As you have noticed. laptops are very poor at keeping cool with just the basic/built-in CPU cooling fan(s).
70 to 75C is probably the high "safe" point...
80+C is getting dangerous (see below)
If you are not careful, it WILL overheat (also know as thermal overload) and possibly cause irreparable damage the CPU, RAM, Hard Drive and/or possibly melt the solder connections or even damage the circuit board(s). Some suggestions:
1) Keep the laptop RAISED up off the tabletop/desktop about
2 to 3 Inches to MAXIMIZE the airflow into and out of the back, side and bottom vents.
2) See if your Laptop can run WITHOUT the battery being installed. This could drop temperatures 5 to 10C, possibly more.
3a) Invest in a 6 Inch or larger desktop fan running on medium or high speed placed several inches away so that it blows/circulates air across the Laptop's surface to aid in cooling.
3b) Or invest in a Laptop Cooling Fan (also known as a Laptop Cooling Pad) that you place directly under your raised laptop. Most are powered off a USB port on the Laptop.
A good (and quite popular) one at a reasonable price is the
Thermaltake Massive V20 Laptop Cooler
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Thermaltake-Massive-V20-Laptop-Cooler/37517575.
Currently priced at $16.22 at Walmart.com.
3) Use an automatic CPU monitoring/temperature regulation program such as Efmer's tthrottle (FREE)
http://efmer.com/b/?q=tthrottle to idle the running BOINC project(s) when a certain (user selected) temperature is reached in combination with one of the cooling methods noted above.
Hope this helps.
