What is the best laptop cooling pad design? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2014, 08:37:34 pm
content: Hello.For a long time i was having a hard time playing any games on my laptop as it would constantly overheat, so i'm looking for a way to cool it down.I am very concerned about my laptop overheating because i lost one a few months ago because it overheated and the processor failed frying the mother board too.I have an idea but it's not just a simple plug and play fan under the laptop, i'm thingking big, like a wooden cooling pad with 140mm centrifugal turbine, digital speed control and a built in power supply and a direct air flow right into the air intake on the bottom of my laptop.I don't want any of the overpriced consumer pieces of crap, i want my cooling pad not to blow air into the laptop but to shove it directly in-and-out.What do you guys think ? Would my idea work ?Thanks in advance.

author: dr.diesel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2014, 09:04:56 pm
content: Most laptops are not designed for constant loads, such as demanding games. I've never used any of the coolers, but I do make sure my intake/exhaust/fan are clear of dirt etc, it can build up pretty fast, especially if you have pets.I use a Levono T520 as a development box compiling kernels. It has run at 95+C for hours straight, keeps on keepin on, been doing it for years.

author: Tinkerer
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2014, 11:52:54 pm
content: Quote from: dr.diesel on February 10, 2014, 09:04:56 pmThe last computer I had only topped out at about 75C. The one I got a few months ago tops out at much less. My current one has a turbo fan button and upon touching it(capacitive sensor I believe), it revs up the fan and no joke it sounds like a mini jet engine reving up.Indeed, keeping your vents clear is very important. A cake of dust blocking 50% of your air flow will kill your computer.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 01:22:36 pm
content: My laptop is a Dell 3521 and i've seen the insides of it and the cooling is piss poor. " perfect mix of work and gaming" my ass....By the way, even though this wouldn't be the most useful thing it would make for a fun project

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 02:43:57 pm
content: Quote from: Refrigerator on February 11, 2014, 01:22:36 pmthere are reasons why the engineers who created the cpu, "the ultimate creator" choose not to overclock it from factory. but well... for some, draining notes down the rain is a fun thing to do. well, back to topic.... best heatsink? biggest surface area per volume, highest coolant flow you can get per volume, the closest they can get to the heat generator, and the closest the mechandise to your location. its all mathematics, coupled with your desire and condition will complexify the problem exponentially.

author: Fsck
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 02:59:33 pm
content: your "shoving air" into the laptop would probably work well. (I'm assuming your laptop vents in/out only parallel to the base of the laptop)but additionally, adding airflow over the rest of the laptop could help as lower heat producing parts are sometimes sinked but just not directly (or anywhere near) the primary+secondary+tertiary+Etc heatsinks(depending on specs + size, the max I've seen was seen 4 in at the bottom, 4 out.

author: tehmeme
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 04:29:33 pm
content: As a side job I reball/reflow gpus on busted laptops and other units.having good airflow by assisting your fan with external flow is great, but, it's also important to make sure the heatsink isn't blocked with dust and dirt internally. Even in clean environments this is still an issue.Some laptop cooling systems have design issues which make them more prone to this.eg. HP G62 in pictures below. The heatsink has more fins than others so is more efficient than most, but only when clean, once a little dirt is introduced it acts like a dust catch (because of the increased number of fins and reduced gaps between them), it becomes less efficient than most other systems.It doesn't help matters that there is no easy way to clean them internally except by opening and dis-assembling the entire system to get to the inside of the cooling system.The pictures show dirt build up over a period of 5 months, I had cleaned it myself 5 months earlier. (The owner claimed an air can was used through the vents once a month. I've seen the same thing with other G62 laptops as well as other models.)

author: SpectrHz
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 04:47:46 pm
content: If your making a cooling pad make sure you position the fans correctly, you might not want to blow air into the exhaust and suck air out of the intakeI'm quite sure 90 percent of laptops exhaust out the side and intake from the base though. For my Sony Vaio I don't bother with cooling pads, instead I just put the machine on a open surface, like a wire shelf so that the cpu fan can do its job better instead of forcing it with more air.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 08:09:33 pm
content: Well, as i said my idea is to make a turbine not a fan.Like a laptop fan but more than two times bigger.I expect it to have around upwards of 6000 rpm with a modified hdd motor not that small one but the big old hdd motor.

author: senso
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 09:20:21 pm
content: My now defunct first laptop had a pretty big heatsking, with 3 heat-pipes, and even so, the graphic "card" cracked the balls after 2 years, in part because I gamed a lot in it, and in part because the original thermal paste turned into thermal ceramic, hard as hell, if I had applied new thermal paste it might have survived a bit longer, my current laptop is an asus n53jq and in windows it idles at almost 50ºC wich is a lot, gaming, it goes up to 80ºC, the heatsink fins are smaller than the fins in the older laptop and it only has two heat-pipes, if I snag a used heat-sink from ebay I might try to make a franken-sink from the two.Is it possible to re-move a re-solder heat-pipes?

author: Greorge
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 10:09:13 pm
content: This is crude approach, but I would take out cover and blow air directly on the processor.

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 10:21:40 pm
content: I made a box out of plastic sheet and fitted a computer case fan, the type that used to be popular for fitting into a front bay, I put that at the back of the box which had no top, the laptop sat on it and the fan was powered by a 12 volt wall wart, still have the thing somewhere but sold the laptop, the problem with the laptop was overheating of the ram which kept giving me BSOD's.

author: tehmeme
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 10:25:14 pm
content: Quote from: Greorge on February 11, 2014, 10:09:13 pmI reckon the gpu is the main concern here not the cpu.for the op: wouldn't it make more sense to have a gaming machine built for purpose, rather than modifying a laptop to the point of it no longer being portable?An alternative is to have the new cooling add-on as a "cooling docking station" similar to what G7PSK mentions, although this still poses other issues such as temperature gradients across the motherboard and other components.bringing us back to having a purpose built machine.

author: fluxcapacitor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 10:35:07 pm
content: The bios version A6 was supposed to fix the fan control .A cooling pad will help a bit ,and also some good thermal paste like arctic silver 5 ,and a 5m/7mk phobya thermal pad for the gpu.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2014, 01:41:29 pm
content: Well, my cooling pad will only be used at home because that's where my laptop spends 90% of it's time.And i'm not even trying to work my laptop as i always run games of the most minimal settings as possible and it only gives me 22 fps...

author: Shock
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 14, 2014, 03:37:28 pm
content: You could look for a really big heatsink or make something to that effect, place it upside down on some brackets and mount peltiers on the fins.Put a little fan so you don't get moisture up into the laptop. Then a drip tray at the bottom for filling up a refreshing glass of condensation water.It can also double as a serving tray for icecream when your not on the computer. Would be effective.Wood on the other hand is not a good idea, last time I checked it's a good thermal insulator.You should choose to buy laptops that are known to have no overheating issues, other than that stick it on a matrix of fans with a grill over them.Oh and take the battery out if you don't need it and it still sits properly. Adds a huge amount of heat.