Cooling fans for gaming Laptops

[R_Albizures]

I just got a Sager NP9176 from XOTIC PC (grizzly kryonaut thermal paste, intel i7-9700K, RTX 2070 and 32 GB of Ram). I'm still a begginer in pc/laptop gaming and I wanted to know, for a laptop with these specs, is it necessary to get a cooling fan in case of overclocking and/or long-term gaming sessions to avoid the laptop from turning off or is the thermal paste that I choose enough?

[TempestCatto]

Laptops are always going to get hotter than traditional desktops due to their size alone. Stress your system and monitor temps, they'll get spicy for sure. Really it should be fine and if anything, it would just get uncomfortable to have on your lap or rest your palms on the keyboard. Kryonaut paste is the best money can buy, good choice. In all, you'll be fine without one.

[Streetguru]

16 minutes ago, R_Albizures said:

I just got a Sager NP9176 from XOTIC PC (grizzly kryonaut thermal paste, intel i7-9700K, RTX 2070 and 32 GB of Ram). I'm still a begginer in pc/laptop gaming and I wanted to know, for a laptop with these specs, is it necessary to get a cooling fan in case of overclocking and/or long-term gaming sessions to avoid the laptop from turning off or is the thermal paste that I choose enough?

You should probably just undervolt your CPU/GPU if thermals are a concern, just lifting the laptop off the desk is enough to give it extra cooling, don't need one of the pads with fans really.

[Suika]

55 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

You should probably just undervolt your CPU/GPU if thermals are a concern, just lifting the laptop off the desk is enough to give it extra cooling, don't need one of the pads with fans really.

My vote is this.

 

I've personally had the most success just undervolting everything in my GS63VR and having the rear sit off a ledge so it has more breathing space. The difference is pretty drastic, to the point that underclocking/volting the GPU nets me more performance than leaving it at stock just because it stops thermal throttling.

[PineyCreek]

You can get the cooling pads with grooves cut in them and no fans that supposedly help airflow, but I second (or third, etc.) some of the other posts above.  If you can just make it to where there's a gap for airflow at the bottom and back (wherever the vents are on your laptop) it will help.

 

Also maybe disassembling it and cleaning the fans and heatsink fins if it's an older laptop or in a bad environment.  Maybe even cleaning and new thermal paste, though it sounds like you already did more than enough on that front.

 

Look on the bright side, you likely don't have the same scenario I had when I took an HP 'desktop replacement' model laptop to Japan for 10 months.  It had a desktop model P4 (32 bit model as well...not 64 bit) and integrated ATI graphics.  That thing would overheat if you ran anything heavier than Scorched Earth on it.