Friday, July 4th 2014

HP's Fanless Chromebox Isn't

HP is alleged to be falsely marketing its Chromebox desktop as "fanless." The company in its marketing material (pictured below), describes its Chromebox as being "silent, quiet, and efficient," and "dust-free" due to its "fanless design." When tested by YouTube-based hardware reviewer Lyon Siedman, he noticed a hum and vibration caused only by the presence of a fan. When sifting through HP's very own disassembly guide (PDF), you'll find a picture that reveals its fan-heatsink, used to cool the 17W TDP CPU. Since when is "fanless" a figure of speech like "silent?"
Source: FanlessTech
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33 Comments on HP's Fanless Chromebox Isn't

#26
TheinsanegamerN
RejZoRCleaning dust helps you know. Running a 2,5 years old Compaq (HP) with AMD E-450 without any issues...
the turions were 35 watt parts with seperate gpus, which themselved needed 15-25 watts. your e-450 only uses 18 watt and that includes the gpu, that is MUCH harder to overheat.
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#27
Batou1986
AMD E-xxx
overheating ever
my sides

As others have stated HP's problem is their designs are horrible.
Posted on Reply
#28
Solaris17
Super Dainty Moderator
Batou1986AMD E-xxx
overheating ever
my sides

As others have stated HP's problem is their designs are horrible.
HP quality issues aside im still trying to understand why this is actively cooled as well.
Posted on Reply
#29
Frick
Fishfaced Nincompoop
Solaris17HP quality issues aside im still trying to understand why this is actively cooled as well.
My sister has a Thinkpad with an e300 in it and under load it's higher than 60 degrees, and the vents are smoking hot. They get warmer than one think.
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#30
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
My wife had an HP laptop until someone broke the display (she or I may have stepped on it in the dark because she was clumsy enough to leave the damn thing on the floor...), then it was going to cost over half the worth of the laptop to replace the panel, so I said no thanks and she's been using my Dell Studio 1735 ever since. I still have it sitting in a box. It does make for a decent HTPC when the lid is closed and it connected to a TV, but it's not optimal. It's a Hard Purchase. :laugh:

With that said, HP makes really good printers and scanners. I love my wireless all-in-one. :D
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#31
swaaye
The problem isn't specifically HP. It's the slim notebook fad that Apple started. Apple has even had throttling problems with some of their Macbook Pros with discrete GPUs. Still this slim stuff can work out because most people don't do intensive tasks with their computers.

There are notebooks with beefier cooling systems. They tend to be designed around gaming or called mobile workstations.
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#32
TheMailMan78
Big Member
newtekie1Doesn't really matter, even with the fan the thing will probably overheat and die a few months after the warranty is up just like HP's laptops...
Meh can't argue. My wife's HP battery died 3 days after the warranty was up. Computer is still running strong however! That sum bitch does run hot however.
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#33
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
swaayeThe problem isn't specifically HP. It's the slim notebook fad that Apple started. Apple has even had throttling problems with some of their Macbook Pros with discrete GPUs. Still this slim stuff can work out because most people don't do intensive tasks with their computers.

There are notebooks with beefier cooling systems. They tend to be designed around gaming or called mobile workstations.
The slim fad has nothing to do with HP's problems. Their issues are mostly with their DV series, the DV7 were massive workstation replacements, and they still had issues. The problem stems from the industry switch to leadless solder. HP's cooling has always been pretty bad, but when the industry switched to leadless solder HP never updated their cooling designs. And since leadless solder has a lower melting point, HP's laptops die a lot earlier than they should because the get so hot the solder joints eventually fail.

A lot of companies had issues because of this, nVidia did, Microsoft did(Xbox RRoD), but most adapted and redesigned to fix the issue. HP never has, their laptops still overheat and die prematurely. Their stance is "as long as it lasts through the warranty, we don't care".
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