Will disconnecting a laptop's screen free up some wattage?

[Strafe Walker]

Okay, so before I elaborate on my question, let me paint the situation...

I have an old laptop, an HP Pavilion zd8000 (zd8215us), that would get really hot (the internal thermometer would reach about 80 celsius) and then shutdown. I could see inside the fans underneath that there was a lot of dust, so I took it apart with the intention of cleaning out all the dust and putting it back together. But when I took it apart, I realized just how bad the mess really was. Not only was the heat sink so caked with dust that I was picking off large chunks with my fingers, but I even found more than a few hairs inside this thing. So then I thought, "this computer functions fine, it just needs room to breath." So I decided to build a casing for the mother board & components, effectively turning it into a desktop PC.

I would like to replace the heat sink and 2 fans because the ones it has are too awkwardly shaped to try and fit inside a desktop setup. Plus they're filthy. I've been looking everywhere trying to find out what the wattage is on these components so I can find new ones that match those numbers, but I've had no luck finding that info.

But then I thought that since the laptop's screen, and keyboard, won't be attached to the motherboard anymore, that would probably free up some power to use on a heat sink and fans that might need more power than the ones that came with the laptop.

So my question is, does disconnecting the screen, and maybe the keyboard, free up some wattage to use on a better heat sink and fans? I've gathered that you really can't have to too much wattage in a PSU, so long as there's enough for all the components attached to it. I also read someone saying that they did tests on their laptop and discovered that the screen was using about 25% of the system's power.

Is my suspicion accurate? Would it be safe to not know the watt specs of the original heat sink & fans, so long as the replacements are not anything extravagant. Any insight would be appreciated. Especially if someone could point me to a website that archives wattage info on specific components of specific model PCs.

Thanks for reading all that stuff I typed.

 

[X79]

That's really crazy. You must be a geek.

I'm sure disconnecting the screen frees up some amount of wattage. Would make sense to me.

And couldn't you just check the battery to find out how much the whole thing might need?

 

[Strafe Walker]

That's really crazy. You must be a geek.

I'm sure disconnecting the screen frees up some amount of wattage. Would make sense to me.

And couldn't you just check the battery to find out how much the whole thing might need?

On the battery pack, I see "14.8V --- 6.6AHr". I suspect "AHr" is Amps-per-Hour, in which case that equals 97.68 Watts/Hour, I think.

However, the power cord box says...

Input:
100-240V~2.2A 50-60Hz

Output:
19.0V --- 7.1A 135W

I'm probably not going to include the battery in the new setup however, so since the power box outputs 135 watts, would it be correct to conclude that the system would be getting 135 watts?

As much as I'd like to include the battery for back-up power capability, I'm not comfortable trying to jerry-rig the means to hold the battery in place. The actual connection point between battery & motherboard does not snap & hold together, as the laptop's body/frame was intended to hold the battery in its proper place.

Which brings up a new question that I feel kinda stupid for not considering earlier... Would leaving the battery out of the new setup also free up wattage?

I should also state that I've decided to either keep & clean the original heat sink & fans, or buy the actual replacements. I've come to realize that those cooling components were specifically designed to fit the arrangement of the chips & such on the motherboard. In fact it looks like the fans (not the CPU heat sink) actually serve as heat sinks for rows of smaller chips next to the CPU and something else with a square adhesive thermal dingy stuck to it that I don't want to peel off.

But even with keeping the original cooling components, I'd like to use splitters to add a couple more fans. I'm looking up info to research fan-splitting now, but if anyone would like to share insight on fan-splitting, it would be appreciated.

So to reiterate, I'm now wonder if disconnecting the screen (probably) and battery (???) from a laptop motherboard would free up enough wattage to use fan-splitters to add 2 more fans. Also, what sort of logistics are involved in fan-splitting?

Again, any insight would be appreciated & thanks for reading all that stuff I typed.

 

[hunter315]

The power consumed by fans is super low, like less than charging a phone, in most scenarios. Your limiting factor is not the battery capabilities of the laptop but the power output of the fan headers, the battery charger is meant to handle the system under full load and still be able to charge the battery which means you can add some load on top of what it is expecting and it will be fine. If they are normal fan headers (3 pin or 4 pin) they should be able to run a standard CPU cooler fan, but honestly for a laptop chip you could really put a larger passive heatsink on there and it should do just fine.

 

[Strafe Walker]

The power consumed by fans is super low, like less than charging a phone, in most scenarios. Your limiting factor is not the battery capabilities of the laptop but the power output of the fan headers, the battery charger is meant to handle the system under full load and still be able to charge the battery which means you can add some load on top of what it is expecting and it will be fine. If they are normal fan headers (3 pin or 4 pin) they should be able to run a standard CPU cooler fan, but honestly for a laptop chip you could really put a larger passive heatsink on there and it should do just fine.

Thanks for the insight. I do want to put a more optimally shaped passive heatsink on top of the CPU, more like a cube shape as opposed to the current one that runs along the back length of the motherboard. If I can find one that fits the mounting holes, I'll go that route.

Now I'm thinking I won't need to use fan splitters. I could use the side fan headers (3-pin) for case fans and use the center fan header (2-pin) to point a fan at a cube-shaped CPU heatsink. Does that sound feasible?