@ legion: Do you game with the notebook closed? If so, how's the heat in that situation? I've just picked up a M1710 and this is one of the things I am considering doing with my extenral monitor and it looks like this may be what you are doing.

I have no problem with my laptop closed for gaming.

a recent photograph

Thanks meta! Helpful to have some of my hopes/assumptions confirmed. I'll add a pic once everything is set-up.

Of course my desk is not normally that messy; I specifically made it look worse to help everyone else's self-esteem.

Oh, I thought it was so full on account of how busy and full your day is The games, I assumed, were also not for 'fun' but a metric of reality that was and may be ...

Yes, I am v. busy and important.

@ legion: Do you game with the notebook closed? If so, how's the heat in that situation? I've just picked up a M1710 and this is one of the things I am considering doing with my extenral monitor and it looks like this may be what you are doing.

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As meta said, there shouldn't be a problem gaming with your laptop lid closed. And more specifically, since my XPS is the same M1710 model as yours (won via a Dell / Fox / X-Men contest, woo!), I can confirm that I've never had any issues using it with the lid closed (as long as you don't have windows set to power down or anything upon closure, of course ). The main heat vents are on the back / sides of the unit anyway, so while some heat bleeds through the keyboard (especially while gaming), having the lid shut doesn't really limit airflow that much.

This just occurred to me - no adverse effects to the LCD from heat coming up through the kb?

This just occurred to me - no adverse effects to the LCD from heat coming up through the kb?

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Hmmm, that's an interesting point. I've had no ill effects so far, but the potential for screen damage from heat might be something worth looking into. The 7800 does produce a lot of heat, after all, but I'd think the laptop would overheat causing a lock-up / shutdown well before LCD damage would become an issue.

 

So, all in all, I still feel safe saying you're unlikely to have any short term ill-effects, but when it comes to long term, cumulative damage... *shrugs* ...can't really say. I hope not though, since I still plan on using my laptop with the lid shut.

 

Edit: And as a note, I don't actually have the laptop hooked up to my main LCD anymore, since I rarely use it for gaming. I simply set tasks up (start encoding or listening to music, burning a disc, etc), close the lid and let it do its thing. I can't remember if I've ever actually run an external display with the lid shut, in fact. I just assumed that since the laptop doesn't go into sleep mode and keeps working, the external display would keep working too, but now that I think about it, I'm not so sure. Testing must be done, says I.

Thanks for the response legion. It'll be interesting to also here from meta on this. I do not plan on hooking up to my external except for gaming, but when I do it would be good to know if the heat will be an issue. I may call XPS support to know their thoughts, as I have heard they definitely know the system.

This just occurred to me - no adverse effects to the LCD from heat coming up through the kb?

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Just move the LCD away from the convection plume of the laptop if you are concerned. (I am not.)

No I meant the notebook's LCD meta - not the external one.

I have never heard of any issues related to laptop heat and their LCDs.