Noise and Heat

Noise

Noise isn’t much of an issue on the A7J. Even when completely loaded, the fan is pretty quiet and produces a quiet blowing sound, and the keys make soft clicks when pressed so they won’t disturb anyone around you. There is a bit of tactile feedback on the keys, so it’s not completely “mushy”.

Unlike other DVD drives I have used, the optical drive on the A7J is very quiet even during spin-up – you can hear it activate, but it doesn’t reverberate like the models on the Compaq V2410 and W5F.

Temperature

Using a CompuNurse Advanced thermal probe, we measure temperatures around the laptop to give you an idea of the heat distribution. For measuring the exhaust temperatures, we place the probe inside the exhaust grill and take a reading. We load up the laptop for 20 minutes, then take the maximum temperature sampled during a 1 minute reading at each location.

Laptop Temperature Readings

Location

Asus A7J

Asus W5F

Compaq
V2410

Exhaust

119.9 F
48.8 C

115.5 F
46.4 C

108.7 F
42.6 C

Left Wrist

77.9 F
25.5 C

71.6 F
22.0 C

86.0 F
30.0 C

Right Wrist

73.9 F
23.3 C

77.9 F
25.5 C

81.9 F
27.7 C

Touch Pad

83.9 F
28.8 C

78.9 F
26.1 C

91.9 F
33.3 C

Center Keyboard

84.6 F
29.2 C

80.9 F
27.2 C

82.9 F
28.3 C

Bottom Left

84.9 F
29.4 C

77.9 F
25.5 C

89.8 F
32.1 C

Bottom Right

84.9 F
29.4 C

78.9 F
26.1 C

80.8 F
27.1 C

Battery Base

77.9 F
25.5 C

77.9 F
25.5 C

84.8 F
29.3 C

Average Body Temp*
(Excluding Exhaust)

81.1 F
27.3 C

77.7 F
25.4 C

85.4 F
29.7 C

Ambient Temperature

67.2 F
19.6 C

63.9 F
17.7 C

63.9 F
17.7 C

* Ambient temperature will affect results.

The A7J gets pretty warm just about everywhere and considering the size and the graphics onboard, you really can’t expect a cool laptop. The base of the laptop gets very warm so having it on your lap for extended periods of time is probably not very wise as it affects the laptop’s ability to cool itself. The exhaust gets fairly warm with a reading of 120F, so if you’re planning on using the A7J for extended periods, you may want to invest in a laptop cooler.

The three big heat generators on a laptop are the hard drive, graphics, and CPU, and how well the laptop keeps these components cool is critical to the longevity of your computer. To test the laptop’s CPU cooling we load up the system with two instances of SuperPi and record the highest CPU temperature after 20 minutes. For HDD cooling, we perform a FULL HDTach test and record the hottest temperature after 20 minutes. All temperatures taken using internal sensors.

Hard Drive and CPU Temperature Readings

.

Asus A7J

Asus W5F

Compaq
V2410

HDD Model

Fujitsu 100GB 5400 RPM
(MHV2100BH)

Fujitsu 100GB 5400 RPM
(MHV2100AH)

Fujitsu 80 GB 4200 RPM
(MHT2080AT)

HDD Idle

93 F
34 C

95 F
35 C

117 F
47 C

HDD Load

117 F
47 C

102 F
39 C

126 F
52 C

CPU Model

Intel T2300
1.66GHz Core-Duo

Intel T2300
1.66GHz Core-Duo

AMD Turion
ML-30 1.6GHz

CPU Idle

115 F
46 C

126 F
52 C

124 F
51 C

CPU Load

133 F
56 C

131 F
55 C

135 F
57 C

Ambient Temp

67.2 F
19.6 C

63.9 F
17.7 C

The Asus A7J idles cooler than all the other laptops sampled, but heats up significantly when under a load. The hard drive temperature is extremely high and proper precautions should be taken to ensure proper ventilation. Conversely the CPU temperature is on par with the same model CPU on the W5F.
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