as with most laptops, use a built-in cooling system to remove internal heat.
While processors (CPUs and GPUs) are the primary heat generating components within a laptop, essentially all electrical components generate some heat. If not already familiar with throttling, then you can learn more on the Throttling page. Throttling helps to protect hardware, but it also has the undesirable result of slowing performance. However, when the cooling system is not sufficiently sized, as is often the case for laptops and compact desktops, then processing power is throttled.
To avoid frying the computer, a built-in cooling system attempts to remove a portion of the heat that could cause hardware damage. Processors generate so much heat that temperatures can rise to the point of causing errors, reducing hardware durability and can even leading to immediate hardware failure. The more work they do, the more power they pull, and the more power that goes through the system, then the more heat is created.
Laptop Cooling System Fundamentals Heat GenerationĬomputers generate work through processors. Use this page to help you learn about your laptop’s built-in cooling system and to select the SVALT product model most optimized for you laptop model from the following list:
SVALT product design begins with an understanding of how a laptop’s built-in cooling system works, and then researching how to help optimize the laptop’s cooling system while adding supplemental cooling to increase the laptop’s total cooling capacity, reduce heat degradation, and boost performance potential.