RecoilV and Ionico weird vent design choice\flaw

[LizardSoul]

Hi guys,

I have been trying to decide which laptop to purchase, basing it off mostly on thermal design, for added longevity, and while looking at the Tongfang chassis for the Recoil 15 and the Ionico 17, I have noticed the weird trend for the vents, on the CPU side, to be have 2 full rows completely obstructed, as if the holes were purposely left unmachined.

Given how the component to suffer the highest temperatures is exactly the CPU (which also has less heat pipes than the GPU on current laptops, choice often justified by how modern CPUs can withstand such higher temperatures, even if the same can't be said for the motherboard components next to it), I am now curious if there are any reasons to keep those valuable vent intakes plugged, and if yes, what are them.
Hopefully some of you guys are going to be able to provide answers or even insights on the matter.

The picture included below is of the back plate of the Recoil 15, but the same can be observed on the Ionico 17, and those are the only 2 models I have yet to check, so the same design could be present on other models.

I am also curious to know if modding the backplate ourselves by cutting those vents open, would invalidate the warranty. But I suppose that question is better asked to PCS directly, so I'll let you know if I get any answer as soon as have some time to call them.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I am also curious to know if modding the backplate ourselves by cutting those vents open, would invalidate the warranty.

Yes, absolutely it would void the warranty.

 

[LizardSoul]

Yes, absolutely it would void the warranty.

Yeah, suspected so.
Now I really hope there is some actual good reason for that design choice. Something to do with optimizing air flaw, rather than some "1,5% increase in structural integrity" kind of deal.

 

[ubuysa]

Yeah, suspected so.
Now I really hope there is some actual good reason for that design choice. Something to do with optimizing air flaw, rather than some "1,5% increase in structural integrity" kind of deal.

They don't do these things by accident so my guess would be that it is aimed at directing the internal airflow somehow. Either that or the designers thought that the blank slots looked nicer?

I agree with @SpyderTracks on the warranty though, that sort of mod would invalidate it immediately.

 

[LizardSoul]

They don't do these things by accident so my guess would be that it is aimed at directing the internal airflow somehow. Either that or the designers thought that the blank slots looked nicer?

I agree with @SpyderTracks on the warranty though, that sort of mod would invalidate it immediately.

I am inclined to believe the same, but then again, the position of fans and of the lateral and back vents is all symmetrical, with the only real difference being the path and number of heat pipes between the GPU and CPU. A difference that I can't really imagine having much impact, if any, on the airflow.

In all honesty, all I really care is to exclude the possibility of some devious example of planned obsolescence.
I don't like to think badly of a company I have had no experience with yet, as it's the case for Tongfang, but I don't see much value in being purposely naïve either, given the times we live in.

That said, I am not engineer, so there may indeed be some thermally beneficial reason that I ignore. Possibly something to do also with air pressure.
That makes me wonder though, if running a laptop without the back plate, would improve temperatures or not. It would still not clear all doubts, but it would sure be interesting.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I am inclined to believe the same, but then again, the position of fans and of the lateral and back vents is all symmetrical, with the only real difference being the path and number of heat pipes between the GPU and CPU. A difference that I can't really imagine having much impact, if any, on the airflow.

In all honesty, all I really care is to exclude the possibility of some devious example of planned obsolescence.
I don't like to think badly of a company I have had no experience with yet, as it's the case for Tongfang, but I don't see much value in being purposely naïve either, given the times we live in.

That said, I am not engineer, so there may indeed be some thermally beneficial reason that I ignore. Possibly something to do also with air pressure.
That makes me wonder though, if running a laptop without the back plate, would improve temperatures or not. It would still not clear all doubts, but it would sure be interesting.

If temps are so high that you're having to run a laptop without the cover on, there's something seriously wrong with the cooling.

These systems work fine with regards to temps, you just have to know about undervolting and optimisation techniques as with any Intel CPU these days.

When they're overheating, it's either because of a bad paste job which is correctable in about 30 mins, or because there's a physical fault with the unit.

 

[Macco26]

I might think they engineered this narrower intake area to use a Venturi effect: Given the same force of suction (e.g. same fan force), if the air is forced to pass through a narrower area, its flow will increase in speed. Probably they plan to have faster air in that part of the chassis because the convection effect is somewhat proportional to air speed (the more speedier, the better dissipation). Venturi is the same principle of "ancient" car's carburetors.
We actually don't know, but I'm pretty sure they know a thing of two about heat dissipation, and wouldn't bother enlarging that pass-thru area.

 

[LizardSoul]

I might think they engineered this narrower intake area to use a Venturi effect: Given the same force of suction (e.g. same fan force), if the air is forced to pass through a narrower area, its flow will increase in speed. Probably they plan to have faster air in that part of the chassis because the convection effect is somewhat proportional to air speed (the more speedier, the better dissipation). Venturi is the same principle of "ancient" car's carburetors.
We actually don't know, but I'm pretty sure they know a thing of two about heat dissipation, and wouldn't bother enlarging that pass-thru area.

Now that's a reason I can get behind, which also makes me want to test if plugging the same section air vents on the GPU side would affect related temperatures.

I guess I will have some "science" to do, once I finally decide which laptop to buy.

 

[LizardSoul]

I came across some other posts about purposely blocked air intake vents, and it seems is a matter of airflow being impacted in a way to cool down other components, like VRMs, SSDs and RAM modules.
Freeing up those intakes did benefit CPU and GPU temps though, at least in the video that Hardware Unboxed did about the TUF Gaming A15.

Just wanted to leave this here for any other future person that may have similar doubts as I did.
My thanks for your contribute, guys.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I came across some other posts about purposely blocked air intake vents, and it seems is a matter of airflow being impacted in a way to cool down other components, like VRMs, SSDs and RAM modules.
Freeing up those intakes did benefit CPU and GPU temps though, at least in the video that Hardware Unboxed did about the TUF Gaming A15.

Just wanted to leave this here for any other future person that may have similar doubts as I did.
My thanks for your contribute, guys.

It's down to chassis design though, you can't compare one model to another as a decently designed chassis will account for airflow unlike the TUF Gaming which was pretty universally panned.

 

[AgentCooper]

It's down to chassis design though, you can't compare one model to another as a decently designed chassis will account for airflow unlike the TUF Gaming which was pretty universally panned.

Ah, the TUF chassis. I pay little to no attention to what goes on in the world of laptopping but even I couldn’t avoid hearing about that shoddy design. What were they thinking?!

 

[LizardSoul]

I know it's not definitive proof of why the air intakes on the Ionico and Recoil chassis are partially blocked as well, and I do agree one should always keep a critical mind, given the shady tendencies and big companies are often using, but considering the little we can now, without being actual thermal engineers, I'd say it's pretty safe to assume the blocked fissures on the back plate are there for similar reasons.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I know it's not definitive proof of why the air intakes on the Ionico and Recoil chassis are partially blocked as well, and I do agree one should always keep a critical mind, given the shady tendencies and big companies are often using, but considering the little we can now, without being actual thermal engineers, I'd say it's pretty safe to assume the blocked fissures on the back plate are there for similar reasons.

The overall point is, there are no thermal issues on the Ionico or the recoil, so there’s no need to adjust the chassis design, it’s doing as is intended.

 

[ubuysa]

This isn't intended to disrespect anyone who has posted, but I find it interesting that there seems to be a general tendency these days to look for conspiracy theories or ulterior motives rather than accept that designers and manufacturers actually do know what they're doing.

 

[AgentCooper]

This isn't intended to disrespect anyone who has posted, but I find it interesting that there seems to be a general tendency these days to look for conspiracy theories or ulterior motives rather than accept that designers and manufacturers actually do know what they're doing.

 

[LizardSoul]

This isn't intended to disrespect anyone who has posted, but I find it interesting that there seems to be a general tendency these days to look for conspiracy theories or ulterior motives rather than accept that designers and manufacturers actually do know what they're doing.

It may have not been intended as disrespectful, but neither did it come out as neutral either.

In any case, I get what you mean, but my observation and doubts came out mostly of the tangible effects that planned obsolescence has done in the past decades, while conspiracies tend to come from much less rational and practical places.
Designers and manufacturers do know what they are doing, little to no doubts about that, but it's still healthy to question if certain things are done in the best interest of the consumer.
That's all.

 

[SpyderTracks]

It may have not been intended as disrespectful, but neither did it come out as neutral either.

In any case, I get what you mean, but my observation and doubts came out mostly of the tangible effects that planned obsolescence has done in the past decades, while conspiracies tend to come from much less rational and practical places.
Designers and manufacturers do know what they are doing, little to no doubts about that, but it's still healthy to question if certain things are done in the best interest of the consumer.
That's all.

How do you “plan obsolescence” with airflow design? Planned obsolescence means writing in code that expires a product at a set date or by preventing an upgrade. You can’t plan obsolescence through poor design. You can’t control the variables.

 

[LizardSoul]

How do you “plan obsolescence” with airflow design? Planned obsolescence means writing in code that expires a product at a set date or by preventing an upgrade. You can’t plan obsolescence through poor design. You can’t control the variables.

I can actually imagine many ways to do that. Planned obsolescence is not exclusively software related after all.
My initial, and already solved, doubt was if air vents on the CPU side were possibly blocked to increase the temperatures that CPU and close by components, decreasing the lifespan of them, hence the "planned obsolescence" suspicion.

That said, I don't see why we are still discussing it, considering how after further research I wrote myself how the blocked air intakes have, more likely than not, beneficial effects to the overall longevity of the motherboard.

I am starting to wonder if there was some misunderstanding along the way, given how English is not my first language.

 

[ubuysa]

I can actually imagine many ways to do that. Planned obsolescence is not exclusively software related after all.
My initial, and already solved, doubt was if air vents on the CPU side were possibly blocked to increase the temperatures that CPU and close by components, decreasing the lifespan of them, hence the "planned obsolescence" suspicion.

That said, I don't see why we are still discussing it, considering how after further research I wrote myself how the blocked air intakes have, more likely than not, beneficial effects to the overall longevity of the motherboard.

I am starting to wonder if there was some misunderstanding along the way, given how English is not my first language.

We're still discussing it because I made a general observation that I was at pains to indicate was not directed at you personally, nor anyone else for that matter, and you took exception to it.