What is in a new, 200-dollar laptop?

[ertyu]

Because my macbook has been unreliable lately, I purchased the most basic new machine I could find. The goal was for it to serve as a type-writer, a ppt projection station, and a youtube-watching terminal, and to last me 1-2 years. Behold, for shits and giggles:

256G Drive behind a screw-on pannel (I'm assuming the machines are produced without and a drive is screwed in before shipping).



What prompted me to open it other than curiosity was how hot it got to the touch. After the back lid came off, the temperature of the bottom lid did not come as a surprise.



No fan in sight. A square of thermal ... something, stuck to a metallic-lookng sticker on the bottom lid, falls into the depression on the metal plate on top of the ... motherboard? That's a motherboard, right? Heat is thus conducted out through the aluminum bottom lid. Also, would the coppery-looking plate be the heat sink in this case?



Also not a surprise: this machine is not to be used without headphones. The external sound is extremely weak and of poor quality. As could probably be deduced by the "loudspeakers" on both sides.

On headphones, it works well enough to play podcasts and Lofi Girl. I also assume I will not be gaming anything more intense than minesweeper on it - which isn't a problem as I am not much of a gamer.

Place your bets: how long will this machine stay operational? Care and maintenance advice also accepted, especially when it comes to easy ways I can improve cooling.

[prudentelo]

Ive noticed the cheap laptops live much sorted lives, increasing real annual ownership cost

But not good statistics on this. Hard to make purchasing decision. Last Macbook [employer bought] is solid after 5 years but cost 10x this.


Software bloat also means upgrades needed to run OS etc. over time even though functionality is same or even drops

[Jean]

I once survived a Lan with an old laptop, by placing the laptop on a huge aluminum plate, and placing a pot of snow on the plate next to the laptop.
Maybe this trick will serve you this winter.

[rref]

If the bottom is aluminium you could try to improve heat dissipation by increasing the area of contact between the copper heat sink and the bottom using metal, thermal paste, and thermal pads.

[ertyu]

shall do, thanks

when you say "metal" would balled-up cooking aluminium foil do

[rref]

I guess. This is bodging territory. Balled-up aluminium foil could contain air pockets which would isolate instead of conduct heat.

Second problem to be ware of is that anything that conducts heat also conducts electricity, so be careful not to inadvertently short components on the motherboard or putting pressure on the copper heat sink and turning it into one big short.

Jean's solution with an external laptop cooler (using a USB fan instead of snow) seems a lot safer the more I think about it.

[jacob]

Also attaching a heatsink to the current heatsink might cause a thermal differential across the CPU which could be bad.

Best idea I have is to find a util that actually gives you the CPU temperature and then shut down intensive apps when it gets too hot. With a fan, you can usually hear it.

[zbigi]

Also attaching a heatsink to the current heatsink might cause a thermal differential across the CPU which could be bad.

Best idea I have is to find a util that actually gives you the CPU temperature and then shut down intensive apps when it gets too hot. With a fan, you can usually hear it.

Normal laptops are designed for that and just downclock the CPU until it cools down. I'd guess it's standard enough to be implemented even in $200 laptops, as otherwise they'd just overheat and start crashing.

[ertyu]

I kind of automatically do that by touch-testing the bottom lid

Thanks for the advice everyone, i won't mess with it for now