Looking for gaming laptop

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shant wroteHP is fine, unless you're gonna use your laptop on your bed or close the ventilation holes on your leg, then don't get it, get a fan for your laptop and hp is just fine

I have an HP Pavilion DV7 laptop with AMD Turion X2 2.3GHz CPU.
I placed the laptop on a wooden table, and ran Prime95 (stock paste, mind you). Temperature was 92C in a 26-28C room, in a few minutes (15?), probably would be the max sustained temperature, but it could have probably gone a couple degrees higher max (let's just say 92C max).
Anyways, I applied Arctic MX-4 thermal paste, and got, for the same duration of Prime95, 81C in a 2C cooler room. So a delta of 9C if you are courageous enough to disassemble a laptop and reassemble it.

That's on a wooden table, no lap, no nothing, nothing covering the ventilation holes, exhaust air temperature was being monitored, and if I remember correctly (I'm not too sure, though), exhaust temp was in the 40s (C).

This was done with 0 (zero) graphics load. Considering that the cooler is for both CPU and GPU together, and they're not separated, and the cooler is a small dual heatsink on heatpipe design (one heatsink for back, one for side), it is insufficient.

Considering that most laptops are dual core, and it is very likely that a processor would be used in the high ranges (or even 100%, if bottleneck), or if the game engine was efficient (I used to see 85C on Unreal Tournament 3 on that laptop with stock paste, approximately half hour of gaming, on a glass surface), along with the graphics card at 100% (so if no bottleneck, CPU < 100% and GPU = 100%, if bottleneck, CPU=100%, GPU < 100%), you could reach such temps while gaming.

Also don't forget that when you have a CPU bottleneck, you're likely to raise the graphical settings which mostly depend on the GPU, keeping the same framerate, but increasing GPU load and bringing it closer to 100%.

You would be shooting yourself in the leg.

EDIT: However, using a fan cooling pad I made (2 x 120mm Scythe S-Flex SFF21G fans) in the same room as when I applied the new thermal paste, I got 67C full load on CPU. So knocked down from 90C to 81C, then from 81C to 67C. 23C delta. I will give you the dimensions of the cooling pad soon, when I measure it, but be assured that it's not small. Each fan on its own is 25mm thick, along with enough space beneath it to provide sufficient airflow. Fans can be silent too, difference in temps between QUIET (or silent) and full speed is 1-2C max. You could also use this cooling pad to place the laptop on soft surfaces, such as a bed, or a couch, since it can be closed from the bottom. I'll post a pic soon.

yasamoka wroteYou would be shooting yourself in the leg.

In the face**
I totally agree with you BTW.
HP just has good looks to attract the customers.

shant wroteyes but yours is an old build, the new slim ones run much more cooler!
as for the cooler, ive seen the comparison between a brand one and a normal one, its a lot,lets not forgot that you are using wood,wood doesn't dissipate heat fast enough for one, you need a steel one, i know this may sound stupid..but having 1x23cm 900rpm cools the laptop much more than 2x12cm 1200~1600rpm, a good cooler would be http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/product.aspx?c=1135&id=1883
but as you guys said hp still heats up more than other,what im just trying to say is if you have low budget and if you have the proper cooling then hp is a very fine laptop and will last

Shant, I have also used a 200mm fan at almost such speed, the 2 x 120mm fans gave a bit better result, especially for the HDDs (Mine has 2 Scorpio Blacks). The laptop is tried on glass, plastic, wood, all give the same results. The air cannot conduct enough heat with the surface used to cause a difference. With fans, however, the whole point of surfaces is null. Even if the surfaces theory was true, you cannot buy a laptop and be constrained with the type of surface needed!

Don't forget that even when I doubled the 2 x 120mm fans RPM, the results barely improved. These fans have much better pressure, for one, which isn't quite that much needed (airflow by fans is not cooling the heatsinks straight, it's giving the HP laptop fans enough air at cool temperatures), and airflow clearly doesn't seem to be limited, since speed is not affecting temps that much. Max RPM for Scythe S-Flex SFF21G is 1900RPM, so don't tell me that the Thermaltake 23cm fan moves more than this. I once calculated it, they move the same airflow when the Thermaltake is at max and the Scythes are at 60% - 70%.

Also, I have tried 1 x 120mm Scythe fan straight under the CPU socket, under a porous plastic surface, gave 65C in moderate Winter weather last year. So probably same results. Fans are not the issue.

Mine is from early 2010, so it's relatively new, and one of the better HP laptops, since it comes with an AMD HD4650 Mobility which was good for its time, and stills runs some stuff on good detail.

I have also tried an HP Envy 14 laptop in Summer 2010, which had a Core i7 940QM if I'm not mistaken, reached 90C in a few minutes and I had to stop Prime95.

My 2 friends have HP laptops (One has DV4 / 5 and the other has G62), they suffer from heat problems too.

The DV4 / 5 shuts down from overheating for extended periods of gaming time (>1hr) on a marble surface with no fans underneath).

The don't just heat up more...they heat up WAY more.

EDIT: on surface area alone, 2 x 120mm fans provide half the surface area. The fins on the Thermaltake are much less powerful, because they are wide and not deep (fan depth is low for 23cm), so worse pressure, and probably worse airflow compared to if it had the same fin design as 12cm, but on a bigger scale). In this case, 2 fans provide much more airflow than the Thermaltake even if at less than full speeds. You could check experimental airflow ratings to verify that too. Heck, I have used that same Thermaltake fan too, its blades are not true 200mm, they're more like 160mm.