To prevent overheating, why not turn laptop upside down?

Question

The fans and ventilation holes are positioned on the bottom of the device, as with most laptops, as well as the HDD and other components making heat. If these items are all positioned on the bottom, and since I never touch my laptop (it's used like a desktop) why not turn it upside down? This way the ventilation holes would get a far more direct access to the outside air. Also the natural circulation of any house will draw drafts that will move the hot air from the other components such as heat sinks etc and move them away.

However, there are one or two minor issues I have found with this design, 1. The fan holes would get exposed to far more dust, however with regular cleaning, dust filters or better yet, positioning the device vertically ( so the holes face outwards ) could eliminate this issue 2. Would being upside down place pressure or stress on other components.

This idea seems more effective than placing a prop underneath, as this allows even faster air exchange. I appreciate your ideas and thoughts :)

Solution 1

If you have the space, open the laptop 60 degrees, then turn it so the side. Put it on something soft to prevent scratches. I've used this setup in the past with my old Macbook which could heat up to 90 degrees celsius.

See this ice pack tip as well!

Solution 2

The dust problem may be the only concern for doing this, but as you stated is avoidable. I regularly do this with my laptops if they are running and I'm not using them.

The only thing you don't want to do is rotate the laptop while it is running IF it has a mechanical hard drive. The momentum of the spinning disks could cause the heads to hit the disk if you're moving it too quickly. I imagine this isn't a concern for you since you said it's basically used as a desktop.

Comments

[sean christe]

My first reaction would be to point out that all the internal air flow was engineered under the assumption that the laptop would be right side up. My second reaction would be to point out that htis is not a good question for Superuser.com since the answers will tend to be opinion driven and lead to a long discussion.

[Daniel B]

The cooling system design varies greatly. There is no universally "good" position.

[sean christe]

And thus the opinion aspect of the question.

[Uğur Gümüşhan]

switch to the power saving mode. this will cool down your laptop

[SPRBRN]

You're correct - I've updated the answer.