Temperatures, Cooling and Noise

As stated in the introduction for this machine, being a 15.6-inch gaming machine, it has drawbacks. One of the main drawbacks is that the cooling system has to fit into a reduced space. This causes it to be able to remove less heat and the components run hotter.

GIGABYTE has slimmed the thickness of the P2542G, which also has an impact on the cooling capacity of the machine. So, while the machine is a gaming machine, it has a footprint that is more akin to an everyday laptop. However, this all has had an impact on cooling and the machine runs hotter than is really acceptable.

As you can see, on the front of the system, we logged a maximum temperature of 120 degree Fahrenheit and a maximum of 113 degrees Fahrenheit directly in the middle of the keyboard. For our friends using Celsius, those temperatures are roughly 49 degrees and 46 degrees, respectively. The palm rests stayed a cool 85 degrees Fahrenheit, or 29 degrees Celsius. This is likely due to having a solid state drive, which produces minimal heat compared to a traditional disk drive.

Moving around to the back side, temperatures were even higher. The maximum observed temperature was 140.5 degrees Fahrenheit, or 60 degrees Celsius. This was observed directly above hot air exhaust port. The rest of the system ranged from 80 degrees to 135 degrees Fahrenheit, or 27 to 57 Celsius. All of the hotter temperatures were towards the back of the system where the processor, GPU and heatsink assembly are located.

The maximum observed GPU temperature was 85 degrees Celsius, a temperature well within the limits for a video card. The CPU reached a maximum of 102 degrees Celsius, a temperature that is quite a bit higher than I would like to see a system running at. While mobile chips are designed to withstand higher temperatures, this is a bit unreasonable.

Due to the extremely high temperatures noted, it is highly recommended to use the device on a hard surface to avoid damage to skin or laptop.

We've also added a new measurement tool to our arsenal so that we can get you more accurate sound numbers. The GIGABYTE produced a sound level of 48 decibels in our measurement. Our measurement is taken in front of the laptop at roughly head level. For comparison, 30dB is a totally quiet night time in the desert, 40dB is whispering, and 60dB is a normal conversation.