Dingobennyfred said:
I have a question: How hot is too hot? I do all my gaming on a laptop (Lenovo y510p), which I have little to no technical knowledge of. If a play games like Farcry 4, with full graphics, it's not quite as hot as a hair dryer in heat, but still kinda hot. Is this kind of heat harmful? I can add a cooling module, I think. Is any kind of heat exhaust harmful? Games that use the Source engine on this laptop are quite cool, but most modern AAA games can be somewhat scalding. Am I harming my computer?
With laptops, especially gaming ones, 'too hot' is incredibly hot indeed. Thing is, laptops with really high specs tend to produce a lot of heat. I'm using one right now (old, and not super-high spec, but high enough to produce a lot of heat), and the exterior of the case is permanently warm, and if you play something that maxes out the system, the temperature out of the exhaust fan is positively scorching.
So... How do you know if it's merely 'hot' or 'too hot'? Well, laptop components are designed to tolerate 90+ degrees celsius when running, and many can survive extended periods at 110 degrees...
Beyond that, you'll know about it.
The only situation where a laptop is actually 'too hot', is if it shuts down at random when you try and push things. Though you often find the cooling fan is clogged with dust if that's happening, but it shouldn't normally happen.
Having said that, if you can provide extra cooling, that will extend the life of your laptop, but honestly, if you use it for gaming, you'll find it's too slow long before it's ever at risk of a hardware failure...
For instance, my absurdly hot laptop, which at times has had clogged fans and shuts down randomly (well, it did until I cleaned it), is now 9 years old and still runs flawlessly.
And if you used it, you'd think it felt unreasonably warm pretty much the whole time.
One thing you can do, but you have to know your computer, is to listen to the fan. The more it's struggling to cool the system, the louder (and faster) the fan gets.
Because I knew how loud my system normally got under a heavy load, one of the signs of a clogged fan and imminent shutdown would be if the fan suddenly went form 'obviously working hard, but rather quiet', to 'making really loud noises'...
You can often hear the transitions in fan speed, from say, doing nothing, to having a heavy load on the system, but this was beyond what it ever got normally, and sure enough, every time I hear that, the system probably shuts down to protect itself within 5-10 minutes.
Anyway, extra cooling would prolong the lifespan of the system (but you know it's like the difference between it working for 20 years or 30... So... It usually doesn't matter), but really, as long as it isn't shutting down on you, it's probably fine, and I wouldn't worry too much about it.