[H-GEN] Dell notebooks, a lap warming experience.

[Christopher LeMoyne]

Sandra Mansell wrote:
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> Simon Ellis wrote:
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>> Hi Folks.
>>
>> While people call them laptops, and the manufacturers insist they are
>> notebooks and not meant to be placed on your lap, these particular Dell
>> models will do more than warm your lap.
>
> I recently purchased a Dell laptop and I would NEVER run ANY model of 
> laptop on my lap. I don't even let it run directly on my bed. I use a 
> stable table instead, as I'm rather paranoid about airflow.
>
> Anyone who thinks 'laptop' means "I can run this while it's sitting on 
> my lap" needs their head examined.
>
> Sandra.
Hi Sandra,

I run my Twinhead R15B in my lap twice a day on the train, 45 mins each 
way, total of 1.5 hours every weekday.

It's an older laptop (about 2 years old now), but was an excellent 
purchase for the time.
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/review.aspx?CIaRID=2357

Occasionally, when I'm running more than 4 VM's in VMware and pushing 
the hard drive and CPU fairly hard, it gets a little warm, but never 
uncomfortable.  I also occasionally run Ubuntu on the train for a week 
or two when Windows XP craps up on me and I haven't gotten around to 
restoring from a Ghost image yet, and Ubuntu never comes close to 
overheating either.

If I could not do the above, I would not use a laptop.  The sole purpose 
and advantage of a laptop for me is the ability to study on the train.

That said, I would never buy a Dell Inspiron laptop (ie, consumer 
line).  Dell Latitudes (ie, business line) are several factors of 
quality better than Inspirons, but there are many other brands I would 
buy instead.

My honest belief with regards to severe heat problems is that is most 
often due to the use of plastic casing.  The magnesium-aluminium casing 
on my Twinhead radiates the heat like a giant heatsink, rather than 
allowing the heat to build up further or even reflecting it back into 
the case.  Plastic acts like an insulator rather than a conductor of 
heat.  Another contributing factor is poor battery design.  Just ask a 
user of one particular model of the Apple G4 PowerBook.
http://www.crn.com.au/story.aspx?CIID=19428

Regards,
Christopher