Using laptop as desktop. Will it overheat

[oweneades]

As you have the laptop and monitor already just test it?

Generally speaking any modern gaming laptop will throttle itself back when the temperatures rise (funnily enough just like desktops will do as well - see boost bins on Nvidia cards). They should not overheat in the traditional sense unless the main intake and exhaust vents are outright blocked.

Some gaming laptops also intake through the keyboard itself (My old Legion 7 did this as an example) but will run fine with the lid closed.

Jarrod's tech shows temperatures with the lid closed in all of this reviews and the deltas are generally small with the odd exception (again depends if the laptop intakes through the keyboard or not).

At a guess a Erazer with a 1650 is unlikely to intake in this manner.

If in doubt the laptop could always be run in "tent mode" with the lid slightly ajar to allow airflow across the keyboard area.

 

[agw_01]

Not strictly a gaming laptop but my work laptop (Dell Precision) is always hooked up to an external monitor when I'm WFH and get pushed pretty hard at times. There's a big difference in chassis temperature (from touch anyway, the CPU temps don't seem much higher) with the lid open/closed so I tend to leave it open a little to stop the heat building up. Anything you can do to keep a device cooler will extend its life so I'd just get a couple of small rubber blocks to support the lid and keep it open an inch. A laptop cooling pad is also a good idea to stop heat build up, having the fans running at a slow speed will keep the air moving around the chassis.

 

[moogle]

No, it won't, I don't understand comments like this. Notebooks are designed to be used with the screen closed. As mentioned in this thread, people have been using docking stations for years without ill effect.

Can confirm, I've been running my work laptop as a desktop for the past 6 months as I've been too lazy to diagnose a BSOD on my desktop PC and the laptop has been fine. It might be a little warmer than with the lid open but I haven't had any issues using it in this manner.

 

[WARburton]

i did this for years with a gaming laptop that i also used as a desktop. never run into any problems. but make sure you undervolt the GPU as that do run hot and this will get you more performance

 

[bigjonnyauk]

how would i do that mate ? bios maybe ?

 

[oweneades]

Voltage curve in MSI Afterburner. Not really needed unless you are actually seeing issues but will boost performance a little.

 

[arknor]

The cooling system on the laptop is unlikely to be affected by the lid being down

some of the keyboards literally get really warm though the lid being down will just add to that.
personally I wouldn't run a laptop for gaming unless I had an air cooled stand for it.

The last high end gaming laptop I saw, was louder than a desktop PC and pumped out crazy amounts of heat.
I think they paid about 3k for it too... I was really surprised by how hot to the touch it got. it's almost like touching a backplate on a 4090 during game

 

[jaybee]

What OP is describing as a use case, has been the norm in most IT roles I've seen for nearly 2 decades. Loads of people use laptops like that, and just dock them or connect an all in one USB-C cable to the laptop now when they get to their office setup with multiple monitors, or at home with a decent sized monitor. Laptops usually aren't vented on the top surface. I have never, ever had a laptop fail due to overheating and I've probably used 20-30 over the years which took daily abuse and were mostly ran with the lid shut on the desk. Granted they were not gaming laptops, but some of them were very high spec in terms of CPU/RAM and were put through their paces.

TLDR: It won't overheat.