We’ve seen some exotic laptop cooling solutions before. This one caught my eye for one reason – I’ve got an e1705 myself. (Complete with chipping media button paint). It’s not the most stylish, but [WhiskeySix] combined some PVC pipe and an adjustable high flow fan to give his dell a major airflow upgrade. I’d like to see one built that mates to the exhaust ports on the rear. Sure, it’s not pretty, but he was able to increase his frame rate by 50%. Thanks to [Wimpinator] for the tip.
24 thoughts on “Forced Air Laptop Cooling”
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It’d be cool to see something like that built into a desk… it’s rather cumbersome otherwise and somewhat defeats the purpose of having notebook in the first place.
“it’s rather cumbersome ” . Maybe. But at least it most likely won’t die an early death. I have made a several cooling stations in the past. And a cold laptop is one the lives a long happy life. So the size of this cooler is justified. Surely it stays at home when the computer goes to school.
What about a peltier to cool it. I took apart one of those mini fridges that you can plug into a 12v power source, or use the adapter that came with it. Also i have a 320watt peltier, but it doesnt have a powersupply.
A peltier cooler although ideal for space constrains draws way to much power and generates to much excess heat. It is ideal for spot cooling if you have the excess power and a way to rid yourself of the excess heat. I think the average laptop is what 80-90W total/ A ATX 350W PSU would be just as cumbersome, and the peltier would fry everything else in the laptop.
Cool mod; must build one myself.
i oughta build somethin like this for my hp pavilion zd7000…. you could literally cook eggs over the left side of the keyboard :-\
your machines about to die..sry to say.. mb cooking too
That looks like a sewage drain:)
I wonder whatever happened to the NEC piezo water-cooling module for notebooks…their news release in 2003 said it would be on the market by 2005
This hack is bullshit because if i want overclocked stuff i get a desktop and if i want a laptop i dont want such a silly bulky ugly thing. And a cool laptop doesn’t stay fresh longer either. a recent study showed, that harddisks dont die of heat. what else should die of heat? The display?
The cpu?
And overclocking isn’t limited to desktops. From what I know laptops produce a lot of heat anyway, and processors run better at cooler temperatures. A cold processor will run smoother than a hot one, overclocked or not.
this hack is certainly not bullshit. many students or professionals can only afford one computer. if you like to work hard and play hard, at the least this is an interesting solution.
I agree, laptops can get very hot. I own an alienware laptop with SLi and it gets extremly hot. I will take a shot at this one, I don’t see how it can give 50% increase in frames…but I’m willing to try it out.
I’ve done various things like this in the past, simple and clean. Now if only he hooked up a vary high CFM lowe noise blower, he might really be able to push it.
yea I have a hp zd7000 also I sent it in cause of that and they replaced the fan and the hardrive and battery and now it runs cool and smooth. WAS FREE AND UNDER WARRANTY!
I used to set it up on hackysacks to keep it from overheating it self and sometimes it still would.
Hmm, I should permanently attach something like that to my laptop…
It’s batteries no longer work, been off warranty for years, and been planning to do something crazy with it. (leds all over the place, maybe a smoker unit from a model train, cantenna on top the screen, big fans, and f I can find a small enough printer, I’ll tape it on :P)
I Love your web!
From lanzhou of china
I like the project, but instead of a brute force approach where the airflow takes an arbitrary path, i’d like to see something that augments the airflow that’s already engineered into the laptop.
Based on your results that’s probably a moot point. :D
My modest Dell B130 doesn’t get hot enough to warrant that kind of cooling, but it’s still a good idea and pretty well executed as well.
http://omegapiezo.com/efficientheatremoval.asp
omega piezo micro channel single phase liquid cooling…has anyone tried something like this for laptop cooling?
@1: think of it as a docking-station.
@7: drugs’r bad, mkuyyy?
@10: Believe me, 110CFM is a LOT of air to pump over heat sinks that are only 1x4cm in profile.
@14: that’s *exactly* what it’s made from ;)
@15: well it essentially does do that… it’s basically pressurizing the intake port for the laptop’s built-in fans. I’ve got several ideas on how to make it more elegant/efficient, but this was 40 minutes of work.. and like you said, it’s hard to argue w/ the results. (I’m actually not temperature limited now.. I can run whatever clock I want without overheating – now it’s just speed-path limited in the GPU die itself. 379mhz works, while 380mhz fails..)
piezo would be hard based on the form-factor of my laptop anyway.. the heat-sink doesn’t sit on the GPU – it’s over a few inches and uses a heat-pipe:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins9400/en/sm/zanzibb6.jpg
not sure how typical that is?
I agree with twistedsymphony that this would be great recessed into a desk. My laptop is a medion that has the intake on the top right and, worryingly, no vents in or out on the underside. So this is not for me, as a portable option I like ‘the waldic’ watercooler with a copper radiator clipped on the back of the monitor.
I’ve done similar with some high powered blowers that I found and the output ports were roughly the same size as the vents on the sides.
The fan intakes are on the bottom, the exhaust ports are at the rear. The vents on the side allow for addition airflow, like additional force air cooling :)
I’ve been considering a home brew docking station with the blowers built into it. The plan was to create a vertical stand with the ports on the bottom. The laptop slides in closed. But I end up loosing a monitor port this was AFAIK.
This is perfect. I have a laptop that heats up so bad I cant use it. Definitely going to give this a shot.
where is the procedure for this?